So I had an idea to have the option to set your active status (not sure a better name for this)-- Some examples for the current activity rate could include Active, Temporarily In-active, In-active, or Banned (Mind you, this is set by the player and not automatically meaning people would not be spotlighted because of this). I feel this should at least be displayed under the "Information" tab on player profiles, and perhaps even the side bar underneath where it states (if people filled it out) occupation and location. I think this would make a great addition to the forums, as I personally wonder where old friends have gone, and since we cannot always get in-game I think it is a nice alternative when happening to come across someone's profile you have not seen in a while. Mind you, many people will bring up the argument that if they were in-active, you could generally see their recent activity, but not everyone who is active necessarily posts/ interacts on the forums each and every day or even month, making it not necessarily a concrete way to see if someone is still active or not. I do realize this might take a while, if added to the forums, to get around and people actually to set their status, but it is rather nice to start the long process as we have people coming and going each day.
I really don't see a purpose for this, personally. If somebody wants to let everyone know that they are going inactive, then they can just make a profile post about it, and do the same if/when they return. Plus, like you said, just looking at when a person last posted on the forums will tell you about their forum activity. And if you want to see in-game activity, then just check it in-game.
Many people do not make profile statuses about it. It will allow players to go more silently, while still informing friends and neighbors about their departure. Yeah, so like I said, you cannot necessarily check in-game if you do not have the ability to, like myself as well as others right now. Some people don't post often on the forums, making it difficult to tell when they are still around or not (as they have their online status disabled). I personally would use this option considering I have the online status disabled (not that it is hard to tell I am active). lol
Hm I wouldn't mind seeing this, the forums are little by little changing after all ^-^ +1 -2 for not having a poll tho, tsk tsk tsk (jkjk <3)
