Just throwing out a thought for discussion:
Should Lemmy potentially add a profile status indicator that users can manually set—kind of like what platforms like Discord use?
For example, something where users can choose to display:
🟢 Online
🔴 Busy / Do Not Disturb
⚫ Invisible
⚪ Offline
–
Or even something custom, like:
“Away”
“Lurking”
“Work”
“[Enter Custom Text Here]”
etc.
It wouldn’t have to be real-time tracking, just a manual toggle in profile settings or next to your username.
Could be useful for signaling whether you’re active, taking a break, or just want to lurk quietly without being pinged or messaged.
Would this be helpful, or does it go against Lemmy’s minimalist, federated design?
Curious what others think.
I like how Lemmy is reminiscent of early Internet forums and how users have a choice to share as little or as much as they want about themselves. Having online status publicly displayed detracts from that experience. We shouldn’t have to justify being offline or simply not wanting to respond right away. The internet is at our fingertips but it doesn’t mean we need to be accessible all the time.