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I enjoy being able to see who is online at any given time, and being able to see all the stats associated with that roster at the bottom of the Forum Index page. I am interested in extending that roster to the individual forums themselves as well.

For instance: if I enter the Forum Index I see the roster for total users online and everything else. If I then click say, 40K Background, I would like to have at the bottom of that page a similar roster with the same slew of information as the current one, but only for users/guests in that particular sub-forum.

Disclaimers:
-I realize I have not been here long (indeed not long at all), but I have been a member of multiple forums over the years. An avid member no less, and I find the above suggestion to be useful in those other forums. I would like to broaden Dakka's stable of tools to include it as well.

-I thoroughly enjoy the layout and simple functionality of Dakka. This forum is very well laid out and its bits and parts are very well implemented as well. I in no way mean to impart the notion that I feel Dakka is inferior. Please do not get offended by the fact that such a new user is already suggesting improvements. I merely wish to improve something I can already tell I will be spending a large amount of time on.

Thank you for reading my thread.

The problem I foresee with such a change is that I will probably end up thinking "There are 50 users browsing this forum! Why aren't any of them looking at my thread?!" and end up even more bitter and disillusioned than I am now.

I don't really see the advantage of including a counter to see how many (or who) is looking at various sub-forums.

What exactly does it add?

Now, something like a "Next Page" button on the "most recent" posts list would be nice and it lets you see threads which have been posted in not-quite recently enough to qualify for the first page but which may still have been posted on only a few minutes before

Edit: Also, the ability to perhaps filter my subscribed threads so I can more easily keep track of blogs, discussions, army lists etc that I am interested in would be quite handy.

Users browsing given forums has too much overhead with the structure of our forums and is of little practical use beyond highlighting empty forums.

Next page on recent threads will not happen for two reasons, firstly it is cached, not pulled from the database, so next page would be a lot of additional weight on server memory. Second, you can always click the 'new threads since I last logged in' link on the forum home page (try and find it ) and that serves a similar purpose but is paginated.

Filtered subscriptions are coming at some point.

I somehow knew the lack of a recent threads page 2 was due to Johnny Cash

I will go and find the new threads since I last logged in button - Don't think I have ever seen it, but then I don't spend a lot of time on the main forum page

And yay for filtered subscriptions!

Thank you for the definitive answer legoburner.

To answer your question SilverMK2: I found that it helps me understand the users who frequently "lurk" a certain thread. I understand many users use many different sub-forums, but at the same time I imagine there are those like me who only really call two or three (maybe even one) "home". It is nice to see who the users are that stay in one forum and thus see the widest range of content in said forum. I find this particularly useful in the background and fan fiction forums.

For background, it shows who really is a... well a fluff expert. Someone who always sits in the fluff forums can generally be viewed as a fluff enthusiast and thus it can be assumed that they know more than someone who comes in, reads a thread, comments, and leaves. I don't mean to impart a feeling that this tool adds to sub-forum focused "elitism". I have never experienced that, though I suppose it could be a side effect.

For fan fiction the same can be said. That is to say they enjoy reading fan-made pieces and it can be assumed they do more of it than most. Someone who hangs out there a great bunch of time ("great" being an adjusted term depending on how active a thread is) can logically be said to see a wider range of content and thus their comments and critiques are more valuable. It is important however, to understand that this is not a rule, but just a general truth. As such there would be many exceptions.

Which is what this feature really boils down to. It shows you is taking their comments most seriously when in their "home" thread.

Let me say that it in no way diminishes the value of other user's comments; it just lets you see that "User X" hangs out here a lot, seems to know what he is talking about, and thus can be generally more reliable and constant in opinion and/or facts.

The same result can be had with long stays in said forums where the feel of it and it's users will eventually become known over time. This little add is just a helper.

But in the end legoburner brings up a good point, and one that overrides an above-mentioned positives, so I'm in no way sore on hearing a "no".

*edited for spelling and content. edited content in red (2nd edit and 3rd ).

I think you'd probably be the only person to actually make use of such a feature. It's pretty... esoteric.

I don't really see the point of an "Online Users" list. Maybe on a small forum that might have 4 or 5 people online. But Dakka has a few hundred at any given time.