I've read that thread a few times (before posting this) but I'm not sure it actually helps my situation.
I've just tried registering the variable as a seperate variable (which isn't what I want to do - I want to replace the one that's already getting displayed - hence no template edits) and that still didn't work.
It seems that the output of:
PHP Code:
$templater = vB_Template::create('forumhome_loggedinuser');
$activeonlineusers['team'] .= "Hello".$templater->render();
is only showing the Hello's. the output of the $templater->render() appears to be blank. And this plugin is assigned to the forumhome_loggedinuser hook. I don't see why this template would appear blank.
As I said I do register the variables (in another plugin i.e. once the variable has finished being set). Though in the final thing I just want to replace the existing $activeusers variable without having to make a template change.