Testing a new chat room

[talula]

Hi everyone,

We are currently testing a new chat server. If you want to give it a try go to:

http://darkstar1.tzo.com

Please let us know what you think

tal

[Riverwind (imported)]

ok, I have tried it, not sure about it, I get more info in the other one.

riverwind

[luvpain (imported)]

I feel the new chat has a lot of potential. I do like some of the new features, but it does seem a little user un-friendly with all the commands people will have to learn.

A few suggestions I have heard are:

1) White background

2) List users in the room on the side

3) The commands could be buttons

I also have these suggestions:

A) Need a profile Section like the old board (Would be nice)

B) Greeting should be changed to "<UserName> has just logged on line #"

I think suggestions 2, 3 & B would make thing less confusing for most users.

[BossTamsin (imported)]

Overall, I will hold off judgement on the proposed new chatroom.

However, keep in mind that a lot of users had problems with the changeover to the current room, because the current room is slightly more complex in some ways than the old room was.

This room, however, is even more complex than that.....

One question, though...... can the new chatroom be moderated? As the current OPs can attest, we've been encountering a few troublemakers recently, and that problem seems to be growing somewhat. So a return to an unmoderated chat room could cause a LOT of problems. Especially if people cannot 'register' nicks. All it would take is one person pretending to be anyone they like (luvpain, Paolo, BBoy.....), and the whole chat comes down until they decide to leave.

IEunuch.

[Mac (imported)]

(1) It could use a real-time window with the names of current users.

(2) I like the fact that you must be in the chat room when logged on.

(3) Would be nice if we could have exclusive use of our EA Board registered names and also allow non-registered users.

[luvpain (imported)]

Well talula has been working on the features.

He now has the "Real Time User List" feature added.

I think he is doing a good job on impoving things with it.

[luvpain (imported)]

Well talula seems to be doing a good job making improvements to the new chat.

I want to again express my thanks to everyone that helps keep the Archives up and running.

BTW, talula thanks again for a better looking graphic for my avatar. I think it looks a lot better than my old one.

[Bboy]

Talula is really doing an outstanding job with the chat area. There's a chat server that we both would really like, but it's currently unavailable for purchase.

Talula has been investigating the package he is currently testing, and I have suggested an alternate package that uses the standard IRC chat protocol.

I have concerns about the complexity of the current test chat program. I know Talula can reprogram a lot of it, but he could also be programming new personals software

(sorry!!! just kidding!!!)

So let's keep an open mind about things and try a couple of different options then we, along with all of you, will make a decision what - if anything - we need to do.

[Mac (imported)]

Got message, "Connection Closed by Foreign Host", then could not log back on even after exiting and re-entering.

[talula]

Sorry Mac,

I was working on the chat server and wan't paying attention that someone was on it.

When I'm working on it I remove the link from the current archive chat. Best if you go there to see if you can link in.

Thanks for the report though.

talula

[talula]

Yes, that will be set up soon. Hopefully today. Im trying to set up a interface that is more user-friendly than most chat rooms in regards to setting parameters.

Thanks for the suggestion.

talula

[luvpain (imported)]

Quick bug report from our german friend antonia.

She is complaining about the lack of special character support.

i.e. (ö ä ü ß) They all display as a square box.

PS. Talula, I did some checking and it is the Web Interface that has the problem.

[luvpain (imported)]

Talula, you the man!

Looks like antonia is going to have to worship you for all the changes you have made per her suggestion, and fixing the issue with the special characters.

Just let me get a photo of it when it happens; love to see antonia on her knees for a change worshiping someone. :tongueout

[Mac (imported)]

Talula,

Be sure to take care of all your special characters. We are all counting on you.

[NZ_Bi_Master (imported)]

I tried it out yesterday.

It looks pretty, and it seems to work ok.

I really miss the ability to have private chat windows.

Also profiles are a nice feature, and if they can be added it would be good.

Even nicer would be a private IRC server with a java interface. This means that people used to IRC clients (e.g. mIRC) can be in a familiar environment, and others can use the supplied client.

I know IRC has a bad rep, but that's largely because of the badly overloaded general access networks and their netsplits / lag problems. With a single largely unloaded server these problems mostly don't exist.

Purely as a demo (And because I'm so far from the net backbone, that's all I could do) I've set up a sample of the technology on my server. Java client and instructions for accessing via vIRC / mIRC at (deleted url)

The java client I'm using isn't the greatest, but it seems to do everything necessary. Eteria ( http://eirc.sourceforge.net/ ) has a very nice look & feel, but I haven't experimented with it.

Behind the scenes I have the bahamut (dalnet) server & epona services ... both open source, and both compiled straight out of the box.

Cheers

[antonia (imported)]

Talula, you the man!

Looks like antonia is going to have to worship you for all the changes you have made per her suggestion, and fixing the issue with the special characters.

Just let me get a photo of it when it happens; love to see antonia on her knees for a change worshiping someone. :tongueout

On my knees and upsidedown

Thank you Tatula I O you one :tongueout

yours antonia

The Picture (http://www.eunuch.org/vbulletin/attachm ... ostid=6603)

[A-1 (imported)]

That's a GREAT .gip file.

I couldn't help but notice your pictures that you posted.

You physically resemble a nurse that I know.

I do not see any scars and I suppose that you are over your injuries now.

You know, there used to be a situation comedy here in the U.S. of A on the television called "Green Acres". In it there was a farmer who was a neighbor of the main characters that had a cute little pet pink pig that they called "Arnold"

Does your pig have a name? From what I have heard pigs are pretty smart.

