What would you guys say to a Dream17 Chatroom?

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What would you guys say to a Dream17 Chatroom?

Post by Squirminator2k » Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:01 pm

We may very well implement a Chatroom this year. It would most likely be a Flash App of some sort - similar to this one at World of Commodore.

Any thoughts?
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Post by SupSuper » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:47 pm

I dunno. This idea eventually pops up in every forum, and yet if it's implemented, chat rooms are always much less active than their forum counterpart.
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Post by Pooka » Tue Jan 03, 2006 5:42 pm

I say yes, but it would be better if it were a proper IRC chatroom, with a Java applet bolted onto the side.
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Chat Room

Post by Jonah » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:45 pm

Hi,

I think that a chat has it's pros and cons like everything else. I think that it's true to say that some prefer chatrooms over forums. Another plus would be that it would enable those on the Dream 17 site to interact with each other to a higher degree. I thought about the cons of a chatroom alot due to the fact that World of Commodore is my site. I do not like implusive swearing (bad language as a whole), I like good friendly web communities. Dream 17 is a fantastic community and I love to post and talk about issues here. I would hate to see this community hindered in anyway from the high standards it already has. It's true that ChatRooms can be home to unpleasent and illegal activities but on the other hand, I trust this sites web administrators and moderators to deal with that.

One thing about IRC, it can be abused to a greater degree by a number of let's say unpleasent characters.

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Post by AndrewTaylor » Tue Jan 03, 2006 10:49 pm

It's almost impossible to moderate a chatroom effectively, because you need someone online all the time to do it.

Edit: Personally, I don't like website attached chatrooms, because I always feel like I'll miss out on things simply by being online at the wrong times.

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Post by worMatty » Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:11 am

I have lots of community experience and advice.

The idea to launch a chat room, like Dan said, usually pops up somewhere down the line but it's born out of thin air with no real reason behind it. If you want it to be used properly you should have scheduled chats as well as inviting Dream regulars to idle there whilst online, so the chance to strike up a random conversation is there. Chat in a room is more dense, short-term and doesn't fill up a bulletin board database with unnecessary spam, which is an advantage if you want to syphon some of that off. A bulletin board is there for your long-term sparse stuff worth archiving and space is precious.

I would like the idea of a Dream IRC room because I imagine it would probably only be home to nice people like us, and help to strengthen that community, provided it's not advertised heavily, because it might turn out like GamesNet IRC's #worms did (full of junk and abuse). I'd certainly idle there but I like IRC over web-based chat, and it takes a little more brain power to get working so helps to filter out trolls. mIRC can be set up to load automatically when Windows does and connect to a room whilst remaining minimised to the system tray, and some of us may even use IRC bouncers to maintain our presence there when we're not online.

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Post by AndrewTaylor » Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:57 am

I would like an IRC channel because at present I am not on any IRC channels and that means there's a light that isn't shining on my Trillian window.

Can't have that.

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Post by SupSuper » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:44 pm

AndrewTaylor wrote:I would like an IRC channel because at present I am not on any IRC channels and that means there's a light that isn't shining on my Trillian window.

Can't have that.
I just disabled the IRC plugin so I didn't have to look at the unlit light and sped up loading.

And yeah, I prefer IRC too because then each person can use their favorite client, instead of forcing them to use a new client (PHP/Flash chats). For those without one there's loads of IRC java applets.
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Chat Room (There is a reason)

Post by Jonah » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:57 pm

worMatty wrote:The idea to launch a chat room, like Dan said, usually pops up somewhere down the line but it's born out of thin air with no real reason behind it.
Hi all. I would like to respond to the comment made above. First of all hello worMatty, I see that you are like myself quite new to this forum, welcome. But your point regarding the idea of a chatroom being born "out of thin air" is not entirely true and you admit that yourself in your post. If the chatroom as a purpose and it's run with organisation then indeed it can be a great benefit to a website. One of the purposes behind such a room could be a live chat regarding a todays issues, maybe live debates even. Secondly, it will be a good way for members of the site to communicate (in a live sense) with others. I noticed on the website that a few members managed to meet up thanks to lot's of effort. Not all of us are able to meet up at such gatherings so a chatroom maybe a good substitute.

It maybe wise if the chatroom (that is if we have one) is restricted to Dream 17 members. It may also be important to remember a chatroom in no way should replace a forum. The question is I suppose can they co-exist. I think they can but not all like them. Whatever is decided, I will be happy.

