Invisible Mode?

[Tuco]

How is it that we are forced to be completely visible to friends or to enter in offline mode?
Why can't we have an Invisible Mode to log in without being visible?

You know, sometime I want to stay online and talk to some friend without necessarily inform *everyone* I know of what I'm doing.

[Tuco]

ɑɪ.DarkLite の投稿を引用：

His point makes sense though - there's a lot of tricky issues.

What happens if you try to send a message to an invisible person? Does it send the message, making it obvious they're online? Does it lie and say they're offline, and refuse to send the message? Does it lie and say they're offline, and send the message anyway? Can you only talk to them if they initiate a conversation with you? What happens if you close that chat window: does the conversation still count as in progress? If you don't reply for a long period of time, should Steam mark the conversation as over?

What happens if one person goes invisible during the conversation? How are two invisible people now talking, assuming you can't message an invisible person?

A lot of these issues are resolved by adding a feature to store messages sent to an offline user and present them on login, thus allowing you to message offline users without an issue. But that's a whole separate feature, and would need implementing before invisible messaging could really work.

Not to downplay the work required, but we aren't really talking about anything groundbreaking, here.
Even MSN had all these features (invisble, offline messaging, "invisible tag" when you reply to someone when you were supposed to be offline ,etc) already years ago.

Plus, I'd like to stress that even without the full package of features and just with the most basic functions (i.e. messages toward you simply don't work when you are invisible unless you contact that person first) the problems with "confusion" or with a poor set of features are WAY more trivial than the privacy issue ( a.k.a. "Jesus Christ, I can't even login and play my games without alerting that person of what I'm doing").

[DarkLite]

Tuco の投稿を引用：

Not to downplay the work required, but we aren't really talking about anything groundbreaking, here.
Even MSN had all these features (invisble, offline messaging, "invisible tag" when you reply to someone when you were supposed to be offline ,etc) already years ago.

Plus, I'd like to stress that even without the full package of features and just with the most basic functions (i.e. messages toward you simply don't work when you are invisible unless you contact that person first) the problems with "confusion" or with a poor set of features are WAY more trivial than the privacy issue ( a.k.a. "Jesus Christ, I can't even login and play my games without alerting that person of what I'm doing").

MSN is primarily a messaging client. Steam is not. And just because it isn't groundbreaking doesn't mean it can be added overnight.

[Sintes]

Would be nice to have it.

[Tuco]

ɑɪ.DarkLite の投稿を引用：

And just because it isn't groundbreaking doesn't mean it can be added overnight.

That's nice, except I'm not asking for *anything* to be added "overnight", so there isn't any need to go full White Knight.

I'm just trying to raise the issue to inform Valve that it would be a feature extremely appreciated by many of us.

[Incompetent Fool]

ɑɪ.DarkLite の投稿を引用：

His point makes sense though - there's a lot of tricky issues.

What happens if you try to send a message to an invisible person? Does it send the message, making it obvious they're online? Does it lie and say they're offline, and refuse to send the message? Does it lie and say they're offline, and send the message anyway? Can you only talk to them if they initiate a conversation with you? What happens if you close that chat window: does the conversation still count as in progress? If you don't reply for a long period of time, should Steam mark the conversation as over?

What happens if one person goes invisible during the conversation? How are two invisible people now talking, assuming you can't message an invisible person?

A lot of these issues are resolved by adding a feature to store messages sent to an offline user and present them on login, thus allowing you to message offline users without an issue. But that's a whole separate feature, and would need implementing before invisible messaging could really work.

It really depends on how it's implemented. Most instant messaging programs that offer some kind of invisible status also allow offline messages true, but when an invisible user sends you a message they "lose" their invisiblity (only to you) for the rest of their signed-in session.

They could even make "away" and "busy" statuses override all others. Anything would be an improvement from the 'all or nothing' system it uses now, particularly with the increasing amounts of games requiring an open connection to the Steam community making signing out of friends not an option if you want to continue playing.

[ux92]

It would be great to enter invisible however not being able to chat. There is an option to login without being automatically signed in to the chat but if you want to configure it from the outside you can't, you need to log in visible first to appear offline next time. Why not add a checkbox "login offline of chat" or something like that?

[Pur3Bolt]

Me gusta. This would be a nice thing

[deer ♪ vs. the World]

Tuco の投稿を引用：

Emiifire の投稿を引用：

- Nah, I don't mind being online but I just don't want people to know what games I'm playing or something. I'll take the option to whether or not to announce what game I'm playing than to vote for being invisible.

Well, they already gave you that option right now, so I'm not really sure what's the point of your reply in this discussion.

Am I missing something because now you have to go offline so your friends won't see what you are playing.

[nuorimommo]

Yes thousand times. Sometimes I don't want to be bothered by anyone, but I still want to know who's online.

