When does it show you being in a chat room?

Question

When you look at the list of users in The Hangar what does it mean that they are "in" the room?

On the mobile site (which is what I usually use) you tap on the icon at the top and it gives you a list like this:

On the desktop site there is a group of icons to the right:

Some of the icons on the desktop site are greyed out.

Some users seem to be always listed. There have been times that people shown "in" the room did not respond to things I would expect them to. It could be that they are just not paying attention. [or maybe they're avoiding me, wouldn't be the first time :D] And I'm never sure when it shows other users that I am in the room.

What criteria cause a user to show in the list? And what does it mean if they are there but greyed out?

Answer 1

From the FAQ:

Every time you talk in a room (and when you enter a room for the first time), your avatar goes to full brightness and sorts to the top of the avatar stack for that room.

The longer you are quiet and don't talk, the more ghostly and transparent your avatar will become. Thus, the more bright avatars you see in a room, the more populated and active it is.

From experience, even if you close the chat window, if you open it again fairly soon, it won't necessarily put your avatar back at the front. Some time after a user leaves the avatar does get removed.