Greetings All:

I've noticed some posts, and every now and then I'll get a couple of e-mails, from people saying "do you know what happened to such-and-such, he/she hasn't posted in a while".

Well, I have now installed an "away" system. Below each user's name in their posts, you're familiar with it saying either:

Status: offline

or

Status: online!

From now on, you might also see

Status: set away

As a user, you can now mark yourself as being "away" for a while. If you're going on vacation, have a busy work week coming up, or otherwise think it might be several days before your next post, you can go to the "Edit Your Profile" link under the "Your Account" box on the main page and set yourself as away. You can set a date that you expect to return, as well as a reason why you're away.

Users will then be able to click on the "set away" link next to status, where they'll be taken to your profile which will have the return date and/or reason that you set.

Any user that sends you a PM while you're away will also get an auto-response letter letting them know that you won't be reading it until you return.

When you return, you can either go back to the "Edit Your Profile" link to set yourself as back, or, simply make a new post and you'll automatically be set as back.

I hope that everyone finds this new feature useful. Enjoy!