title: How do I display active/recent users on my homepage.. but in a server friendly way?
body: <p>I know I can do this using a "for" or "each" loop and limit the results to like 20 recent users but what data would be best to use for determining how a user is recognised as recent/active?</p>
  
  <p>Maybe every time a user sends a message update an updated_at column some where?
  Every time a user logs in update the session or something?</p>
  
  <p>Not quite sure what the best way to do this is.. Maybe update the updated_at column in the users table when the send a message, leave a comment.. not too sure what the best way to do this will be.</p>
  
  <p>Having users images on the home page in small boxes will look nice with my design but I don't know how this will impact my server once I launch.</p>
  
  <p>I remember twitter done this then a little while later removed this feature from their homepage.</p>
  
  <p>Anyway thanks in advance.</p>
  
  <p>Kind regards.</p>