Participants List Order
Choose how the participants list of group conversations and chat rooms is ordered — alphabetical (A–Z) or join order, with a separate "Show Online Members First" toggle.
Settings → Messaging → Group Conversation Settings gets a new Participants List Order dropdown with two modes. Join order — the default, members appear in the order they joined the conversation, exactly as before. Alphabetical (A–Z) — members are sorted by display name, so finding someone in a busy room takes a glance instead of a scroll.
Sorting runs server-side against the user index, so it stays fast even in chat rooms with tens of thousands of members, and guest users are sorted by their names right alongside registered users. The chosen order applies everywhere the participants list is shown — the conversation information panel, the chat room participants tab, and the online users sidebar.
A separate Show Online Members First toggle keeps currently online members pinned to the top of the list, with everyone else following in the chosen order (WebSocket version — live presence requires the realtime connection). It is on by default, so existing sites keep their familiar behavior, and it can be turned off for a strict A–Z list.
Private 1-on-1 conversations are not affected. The base sort order works in both the free and WebSocket versions.