Having been around here for a little while, one thing I've learned is that if you want speedy replies, instant action, this isn't the forum for you. If you want a resoulution, if you want your case to be genuinely considered and considered thoroughly then have patience and give Kevin an opportunity to address this along with all the other fires he's still puttin' out.
I've ridden this fun house ride before with many of the OBs and Kevin does everything to make certain that all issues are addressed based on his priority. Just because it's important to me or you doesn't place it high on Kevin's list.
He does forget, he is human, he does have a life and encroaching on that is another sure fire way to insure your problem moves to the back of his in basket.
This site isn't here to make Kevin money, its here to give us a forum to discuss knives and everything related to the industry and the community. First and foremost are the knives, knifemakers, bladesmiths, seller/trader/dealer, collectors and the end users. Whether or not you can see who's lookin' in on your thread or how many people like you, (yes some of the members are proud of their contributions over the years, some of them feel like this is a family of sorts and have consistently donated time, money and energy, why some have even bled for this forum. Some have been here long enough to see forum member's kids grow up and go off to college and war, get married, have babies, divorce, illness, recovery, death and even worse. So believe me when I say we understand the friendships, the thrill of seein' lots of people's names at the bottom of a thread you've made or a popular thread you and your friends have congregated around like the water cooler at work to talk about the latest knife, what's goin' on in the Survive! threads or even jump on the band wagon to bash LCT or any other topical figure or company in the industry or community.
So don't think you're alone in your mornin' the loss of the list at the bottom of who's currently reading that post. I'm guilty of the same thing, logging on, (like I ever log off
) and rushing to my favorite threads to see who's there, either late at night or early in the am. It's a rush to open your thread and see a whole slew of names propagating the bottom of the page and to see the gold and platinum names is even better. It means payin' members are readin' your threads.
W e all get it and I along with lessismore were one of the first during beta testing to even bring it up so spark is aware, he's made mention of looking into it and I know he will, give him time. There's so much still left to iron out yet, if the site seems seamless it's because of his dedication, commitment and attention to detail that's gotten it to where it is without much downtime at all. Ask any of the lifers how easy the last change over was and how much downtime we had. Kevin started a FB account for BFC and lots of other BFC members started groups just so we had a place during the down times to congregate at.
Lohn has given the best advice so far, keep it topical, current and on the front page but and here's the hard part for a lot of people, be patient and stay adult and friendly about it. If it's at all possible Kevin will have it added/turned on. There's enough people who feel as you do, John and myself are 2 good people to side with because we're both patient and we both miss the feature too. Because of that we'll both keep at it till we get some kind of answer. I've been here since knapped flint knives were new.
In summation I'd like to close with these thoughts.
1) Be patient, Kevin's a busy man and this is not the only thing he has to deal with. (Remember, Kevin has a family and a job/business aside from BFC as most of us have.)
B) This is really a clearinghouse of information about knives and for the community and the industry first, the inability to see who's on the same page as you doesn't impact the ability of the forum to do it's job of providing information, look at, talk about, sell, trade or buy knives.
) If you've taken the time to read all of this that I've written and expected to find an answer other than the obvious which John has mentioned a few times on this thread already you may want to reconsider why you come to BFC. Is it for the knives or the people? You may be better served joinin' FB and some of the various FB knife pages and lookin' for the BF members active there also.
Just kiddin' ya, there isn't a better place to go and talk and learn about knives.
If nothin' else this stupid post by me took your mind off of your worries for 2 minutes and maybe Kevin will read this and it'll help him realize that there are a lot of members, paid and not who enjoyed and made use of that function in their daily use and navigation of the forums here.
@Spark , Kevin! Please look into the members on line function and when you get the opportunity could you post an update in this thread?
Thanks,
T. Erdelyi
TL;DR version:
Be patient, Kevin will address it when he gets to it, annoyin' him about it will just annoy him and he might work on something else instead.
There's more to BFC than just friends.
I am Ted, I am Notable so there! (~);-}