What kind of status messages can be shown to the user on a search

Question

What kind of status messages can be shown to the user on a search, involving active users.

msg.no.users=There are no active users.
msg.many.users=There are {0} active users.
msg.one.user=There is one active user.

We currently show 3 different messages, as shown above. We have been thinking of removing msg.one.user and modifying the msg.many.users as follows.

There are 1 active user(s).
There are 2 active user(s).

Which one conveys the message to the end user in a better fashion? What would be your preference

Answer 1

With your choices being either active or non-active I feel two choices would suffice.

msg.non.active.users=There are no active users.
msg.active.users=There are {0} active users.

Even if the search results with 1 active user.

Answer 2

Sure the first one is more user friendly but this is more work for development and maintenance.

Answer 3

It might be better to start the message with the number of active users, because that is the most important part of the information.

msg.non.active.users=No active users.
msg.active.users={0} active users.

As a usability principle says: "Omit needless words!"

Answer 4

Even though you've accepted already, I want to add:

The number of cases you'd need to make it correct differs with language, making a distincton between "zero", "one", and "many" is typical localization trap.

The best is to avoid any distinction, at most separate "no results" (which might be a completely different phrase) from "N results".

[edit] Here's a good - if a bit narrative - example: http://interglacial.com/~sburke/tpj/as_html/tpj13.html

He's trying to translate two phrases

I scanned 12 directories.
Your query matched 10 files in 4 directories.

into Italian, Russian, Chinese and Arabic.