:btw I'd like to bring back the "user status" system that the Guild used to have long ago -- probably this weekend to take a break from whatever I come up with for the v1.0 search system. New forum platforms (like forums that use Xenforo) usually have this feature, and it's one of the most requested features since relaunch.

I often find it helpful myself. For example, I'd like to set my status to "Currently working on a search system" so people can see what I'm working on despite my activity in this thread. 

Other examples of useful statuses: 

- "I'm visiting grandma so I'll be away til mid-April" (3 days ago) -- Signal to your friends that you're away but will be coming back.
- "Currently writing post for <name of roleplay>" (12 min ago) -- Signal to your fellow players that your next post is imminent.

Statuses can be up to 140 chars.

So that people will actually read your status, I'm thinking of including it as a small button next to the "bio" button. When clicked, it can pop up a small window that shows the status with a small form that allows you to comment on it or rate it like you can a post. Perhaps the button even saturates into some color when you haven't read the user's latest status.

What do yall think? Any better ideas for how the status should be displayed on posts? It'd be possible to display the [possibly truncated] status directly on the post, but I'm reluctant to add clutter to posts.