[drats_users] Possible Who Is Online feature request

[David Tilson]

G'day Dan,

> Actually, it's whenever a packet from that station goes over 
> the wire.  So, if you come online during a file transfer 
> between two other stations, even those packets will add the 
> station to your list.

OK, thanks for clarifying that.

> > Alternately having callsigns colour coded, or some form of symbol 
> > displayed, you could show whether or not stations are available to 
> > Chat (similar to programs such as Skype, etc).
> 
> Are you suggesting some sort of gratuitous status broadcast 
> by each station?  I'd like to avoid adding more periodic 
> transmissions in favor of intelligent as-needed ones as I 
> think they're more courteous to voice users and more frugal 
> with the bandwidth.

I agree with limiting the number of periodic transmissions and using
intelligent transmissions where possible.
 
> I can consider adding a bit of status information to the ping 
> response so that you can ping CQ (or a specific station) to 
> get an updated status message.

I think that could be useful.  

I have had my D-RATS client connected to the Ratflector since last night
and it has been interesting to see a few things.  I've noticed the
following stations (K8OMS, W4NWD and SV4LAX) announcing that they are
now online through the normal "Sign-On Message" and I've been able to
get a response at times from sending a ping to CQCQCQ.  However when I
ping them at a later time (several hours) there has been no response
from a few of the stations, yet I haven't seen any "Sign-Off Messages"
broadcast across the Chat screen.  I'm working on the assumption that
these stations have the tick box enabled to send the Sign-Off Message.  

A question then is... Is the Sign-Off message meant to be broadcast, or
just seen locally.

I did a quick test with a station who was using 0.2.1.11 and when he
closed / restarted D-RATS it only broadcast he was Online.

If the Sign-Off message is meant to be broadcast, then it could possibly
include a status message to remove the callsign from the Stations list.