Just out of curiosity, what do people typically use for their "Who's Online Timeframe" on their forums?

What was the default?

I'm using 10 minutes, but I know of some other automotive forums that push it out to an hour or more. During normal hours, I see beteen 30 and 50 registered users, and it sometimes goes higher.

Usually 30 minutes.

a lot of forums push it to a big number, since it inflates the number of registered users seen in the who's online box..

i go with 1 minute and take the minimal extra load hit, so it's accurate..

:2c:

Cache time and timeframe of 30 mins

I used to set it to 10 minutes, but I have moved it up to 30 minutes. Anything that makes your site busier or appear busier is a good thing; it gives your users warm fuzzies and makes them want to visit more often. See: Herd Mentality.

Also see: Gaming the outcome

ive just updated min to 24hrs

wow it looks great now
And a much fairer representation of your forums on a daily basis.

I changed from 2hrs as lots of others do this 24hrs now.

24 Hours???????

rofl, that's REALLY gaming the system!

i'd change the portal island title to 'who stopped by today', because the odds of it being anything close to a current snapshot is very low now..