A-1

[talula]

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion regarding the use of private messages on the new chat room. Yes it is a different format but I really think that in some ways it is superior to the current way of private chatting.

Currently you click on a user's name, a window pops up, and you chat. In the new system you create a new chat room and invite as many users as you want inside.

For example:

I see [0]Bboy and [1]Paolo on the chat room and I want to private chat both of them. I decide I want to create a private room called "mergatroid".

First I type in ".c mergatroid". - This creates the room and moves me there

Next I type ".p0 Come to room mergatroid", - this sends a message to Bboy to move. He types in ".c mergatroid" and is moved there. I do the same for Paolo except I type in ".p1"

When everyone is there I type ".l" and close the room so no one else can join.

The nice thing about this is you arn't limited to a private chat with just one other person, plus if you created the room and someone gets unruly you can kick them out.

Hope this helps,

talula

[Andrew (imported)]

There seems to be quite a bit of confusion regarding the use of private messages on the new chat room. Yes it is a different format but I really think that in some ways it is superior to the current way of private chatting.

Currently you click on a user's name, a window pops up, and you chat. In the new system you create a new chat room and invite as many users as you want inside.

Well, I hope this new room cuts down on all those unwanted private chats. OK, maybe it is just me, but I prefer the open chat room rather then the closed, private chat. I did stop by just now for the new chat room, and had a short chat with Tiny and a few others. Nice, but there was quite a delay between hitting the "enter" key after typing something, and seeing the message on the chat room screen.

Also, can you program in some sort of protection so that the name of "Andrew" can be used only by me, and not some imposter trying to stir things up? Thank you.

Also, do we really need five chat rooms? I think the scheduled chat room is redundent, I've never seen any trafic in penectomy or master/slave rooms, and wonder if it would be simpler to have just two rooms, a general public chat room and a room for those who want private chats.

More feedback from this curmuddgeon as I continue to test out the new room.

Oh, when do you plan to shut down the old chat room?

[Mac (imported)]

Talula,

The private chat procedure sounds just complicated enough to properly limit the use of private chats. However, there has not been enough people to try it when I have been in the room. I too prefer open chats.

I have also noticed the time delay between posting a message and seeing it. Sometimes think that I have been disconnected.

I agree with Andrew's suggestion of limiting the chat forum to two rooms as more people will lead to better conversations.

You are doing a great job with the new room. Keep up the good work.

[luvpain (imported)]

Also, can you program in some sort of protection so that the name of "Andrew" can be used only by me, and not some imposter trying to stir things up? Thank you.

I believe that they will eventually have the feature put in down the road. I believe the plans are to hook the ID up with the Message Board ID & Password. I have the same concerns especially after dealing with some of the Losers that come on the old system.

Also, do we really need five chat rooms? I think the scheduled chat room is redundent, I've never seen any trafic in penectomy or master/slave rooms, and wonder if it would be simpler to have just two rooms, a general public chat room and a room for those who want private chats.

Well I do think the Different rooms will end up being used more, now that everyone has to be in a room. The 5 rooms are just suggested one to make it easier to discuss the different topics that people have.

With the old system everyone did private chats. Now private chats are still possible, but you are also in a room. If there are lots of people on different rooms help as multiple conversations are hard to follow.

Oh, when do you plan to shut down the old chat room?

I don't think there is any date set yet for stopping the old chat, as Talula is still working on

making improvements to the new chat.

Also as Bboy has mentioned the new chat is in the testing phase. It is possible that it might not be used either.

I hope this helps.

[luvpain (imported)]

The private chat procedure sounds just complicated enough to properly limit the use of private chats. However, there has not been enough people to try it when I have been in the room. I too prefer open chats.

Yes the new chat is a little more complicated than the old chat. However, Talula is busy trying to enhance the interface to make it more friendly so people can easily use. It does take time to make changes, and figure how to implement changes and improvements. Just be patient and see what new features are added in the coming weeks. Try it out and get used to the new design, and add feedback here. Make suggestions on how things could be improved, and what features you like.

I have also noticed the time delay between posting a message and seeing it. Sometimes think that I have been disconnected.

Well I think part of the trouble is with AOL. The other part is due to Bandwidth limitations on the TEST Server. I have noticed a slight delay sometimes, but not all the time. I think the longest delay was maybe 2 seconds, but usually it pops up within a second for me.

I agree with Andrew's suggestion of limiting the chat forum to two rooms as more people will lead to better conversations.

I disagree. When there are only a few people on 1 or 2 rooms are good, but once you get over 10 people in a room things do tend to get a little crazy at times. Also NOT everyone is interested in "Master/Slave", "Penectomies", etc. so a room dedicated to those interest are good.

[Mac (imported)]

Talula

What happened to the new chat room? Please update us on the status.

[talula]

You are entirely correct Mac. I'm sorry that I have kept people out of the loop. Here is what is going on.

We are loading up a new chat server to test.

The old test chat server, the one with the pictures started acting very erratic. For some reason it started pinging a site on the internet about 5 times a second and I couldn't get it to stop. Thus it was causing some terribly lag times. Also there were several features that people wanted that were going to take time to program in.

Bboy and I decided to give a full-blown IRC server a try which took about 2 days to configure before it would run. We got the various services and a webbot up at the same time. Unfortunatly the webbot was shaky at best so we dropped that idea.

Now we have dropped the idea of a windows based server and have gone to linux. I loaded in a "dalnet" based IRC server and it is running. Next I need to get the services (nickserv and stuff) going. Then it is testing time once more.

It shouldn't be much more that another couple of days.

Thanks for the patience.

talula

[Mac (imported)]

Talula,

Thank you for the update. I will be waiting for further information.