Thanks for the question. There are two reasons.

Session Timeout: The key here is that this is when the board will consider you "inactive" meaning that you left the room, went to go take a crap, drove to the store. You have not clicked on anything.......and after this period you are "inactive". You have to have a reasonable time here since some people are slow readers. It normally shouldn't take more that 15 minutes to read an entire page and not click on anything.


Who's Online Refresh Period: I imagine this is more of a board performance issue than anything. Refreshing the list of "who is online" every 60 seconds sems reasonable to me. This means that every 60 seconds the sofware on the server executes this function and checks the SLQ database to see who hasn't timed out. Who needs to know this more than once a minute?


One more point.....Internet webcrawlers and search engines are constantly accessing websites gathering posts and information. That is what they do. They also show up as "guests" on the message board since they are not members but are accessing (viewing) the information so that when you and Google "Chris Sunkin", the latest and greatest will pops up. This "Session Timeout" parameter also applies to "guests".

Here is a perfect example of a website with the Session Timeout being set for many THOUSANDS of seconds. Most of these users (and guests) are not on the SOS site at this time, but may have been on over the last day or so?

Currently Active Users: 291 (181 members and 110 guests)


Chris, 24ol4now , 24rocket , 2biguns , 42JOHNNY , 44MTI , 4g63 Steve , 95south , ApachePete , ar15meister , AugiePensa , Awaken , baldtires , Big Time , BillR , blackwidow , Boatally Insane , boatme , Bobcat , boomer35 , Boss460 , Brad , BRAD SCHOENWALD , BRD , bret , BRIAN73 , Bud Weisner , BUIZILLA , bulletbob , Buoy , Caincando1 , capthump1 , CDOWNS , Check300 , chewiekw , chrisk , Cigarette/TS , clambake7 , clayinaustin , Compensation , Condor , convincer253 , cowisl , Crash-Box , C_Spray , dabomb6638 , dahzone1 , DAREDEVIL , dd24skater , Delta5 , DKwestern , dmartiniup , DoubleDown , Doug1 , DrGaryDC , drpete3 , ds01 , Ebay Ed , eightsecmopar , Engreps , excavator , fbc25el , Flying Dutchman , FormulaMatt , Fountain38SC , Frequency , fstct , gatorone , GENERAL LEE , gofish7070 , GRH , gripit , Griswald , Hard Charger , Havasu Hangin' , hjarrett , Hollowpoint , hotseeter , htrdlncn , ICDEDPPL , Indy , insanity , Jeffro , Jersey Girl , jetmech , jhenrie , Jim Dyke , JO - PANTERABOAT , JohnnyZ , JOLLEY , jrz , jshimes00 , kerigoff , Kevin Schulte , Knot 4 Me , Ktron , LaughingCat , Lee , Liquid Fix , liquordistributor , lohring , LOUIE7171 , lowblue320 , lucky strike , lucy , MacGyver , Magic Medicine , Maritime_eng , merlin , Mike A. , Mike Bontoft , MOBILEMERCMAN , Ms PatriYacht , Nevr2nd , NNRT , Nordicflame , nthdegree , offshoremikey , on the wick , one , PatriYacht , Perlmudder , Pete B , PlumCrazy , PokerRunStu2000 , POWERPLAY33 , Pro1 , purrfection , redhotsommer , Rich , Richard Crainium , Rick G , Rocketman , Roger 1 , Ron P , rschap1 , Ryan Beckley , sab79 , Salesmanship , sbracing , scottc , Sean H , searaycer , sensay00 , shifter , Sick Sting , SKATIN , smittydog2 , spiker , stevesxm , summer heat , SVL 21 , SVL66 , sy goldberg , Sydwayz , thlwl , ThrottleUp Props , ThruHull , tiderunner , topgunkid , tstuck , tunnelvision69 , twainscott , txriverrat2001 , Uncle Dave , viperfitness1 , vortex5021 , Wahoo 214 , waterbum , waterdogs , WhataConcept , whataworld51 , Whoz Your Daddy , WMF , Wreckdoctor , Wrinkleface , Xray50 , Xtreme Air , yesrej

I definitely was not on at that time. I was on earlier in the morning to delete my avatar and personal info as I will no longer support or frequent the site.

Same here. Online WAY earlier to check out the active users deal.

I think its a pretty safe assessment that OSO gets 100X more traffic. OSO has 45,000 members. When you search for technical topics or boat topics, OSO shows up - no one else.

Also, SOS doesn't allow you to read threads unless your registered, which is just a creative way to boost and artificially inflate membership. OSO is 45,000 members strong, but if you count the non-registered lurkers, as SOS does, I would venture to say more like 100,000+. SOS says their membership is around 4,000, which I also doubt.

95 south I was not on line after 9

sooooooo, being as all this came from lies and deceit. Wouldnt this be a false representation to potential advertisers aka lying and decieving, or deceptive business practice...jus' sayin

Naw, it's a value added feature. SOS is where you go to just hang out and have a good time. Your screen name gets to hang out long after you've left the site, increasing your overall good time.

If you are not already, you should be in Marketing!

It is probably a safe assumption that some of those are registered, never post, maybe visited once or twice, but got that "update" email and logged in to see what the PM was about. More inflation via PM.