I'm submitting a request that during a Game Setup (or possibly after if that's not too difficult) the GM has the ability to switch-off Last Post and Last Log In tells on the Cast Page.  (The slots can stay, but I request that if the "Deactivate Last Post/Long In" switch is thrown, it displays no info.)

As I'm setting up a new game that has a very particular playstyle, it occurs to me that Players being able to see Last Post and Last Log In info will absolutely ruin the game, to the extent I'm not even sure I can run the game here without some very careful handling of the game.

The last login and last post for players should only be visible to the GM.

Players should only be able to see last login/post for the GM so they can check if the game has been ghosted by the GM.

As a player, the last post and last logins for other members of the game show only the day (not the actual time).

They are also obfuscated, so that a player who logged in today might have a last login of yesterday, for example.
This message was last edited by the user at 20:26, Sun 11 Sept 2022.

I don't think that part's quite true, BBR. I think what looks like obfuscation, for players, is RPoL not handling daylight savings time very well.

I've noticed that, especially on responsive, 'Today' for logins goes through periods of not swapping until 1:00 am, instead of at midnight. This seems to be somewhat device-dependent in a way that I can't pinpoint, but I know it happens on my desktop but not my phone, despite both having an accurate location and time set.

But it only seems fuzzy for that hour after midnight. Other logins are being accurately displayed, as best I can tell. (If it's actually changed, and player logins ARE being obfuscated now, obviously it's working, because I can't tell! <.< )

That said, I agree Lissa, but that request was made when the responsive cast list was re-worked, and shot down. In the absence of that, I support ee's request for a toggle switch that's GM-controlled. (Honestly, I'd support a GM-controlled toggle switch for not just Last Login and Last Post, but also Groups.)

Well panther piss... lol  =p





I don't know that I follow this...  Where are you seeing "groups"?

Nvm, I found it...  I would probably agree with you here...
This message was last edited by the user at 20:38, Sun 11 Sept 2022.

In reply to LissaAzules (msg # 5):

If you mouseover a character name on the cast list (using responsive - on the old site, they're just next to the character name), it shows some information below the character name. Part of that information is what Groups they're in.

Except that jase deliberately coded the cast list to obfuscate the times (it didn't always do that).

For what I'm setting up, Message Board Mafia, that doesn't quite cut it.  I could explain why, it's not particularly long, but honestly, just take my word that if Player A can look and see that Player B has actually logged in within the last day, 2 days, 3 days, etc, it can drastically alter the power balance and flow of the game (and there will be Players who will log every day to track other Character's logins to correlate whom is running whom - I do this in games I play in that aren't even MBM style games).

I think I can work around it for now, and clearly will have to even if jase pops in and says "Excellent idea!  I'll get right on it!" because implementing will probably take time, but if this is something that can be done, and is done, it will make things easier for those who want it in the future.




Sorry Lisa, I was one of the louder voices in shooting it down back then.  I still am on principle... however... I've come to an impasse and have realized that my rationale for hating the idea is now biting me in the butt.

Yes, yes, I admit it (to whoever said I'd find a reason to want this in the future) you were right.  Though, in fairness, at the time it wasn't a Game Setting Switch we were arguing over, it was a Global RPoL switch to deactivate Last Logs and Last Post tracking site wide.


I knew you'd be in here seconding this as hard as you could.  Thanks for not rubbing my nose in it. ;)


OMZ!  I didn't even consider this!  Yes, this too please (though less so for my needs, as I'll just make more Characters, but yeah, I can totes see this being useful to other GMs).

I think what SunRuanEr is saying is that in very extremely edge cases (mutli-device and Daylight Savings Time) he can, as a Player, tell if another Player has posted within the last hour because on one device it will say "Yesterday" and on another it says "Today".  Which can narrow down that "Last Post/Log In" to 'within the last hour' if it occurred within that very narrow time window of "midnight to one am" when Daylight Savings is in effect and some devices don't play straight with it.

Which means it could be deliberately duplicated to partially bypass the obfuscation (admittedly it's a very narrow manner and generally difficult to capitalize on).

No problem. I hadn't really been active in the non-game chats until relatively recently so i don't have all the historical background. That being said...  I do find the result very humorous but not in a malicious way - just a "be careful what you wish for" way... =D

Are you certain that's the case for player characters, BBR? I know that's the case for GM-controlled characters, and has been for several years now.

I'm not doubting that it might be /supposed/ to be, but like I mentioned above, I've only noticed player login weirdness occurring between midnight and 1am and I feel it's pretty safe to say that I pay way more attention to character logins and last posts than the average bear. (EE can attest to this. <.<) My spouse runs several of the games I play in, and we often have conversations along the lines of 'Well, so-and-so's not logged in for X so many days' or 'Has this person checked in today?', etc, and I've never noticed any discrepancies between what the GM-view cast list and the player-view cast list shows with regards to what 24-hour period a player has logged in during (except between midnight and 1am).

If player-controlled characters are supposed to be having their last login times obfuscated (beyond just hiding the specific *time* of login), then it's either not being applied very consistently, or it's not working at all on responsive. (GM-controlled characters ARE working as intended.)


<3
This message was last edited by the user at 22:20, Sun 11 Sept 2022.

Yes, that's pretty much the only time it would be noticeable.  It's only a small adjustment - a matter of a couple of hours, tops.  So...

Player logs in at noon on Sunday.  System tweaks the time a little.  Cast List says they logged in on Sunday.

Player logs in at 00:30 on Monday.  System tweaks the time a little.  Cast List says they logged in on Sunday.

Player logs in at noon on Monday.  System tweaks the time a little.  Cast List says they logged in on Monday.

That's legit. Thanks for the clarification, BBR. I'd just chalked that up to DST wonkiness.