Mohamed Magdy wrote at "Who is online?":
Hello
Is it possible to have such a feature on Wikimedia wikis? or it will not be accurate and have the same problem of page views?
--user:alnokta
Currently, at es.wikipedia there's a quite common script to set your presence status. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usuario:Axxgreazz/Monobook-Suite/Administrador_... With a link you set if you want to appear as Connected, Busy or Disconnected. Each change means an edit to a user subpage.
I think that system would be good enough, if *implemented without edits*, just as an image include (like jabber presence status images), thus -Filling a user wish. -Doing that efficiently. An <img tag can be cached. Current way using templates make lots of rerenderings (they are usually inserted in user pages and talk, luckily policy doesn't allow it on signatures). -If determining presence and sending images is problematic for pmtpa, it could be done at toolserver.
I'd also add binding to irc and Jabber, but let's kiss for now ;)