# Who's Online Now?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [March 3, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161 "2009-03-03T17:08:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161/1 "2009-03-03T17:08:28Z")

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Why doesn’t The Dope have this feature enabled on the main page?

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**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\
**Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161/2 "2009-03-03T17:21:15Z")

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Jerry can correct me if it’s disabled for some other reason, but Who’s Online Now can be quite the drain on both the database and CPU. Basically, it’ll contribute to a slowdown. On smaller boards this isn’t an issue (unless you’re on underpowered hardware with which to begin); on larger ones, you’ll notice a hit in response time once it’s enabled.

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**Author:** ![jdavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f6c823/32.png) [@jdavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jdavis)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161/3 "2009-03-04T02:43:19Z")

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The “Currently Active Users” feature of “What’s Going On?” was at one time turned on followed by a number of board members expressing concerns about how it could impact privacy. The Administrators decided to turn the feature back off.

Jerry

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**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161/4 "2009-03-04T02:53:19Z")

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> [@ivan\_astikov](#):
>
> Why doesn’t The Dope have this feature enabled on the main page?

It’s that Witness Protection Program thing…

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-online-now/488161/5 "2009-03-04T15:49:35Z")

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> [@jdavis](#):
>
> The “Currently Active Users” feature of “What’s Going On?” was at one time turned on followed by a number of board members expressing concerns about how it could impact privacy. The Administrators decided to turn the feature back off.
> 
> Jerry

Thank you for the answer Jerry. Is their any chance of having that revisited as the current version of vB allows the users to decide on their visibility?