Chat Program

JonPurpleHaze

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Pinball Nirvana has a long history of Chat Programs, we used to have a few different programs over the years and even had a trained Mibs bot and others that sort of behaved...

I recently saw a post that convinced me that a ShoutBox wasn't going to be ok for real time chat, I installed the new Chat Program on May 18th and have been attempting to test and configure it since then. Registered Users can now be able to use the chat, you can see the link in the upper Navigation Tab, here's a direct link:

There are a lot of options available to Users, they can join or create rooms, insert youtube links, embed Media and upload images into the chat. There's a new option while creating a thread that also can create a chat room, going to do this with this thread.

It also has many chat room link options, there are separate settings while in a chat room for Users, like changing your text color. Also experimented with a Admin. option for creating a room that should only be displayed if the User has a specified User Language activated in the forums.

@wild has been added as a Tester and Moderator for the Chat, Thank You! :clap:
 
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Nice! I'll be there if, when and where someone asks.
 
Nice! I'll be there if, when and where someone asks.
I'll ask. :) Would you mind dropping in if the number is green?

We need people to try things out and give some feedback. Even if nobody else is in there, you can still test out most features.

I did a pretty long test-drive the other day with Jon and gave my feedback. Now I'd be interested to see what others think. Also, as someone pretty low energy with achy wrists due to my health issue, I don't expect to be in the chat very often. So this is a job for you more energetic folks!
 
Thanks, Jon ... I'll try to do my best if I can.

Ike,I am testing, I just tried also the private chat room and it works great
 
I'll ask. :) Would you mind dropping in if the number is green?

We need people to try things out and give some feedback. Even if nobody else is in there, you can still test out most features.

I did a pretty long test-drive the other day with Jon and gave my feedback. Now I'd be interested to see what others think. Also, as someone pretty low energy with achy wrists due to my health issue, I don't expect to be in the chat very often. So this is a job for you more energetic folks!

So sorry, I've been busy with SSD and all kinds of other things. Give me a day and time if you want otherwise tell me what you want me to check. I'll be more than happy to help you guys out.
 
So sorry, I've been busy with SSD and all kinds of other things. Give me a day and time if you want otherwise tell me what you want me to check. I'll be more than happy to help you guys out.
No probs. It's hard for me to schedule a certain time, so again, I'd recommend just being opportunistic. If someone's already in there, you can get a sense of how an active chat works. If someone's not, you can just look at the listed features and play around with them. Choose a custom text color. Check out the settings and notifications. Roll a die. Paste in some media. Etc. Have fun.

Bonus pts if you've used chatrooms in the past, because then you'll have prior experiences and expectations to compare with.

Glad to hear you're working on the SSD stuff!
 
Might have found a bug:

Earlier, in order to test something, I logged in to chat with another browser (Edge) and a service acct ("Not Registered"). Then, instead of logging out of chat formally, I simply closed Edge.

Problem is-- in terms of the user tally in chat, that user acct didn't disappear. There was nobody actually in any of the chat sub-rooms, but the user tally at the top of the page kept showing "1."

I tried horsing around with this or that, but the only way I could find to solve the issue was to fire up Edge again and formally log that test acct out of chat.

Guess this might only be an anomaly, or something that the chat add-on will solve itself with time. It's worth keeping an eye on though IMO.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, I suspect that the same function that auto-marks a user inactive in the chat room will probably take care of this potential issue.
 
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Also, I'm getting pretty tired of looking at the top of the page and seeing "0 chatters" in red, and getting mentally fooled in to thinking that there's new content. See, because PM's and alerts both use a similar orangey-red color.

Not sure if that's clear, but currently, looking across the site's top menu line, new content shows up green in one area and red across two other areas. That's confusing IMO. So my proposal is simply to get the colors consistent when it comes to new stuff.

I'm thinking 'no new material' could stay a light blue color, and "new material" could be indicated by red, green or whatever.

Assuming that's clear-- any preferences on the alert color, people...?
 
Sounds like a few second update issue on the page that is needed. I've seen this on chatrooms all over the place.
 
Okay, started by changing the badge color (local-background color) for zero chatters from the original red to one of the site's common blue colors (71,167,235). I expect to make more small tweaks in that area in the coming days.

Feel free to comment, of course.

@JonPurpleHaze,
I've recorded the original red color, plus there's also a "revert" button in the admin panel. Let me know if you have any advice / comment.
 
Okay, just noticed that there's indeed an indication for when a room is PW-locked. Example attached. Maybe that was there from the beginning and I simply missed it. Great; that answers that.

