How come the green "Online" indicator on our profiles is so misleading?

[Jondude]

So, I keep messaging a friend here but he usually never gets it in time and it seems to be because the little green light saying he's online stays on for about 15-30 minutes after he's already logged off. Why is that? :/

 

[Sensualswitch10]

Could be that he closed the tab without actually logging out. The forum will keep a person logged in if they close the tab until they are timed out due to inactivity.

 

[duderino84]

Generally social networking websites kind of "keep you bouncing around" for 10-15 minutes after logins and signouts due to the fact that you're indirectly sending updates (that you think you're simply sending to the site) to the server the site is connected to. So latency is to be expected. Instant messaging is a bit different.

 

[Bohemianne]

When sending a PM, I automatically set my expectations to get a reply after 3 days. So, I am usually perked to have one in a few minutes. "Oh, he/she must be online!"

And Sensualswitch is right. The user did not really hit the logout button. Big leagues...