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Post by Jonah » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:59 pm

Of course, a good argument against my argument is that we are communicating well on this subject without the benefit of a chatroom. : :D

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Post by Squirminator2k » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:33 pm

I wonder if a PHPBB plug-in exists to integrate a chatroom, with the same user/pass for the forum, exists...
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Post by Cyclaws » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:36 pm

You could always use a shout box. I have one installed on a forum me and my school friends use. It allows only registered members to post, and of course people who come in late can scroll down to see what everyone is talking about.
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PHBB Forum Chat Plugin

Post by Jonah » Wed Jan 04, 2006 8:52 pm

There is a PHBB Forum chat plugin, I've seen it.

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Re: Chat Room (There is a reason)

Post by worMatty » Thu Jan 05, 2006 12:36 am

Jonah wrote:hello worMatty,
Hey, dude :D
Jonah wrote:I see that you are like myself quite new to this forum, welcome.
I've been nosing about the place for a while but hadn't needed to post anything until the night I registered. Cheers! Welcome to you, an' all!
Jonah wrote:But your point regarding the idea of a chatroom being born "out of thin air" is not entirely true and you admit that yourself in your post. If the chatroom as a purpose and it's run with organisation then indeed it can be a great benefit to a website. One of the purposes behind such a room could be a live chat regarding a todays issues, maybe live debates even. Secondly, it will be a good way for members of the site to communicate (in a live sense) with others.
Yes, those are things a chat room could be used for but Ben came out with the idea and asked us what we thought about it, but he doesn't seem to have done it to address any specific need.
Jonah wrote:It maybe wise if the chatroom (that is if we have one) is restricted to Dream 17 members. It may also be important to remember a chatroom in no way should replace a forum.
I agree with you, there, and what I said about what the two formats are used for in my earlier post backs you up. But I disagree with restricting it to Dream board users only because that would prevent strangers from having a passive nose about. I suggest making it open to all first off and restricting it later if need be.

A shoutbox isn't as real-time as a chat room and it'll cause you more data transfer. The ones I've seen tend to be abused and users who post offensive content aren't automatically kicked or banned by a bot, though chat rooms don't usually have censorship. I should think the majority of Dream users are old enough to be sworn at considering the subject of the site, though, and anyone who doesn't respect others' individual sensitivities should be banished to a black hole. Incorporating a chat room into the board is clever and allows you greater control over who can access it but it has three down sides: 1. Hardened 'net heads like Andrew and I have NEEDS that must be satisfied. 2. Web-based chat refreshes every thirty seconds or so, IRC is immediate. 3. Higher data transfer.

I'd go with using a Java- or Flash-based chat room to connect to an IRC server, satisfying more people and getting rid of all three of the down sides I mentioned. FlashChat, the package Jonah uses and the one Ben linked to in his initial post is available here and only costs $5. If I were after a package I'd go for that one because it's easily-customised, looks and works great and probably works on games consoles.

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Post by SupSuper » Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:09 pm

Ok, I've been looking around, and the best (and only) IRC chat mod for phpBB is "PJIRC (for phpBB) Chat MOD v3.1.2a". For those unfamiliar with PJIRC : http://www.pjirc.com/

Anyways, I'm gonna work on setting it up. In the meantime, we need to pick a server and channel for the chatroom. Suggestions are open.
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Chat

Post by Jonah » Fri Jan 06, 2006 7:57 pm

For what it's worth, Flash chat works via SQL and integrates nicely with PHPBB boards. With the options you have available, the freedom of design and mass of options there are available, I think along with worMatty that Flash Chat may be the best possible option. But it is upto the powers that be of course.

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Post by worMatty » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:53 pm

I like the client Dan suggested. It's basic but clean and simple in Simple and Normal modes. Heavy and JS Support modes aren't worth bothering with IMO, not in this case.

I guess this is left to Ben after Dream staff have done some experimenting. Now you know the public response and the pros and cons.

For an IRC network you might be interested in Undernet or Quakenet. They have good channel access control bots.

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Post by Pooka » Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:34 pm

My mate Forester runs an IRC network on his server, which has all mod cons (quick, easy, and supports modes qaohv).
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Chat Room

Post by Jonah » Sat Jan 07, 2006 10:00 pm

Well the chat room is up and to be fair it's good. Let's try and use it now for valuable stuff, organise discussions etc.
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Re: Chat Room

Post by SupSuper » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:13 am

Jonah wrote:Well the chat room is up and to be fair it's good. Let's try and use it now for valuable stuff, organise discussions etc.
Actually the mod is up, but we still don't have an official channel, so I'd prefer to do that first before announcing it.

So, which server will we use? Quakenet, Undernet, Pooka's Friendnet :P or some other?

Also, maybe Ben should set it up. After all he's the Dream17 admin, it'd make more sense if he was the channel creator.
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