This is a very good suggestion. Some time ago, I
suggested
that the "Other users" list only get updated when you post
something, but not when you are only reading through the XML
ticker, even if you use the cookie, precisely to deal with
this problem. But this might be easier to implement, and as
mr.nick has shown, it's a technique that can be used even
now without modifications to the server (with some limitations
with respect to getting private messages).
Goes into the TODO list for the Perlmonks modules :-)
--ZZamboni