How do you enter the chat room idle?

Question

I have seen people enter the Chat Room being idle. How do you?

Answer 1

You can't enter the chat room idle. But I think I know why it may appear that way, here's how the chat works:

• When the page first loads it tells the server you're active. So it's not possible to be idle here.
• After that, it checks for new messages every few seconds.
• If you don't post anything for 10 minutes it declares you idle, but it's still checking for new messages.
• If the user does not check for new messages for a while (30 seconds I think) then it decides you've left the chat room.
• If you were idle, then lost internet connection, it will say you've gone offline because you're not checking for new messages.
• Then if your connection comes back online, it will start checking again, but it doesn't think you're active because you didn't reload the page. The same may happen if you put your computer to sleep without closing the tab (e.g. close a laptop lid).

Comments

Yesterday, Fanny Pack entered as idle. J98 saw this as well.

Answer 2

It's not really a glitch by the way. Being idle means that you are there in the chat room, but probably not actually there. You could be on a different tab, or just afk.

The system will identify you idle when you are clicked out of the chat box, and doing nothing on that Chat tab.

- 11.18.2011 1:48

Comments

Why's Hello Kitty there?