[POP3D]

Actually, IMHO, i think the best solution for this would be just what we are having right now in here. :)

A 'Discussion' that takes place between just the sender and the receiver of the message, where there also the ability to join some one to the discussion. :)

And i think there is a name already to such feature, and it is called "PM", where it would be just a small PM link in your friend's profile page that once you click on it a discussion between you and your friend starts and you can talk in it privately just like how it works in any forum, and also be able to join any friend in this discussion.

I think with the new discussions feature being available in Steam for games and groups, adding it to peoples profiles as a PM section will make every one happy.

What do you guys think?

:)

[Tuco]

POP3D の投稿を引用：

What do you guys think? :)

I think you are missing entirely the point of this request.

[mockingbird]

Agreed :P

[POP3D]

Tuco の投稿を引用：

POP3D の投稿を引用：

What do you guys think? :)

I think you are missing entirely the point of this request.

Actually no, i am not.

I know that both 'Appear Offline' and 'Invisible' can co-exist together, where you appear offline if you don't want to receive any messages at all, or become invisible where you can message the one you want while other online ones can't send you any messages unless you message them first. (which is a good thing and i wouldn't mind having such feature in Steam).

But with the fact that Valve thinks of the invisible mode in this way "We don't like this option, since it's confusing for users, not participatory, and somewhat susceptible to leverage for nefarious activity." (Source: this post http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10824403&postcount=8 from this thread http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=932194), along with the other issues they mentioned.

And because -if i understand that part correctly- the point of requesting this is to have privacy, the solution i am suggesting here is to do that using an alternate method other than Steam instant messenger (a work around), and that is through a PM section that is also accessible through Steam's in-game overlay (Shift+Tab), that works in the same way as this 'Discussions'.

My idea about it is that it can go like this:

You have your Steam opened but you just want to appear offline for any reason, once you do so the friend list will not disappear, but clicking on any of your friends in the friend list will send you to a PM section that works in the same way as how this 'Discussions' work, instead of opening the instant messenger window.

Your friend will get notified about the PM and can reply, and the conversation take place in that discussion page where you can also invite any other friends to join the discussion.

And i think that will solve some issues:

It will allow a conversation to take place even if you appear offline.

You will be able to send a message to an offline friend where he/she can see and reply to it later.

The conversation history (chat log) will be saved in this PM (discussion) page.

All without having to mess around with the current instant messaging system.

That is how i thought it would work. :)

[nuorimommo]

POP3D の投稿を引用：

Tuco の投稿を引用：

POP3D の投稿を引用：

What do you guys think? :)

I think you are missing entirely the point of this request.

Actually no, i am not.

I know that both 'Appear Offline' and 'Invisible' can co-exist together, where you appear offline if you don't want to receive any messages at all, or become invisible where you can message the one you want while other online ones can't send you any messages unless you message them first. (which is a good thing and i wouldn't mind having such feature in Steam).

But with the fact that Valve thinks of the invisible mode in this way "We don't like this option, since it's confusing for users, not participatory, and somewhat susceptible to leverage for nefarious activity." (Source: this post http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10824403&postcount=8 from this thread http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=932194), along with the other issues they mentioned.

And because -if i understand that part correctly- the point of requesting this is to have privacy, the solution i am suggesting here is to do that using an alternate method other than Steam instant messenger (a work around), and that is through a PM section that is also accessible through Steam's in-game overlay (Shift+Tab), that works in the same way as this 'Discussions'.

My idea about it is that it can go like this:

You have your Steam opened but you just want to appear offline for any reason, once you do so the friend list will not disappear, but clicking on any of your friends in the friend list will send you to a PM section that works in the same way as how this 'Discussions' work, instead of opening the instant messenger window.

Your friend will get notified about the PM and can reply, and the conversation take place in that discussion page where you can also invite any other friends to join the discussion.

And i think that will solve some issues:

It will allow a conversation to take place even if you appear offline.

You will be able to send a message to an offline friend where he/she can see and reply to it later.

The conversation history (chat log) will be saved in this PM (discussion) page.

All without having to mess around with the current instant messaging system.

That is how i thought it would work. :)

The post you quoted is 5 years old and regarding different matter. What they were discussing in that thread was about the ability to message people that are actually offline so they'd get the messages when they log on next time.

[POP3D]

Pissbender の投稿を引用：

The post you quoted is 5 years old and regarding different matter. What they were discussing in that thread was about the ability to message people that are actually offline so they'd get the messages when they log on next time.

Understood. :)

But... to be able to send some one a message while he/she is offline means that you must have the ability to receive messages while being offline/appear offline, which means that you can have a conversation while appearing offline, which in fact is the 'invisible' mode requested in here. :)