In the profiles, the "Basic User Info" contains Username, [real] Name, Gender, and Last Seen. Of these, Username is somewhat useless because you presumably already know who the user is when you go to their page. [real]Name is something a lot of us don't want to give out for privacy reasons. Gender is something some would be all right in giving out, but others would not. But "Last Seen" is very useful to the other players which is why I am suggesting it be moved from "Basic User Info" to "Extra User Info". At the moment, I am going through my friends lists, trying to see who has been active in the past year and who hasn't been. This is so I can pare down my friends list to those who are actually still active. Virtually all of them have the "Extra User Info" but none of us have the "Basic User Info". I'm suggesting "Last Seen" be placed under either "Member For" or "Forum Posts".

Wouldn't the Last Seen would fall under the same logic you gave for real Name and gender? Maybe users don't want others to know for privacy reason. If they don't have the Basic User Info, it could be that they don't want to share that information. I think it's good to hold all the "privacy" type info together.

I actually prefer in the Basic User Info since it holds less info and makes it easier to make a fake one with a fake last seen status :P

The thing with user profile sections is that they can be removed (and probably modified with CSS) at will. So the suggestion is kind of moot to start with.

I'd rather have something on your friends page telling you if your friend hasn't logged in for 6+ months. Maybe a little ! icon next to their username, like the ones we have for legacy shops in the dropdown? That would make it much easier for those with huge friends lists to see inactive friends if they want to go on a gifting spree for Luminaire, or just want active friends participating in the click-return festivities (Masquerade, Pandemic, etc.)

Until then, a good trick to check a user's activity is to look at their recent posts, comments and their wishlist. If they have recent things from the last two holidays/this year, recent CSC items, or things like that on their WL, chances are that they're still active.

Yeah I think it's fine how it is. There's no need to fill in your real name and gender if you don't want to (and the user info box is the only place where one's username is actually listed on the default profile. It's in the url but not actually on the page anywhere else) and it's possible to set your "last seen" to hidden anyway. So I don't really see any reason to change it, especially since, like said, it keeps all of the somewhat more private information together.

I don't like this one.

Profiles are not random. If you can't find the Last Seen they probably don't want you to. How much of a friend are you if you defy their wishes? If you are on good enough terms of friendship with them that that previous sentence seem weird or hostile to you, then you are in good enough terms to talk to them and ask, or good enough terms to take the extra effort and time of your own to look and see if they have posted something anytime recent.

I like 's idea, sounds like a perfect solution to me!

I'm not super chatty most of the time, so I give others the same doubt and will assume that if I don't hear from them for a couple months at a time everything is still hunky-dory. This leads to the situation I got this year when I checked my 'gifts given' list and realized that several of them were carrying over from last year. Gifts I sent to people that were no longer active enough to check their trees!

Sure, it's my responsibility to poke people to see if they're still active. I didn't HAVE to give gifts to somebody that wasn't very vocal, but I would have sent those gifts to somebody else that might have appreciated them had I known that player wasn't playing anymore. chuckles

TL:DR- I like the idea of a little 'INACTIVE' notice on a profile that only crops up after say, a half or a full year of inactivity.

We already do have a notification on a user's profile after 10+ months of inactivity, though. It's the one about the username/petnames clearing.

Ooh! I really like this idea!