I don't understand the inconsistencies of the forum clock and find it a positive nusisance at times. For instance when I am replying in a thread and the poster I am replying to is noted as being online, I might expedite my reply for their benefit.

 

Then I find that going back to the index/menus the poster was actually recorded as being offline a significant time before I posted so my rush was needless.

 

Now I see the ridiculous situation where the poster of post#97 in this thread

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/85331-thought-experiments/page-5

 

Is recorded as being offline at 1.12pm

 

although

 

He is also recorded as posting at 1.14pm

 

I wondered if this is to do with the fact that the thread is (partly) about time dilation?

 

 

The software can't actually tell whether you're currently looking at a thread -- it just knows when you first opened the page. So if someone starts writing a reply, wanders off to get some coffee, and comes back twenty or thirty minutes later to finish it off, the forum will think they're "offline" because they haven't loaded any new pages in a while. But they're still there, writing a post.

Yes I realise it is not perfect, but different places in the Forum give different answers as to whether a member is online or offline.

 

The main board seems to update before the threads.

 

Anyway thanks for looking at my post.