An “Invisible” Online Status
tracked
Sonicgott
It would be beneficial for us to have a social status set to “invisible,” where we would be seen as offline, and, just like the red DND status, we could only join in on others when requesting.
Sometimes we need moments to ourselves, and sometimes other people don’t understand that red means “I’m busy.” Aside from also preventing services from Discord reporting that we’re in VRChat.
Say we’re working on world projects, debugging, streaming, having private moments with close friends, I believe the ability to be invisible and appear as offline would help further the security and personal well being of some players.
For a few of us who are introverted, some people will bug you despite being red, and it can be irritating. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s that we need to get some stuff done.
I understand that there are potentially negatives to this, but I feel the positives will outweigh those by quite a bit.
Invisible statuses have been seen in other messaging services in the past, such as ICQ and others.
I’d ask that you consider it. If this has already been suggested, let me know,
Justin “Sonicgott” Reese
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Deantwo
Jake Fox
The reason an invisible mode works in messaging services is that it is the only way to truly show that you're unavailable in some cases. Showing up as idle or do not disturb will still see people leaving a message for you to look at later, versus appearing offline, where a lot less people are bound to send you something until they know you're going to be around to see it again.
Then, there's also the fact that some apps don't mark you as offline unless you fully close the application, such as the desktop version of Meta's Messenger app, which will show you as online to everyone else in your conversations, even if you've left your laptop at home before going to work, which could result in you being blasted with messages, memes, or video calls during an important meeting, and unlike most apps, Messenger still doesn't offer an option to appear as offline (or hide read receipts) in 2024.
In an environment like a video game, the whole community, as well as the way the community interacts, is vastly different. The only way you are going to have your presence noticed to begin with is when you are actively online, versus on a messaging service where someone else can see and respond to something you said hours, days, weeks, or even months later. If you're not on VRChat, you don't get notifications for VRChat until you launch the game and sign into your account and avatar. If you're set to the do not disturb status, you already don't get invite requests, anyhow.
Genuinely and truly, I can only see one real benefit to a system like this, and it would only apply if you could pick and choose who you appear as offline to, versus having it be a true status change.
A lot of people who add users to their friends list do so out out of utility/necessity versus doing so out of actual friendship. Being able to blacklist certain individuals to seeing you as offline, or whitelist certain individuals from seeing you as offline, would ensure that your actual friends can see you as being online, and ensure that everyone you added out of utility/necessity would be kept out of your personal affairs.
DarkSwordsman
I kind of disagree with this. If you're at a point where you need to be invisible to most people, but they're still your friend, why are they your friend? If someone doesn't understand what Red means, that's on them and you can remove them for disrespecting your boundaries.
It would basically kill the entire platform because I can imagine a lot of people would be utilizing this feature. It defeats the purpose of having friends.
SanderVR
He said everything is nois.
Flufflestuff
Only the vrchat community would have such conniptions over an online status that exists on every other social platform.
They could just go the steam route and not allow invis users to join/invite until they turn off invis so it serves its purpose as the "i super dont want anyone to bug me" status. If anyone is that terrified of the already clique infested community here may get ruined.
Smash-ter
This feature honestly would make this game not only more toxic, but extremely confusing for a lot of people. Like, imagine you got an invite request and the person who requested was shown as offline. "Where did the invite come from? did they send it from the website or are they in game? Is my friends list broken or something because I don't really see them on." And on your point of you working on something when you're working on worlds or avatars from what I can tell you don't receive any requests when you're on red if i'm not mistaken, so sitting in an invite only instance by yourself to test things in game while on red is fine. I feel this would be a useless feature and no one would really like it when it becomes a thing.
Casuallynoted
Smash-ter All I know is I'mma bust out the tequila when it becomes a thing
Smash-ter
Casuallynoted question is, who would you celebrate with when your friends list is as dry as the sahara?
Casuallynoted
Smash-ter I’ve been here since 2016, when the most players you’d get was 10-15 on a Saturday and no one any other day of the week, trust me when I say the question you’ve asked is incredibly unrealistic.
I’ve also been in this app long enough to know that the community latches onto non-issues and turns them into villains of the month. In 2017, it was the user rank system turning VRC into a caste society. Then Avatar performance metrics stifling creativity and allowing people to be bullied for expressing themselves. SDK 2 getting phased out. The removal of mods, Easy AntiCheat, the list goes on and on. And despite the amount of supposedly game breaking changes being introduced to this platform it continues to exist and thrive. I don’t really see the point in catastrophising this app’s continued growth and change because it feels like I’m in a time loop every single time this happens.
So to answer your question, I’ll be celebrating with my friends- who are also looking forward to VRC getting a much-needed privacy feature.
Dormamu, I’ve come to make a bargain.
CyberSyo
This is going to make VRChat seem like such a desolate and dead place. The red and orange status already does everything we need it to. Having an offline mode will decrease communication and players interacting with one another. It's not benefitting anyone.
lackofbindings
Oh and important difference from DND would need to be that this new status still allow invite request to go through! Honestly I hate that DND blocks invite responses from even
your own
requests.S
Sleepwalker°
Best idea ever
J
JayTheSinger
YESSSSSSSSS
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