[crazygringo]

It's very cool, but the motion is also incredibly distracting while reading. It literally makes it physically difficult to read.

Might I suggest quickly fading the cursors out entirely as soon as the user starts to scroll, maybe? Then you could have the effect at the start, but be less distracting while reading.

Or just a floating counter in the corner to say how many people are currently viewing it, maybe with the two most popular flags and your own flag and a fourth "other". Because it's one thing to know it's busy (cool, it's popular, I'm participating in something!), but it's another thing to feel busy, distracted, claustrophobic.

I assume you want to prioritize people reading your actual content over the feeling of busyness.

[genmon]

there's a Quiet Mode toggle in the corner of the screen for that purpose

[crazygringo]

Thanks. Honestly, given all of the random comments in bubbles and other UX I never even saw it. I realize it's obvious once you've seen it, but everything else was so distracting I genuinely didn't. And I was literally trying to just "tune everything out" and read, not assuming there was an option to disable it that I should look for.

Also, "quiet mode" doesn't suggest any clear link to the cursors. I get what you're saying with it, but I'm more likely to assume it's got something to do with the site playing sound effects I don't hear because I've got my device on silent mode.