Also just confirmed that (even as an admin) I'm not allowed to stroll in to a PW-protected room without having the PW. Perfect.

@wild,
Just tried jumping in to a PW-protected room via hotlink from a registered acct, and I wasn't allowed. Tried the same thing without being logged in and got a similar result.

So, all seems well with that. AFAIK there is no 'chatroom leak' with PW-protected rooms.
 

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  • chatroom.PW-locked room.jpg
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Interesting and it works. Pretty neat. I'll be in the chatroom at 7PM SUNDAY for anyone that wants to talk. Nice job Ike!
 
Interesting and it works. Pretty neat. I'll be in the chatroom at 7PM SUNDAY for anyone that wants to talk. Nice job Ike!
Thank you, and also credit to "siropu" (chatroom creator), Jon and Paulo (wild) for the install and testing.

Not sure if I'll be around at 7PM Sunday, but if so, will join!
 
Maybe we should all decide to have a specific time and or date and meet in chat now and then? Let's see how many we can get on board with this. I always frequent the AV3 Chat at Big Bang Bar that Rascal had put up but I could jump over here just as easily. Let me know.
 
Maybe we should all decide to have a specific time and or date and meet in chat now and then? Let's see how many we can get on board with this. I always frequent the AV3 Chat at Big Bang Bar that Rascal had put up but I could jump over here just as easily. Let me know.
BigBangBar chat is still going?

There used to be one Bob and others would regularly frequent, but I'm way out of the loop.

As described earlier, my present incarnation prefers messages and posts to chat, but it would be good to know what the VP scene's working chat rooms are.
 
Sorry I missed everyone. I was out with a friend and got caught up redrawing the last of one of my next tables. I will do my best to be in chat sometime this week between 7 and 8 pm during the week. If you wish to talk just keep an eye open to see if I'm there. Once again, my apologies.
 
Sounds good, and I wasn't around last night, anyway.

Again, I think it helps to be opportunistic. If you happen to visit the site while someone else is in chat, I say go for it!

There's also the fact that most of the functionality can be tested without needing another person in chat. So you can do it anytime you like. Like Jon was saying, there's a metric tonne of settings for this particular chat room, and trying to tune it effectively for our needs is the biggest concern, here.
 
@Ike Savage @druadic @JonPurpleHaze

Sorry for the delay, but I have not followed your comments, busy somewhere else.

I did some tests, with some friends in chat, a few days ago, but few people are available,and I understand that not everyone loves chat...but the chat, in my opinion, is faster and less demanding than private messages if you have to ask for something on a specific topic

I am available when I am online, for other tests, I know something about the chat, if you have questions, or do some other tests together,just tell me,I can help gladly .....thanks
 
@Ike Savage
I noticed that in PW, he asks me for the password, excellent....I noticed the padlock

could you confirm if you try to enter table and bam "chat", it also asks you for the password? you noticed the padlock too?
 
@Ike Savage
I noticed that in PW, he asks me for the password, excellent....I noticed the padlock

could you confirm if you try to enter table and bam "chat", it also asks you for the password? you noticed the padlock too?
Yes, I tried going in to your BAM chat.

I was asked for the password, which I didn't know.

And ME, a site administrator! :(
 
Still playing around with the "active chatters" indicator. I'm thinking the current light gold-orange color looks pretty good against the site's standard blues colors.

I'm also thinking no changes are probably needed to the colors of the PM and alert indicators, after all.

No feedback on this so far, so I guess it's me just heading wherever the breeze takes me. :)
 
@Ike Savage
I hope you won't hate me if I say this .....I preferred it green, :eek:

if it were possible to send an acoustic signal, or any sound, to call, whoever you would like in the chat
 
Okay, so it looks like if an acct has no activity for something like ~20 minutes, it gets logged out of chat. That's good to know.

@Ike Savage
I hope you won't hate me if I say this .....I preferred it green, :eek:

if it were possible to send an acoustic signal, or any sound, to call, whoever you would like in the chat
No no, feedback is good. I happen to like this current color, but I can try some different green ones again.

I thought acoustic signals were automatically added, but I don't hear them right now for some reason.
 
I don't really like the new colors, think they should be reverted.
Green means GO and think it's international, not a lot of Users will see other red markers in the header and if they do, they will figure out that red for the chat means nobody is chatting. Just think it makes the chat stand out a little.

I'll try to research about sounds if somebody is invited to the chat.
:color:
 
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