Doc (and eleuthria) ...
Real time figures would surely give people reassurance that 'payment things' are happening in the background, to give them reassurance.
Newbies and some others need to understand/learn the way shifts work. The suggestion is people need to see the shifts column populated with some kind of dynamic data to help them out/understand.
I'm not a programmer, but I know I like straight facts. Is it possible to show 'shifts' in progress' as they slowly crystallize into fact?
The problem is users seem to think there is "real time status". Shifts update when blocks are found, or a new shift completes. Those are the ONLY times anything changes for a shift. There is absolutely no way to know what the outcome of a shift will be until it is no longer receiving payments (meaning 10 newer shifts have completed).
In BTC Guild's case, you can see the current rewards paid to open shifts. I have a warning that says the number aren't final. That doesn't stop a significant number of people from complaining to me about shifts not getting paid, and that "something must be broken, there's 7 0s in a row!". DrHaribo got the same comments, and changed it to simply not show the 10 open shifts.
I think not showing the current rewards of the 10 open shifts by default is a good change, and I may end up implementing a similar change on my pool. Though I think an option to enable the stats on open shifts should be provided for those who actively want it.