Miscellaneous Hacks - Hide Online Status of Usergroups/Users

Overview:

This product will give you complete control over who knows who is online. You can select usergroups and users whose online status is hidden from everyone, except members of usergroups and individual users from whom you decide no one will be hidden. When a user's online status is hidden, those from whom it is hidden will never see them shown as online in the "Currently Active Users" section of "What's Going On?" (WGO) or on the "Who's Online" page, or on their profile page or in their postbits.

A hidden user will show up in the list of recent visitors in the WGO section, however, their cited time of last activity will be either their last visit time, or time of last post/PM/VM...whichever is the most recent, so as to arouse the least suspicion. This same time of last activity will be shown on their profile page as well.

You can also define "Troublesome Users" which are dual sets of users, the first set which is hidden from the second, and if you enable the reciprocity for this setting, the second set will also be hidden from the first. You may define as many dual sets of troublesome users as you want.

Also, you can set whether hidden users are hidden from themselves. If you wish to make it less obvious to users that their online status is being hidden then set this to "No" and if you want hidden users to see that they are hidden, set this to "Yes."

The users you set as those from whom no online status is hidden will see everyone's true online status, regardless of the other settings.

Updates:

Version 1.1:

• Added option to show hidden users as guests.

Version 1.2:

• Hidden users shown as guests now moved to the end of the guest list on Who's Online.

Version 1.3:

• Fixed reported issue of memberaction dropdown giving away online status.

Version 1.3.1:

• Added option to turn off online status tooltip from all memberaction dropdown links.

Version 1.3.2:

• Amended option to turn off online status tooltip from all memberaction dropdown links to include online status indicators in postbits.

Version 1.3.3:

• Added option to set whether the active usercounts will be adjusted to account for hidden users or not.

Compatibility:

Tested and working on VB 4.2.x and may work on all 4.x versions of vBulletin.

Backup/Warning:

This product does not alter your database, however it is always good practice to make regular backups and you should make a backup before installing ANY new mod.

As always, products are USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. I will provide support and do my best to help but no absolute guarantee is offered.

To Install:

1. Download and extract the attached .zip file.
2. Follow AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product.
3. Click on "Choose File" and browse to the product .xml file that was packaged in the .zip file.
4. Click "Import."
5. You MUST enable the product in the settings before it will function.
6. Configure the remaining settings to your liking. Each setting has a detailed explanation of its use.

Support for this product can be found here:

• MHB - Hide Online Status of Usergroups/Users
• TAZ - Hide Online Status of Usergroups/Users

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by chloe101

Thank you!! Option 2, deactivating the plugin, did the trick.

Cool, glad that did what you wanted. I will look into providing an option for hiding the usernames, but leave the counts alone, so you won't have to have a hacked template (I'm not a fan of hacked templates).

Originally Posted by chloe101

Fedex or DHL?

Thanks for the kind offer, but it's all part of providing support.

[chloe101]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

Cool, glad that did what you wanted. I will look into providing an option for hiding the usernames, but leave the counts alone, so you won't have to have a hacked template (I'm not a fan of hacked templates).



Thanks for the kind offer, but it's all part of providing support.

Thank you! I'm not a huge fan of them either and will be so happy to revert mine when you do. Thanks for the terrific support! And products of course

[MarkFL]

Update - Version 1.3.3:

• Added option to set whether the active usercounts will be adjusted to account for hidden users or not.

[chloe101]

Originally Posted by MarkFL

Update - Version 1.3.3:

• Added option to set whether the active usercounts will be adjusted to account for hidden users or not.

Wow you're fast!! Can you explain why every time I try to like your posts, I get the following message? Even if I have liked someone else's already?

[MarkFL]

Originally Posted by chloe101

Wow you're fast!! Can you explain why every time I try to like your posts, I get the following message? Even if I have liked someone else's already?

I don't know exactly how it's configured, but I think you have to like several (at least two) other post authors before you can like the same person again. It's meant to encourage the community to "spread the love around."

But, please don't worry about it when it happens, you have always let me know that you appreciate my efforts to provide support for my products.