New Chat Site?

[Rhane Nightstar]

Well, when I first logged in, I hated it.
Though I took a moment to look about and it doesn't really seem that bad, aside from having a tiny, tiny interface that should either be made bigger or change depending on the user's resolution.

I think the worst problem is the users not liking the idea of change.

Though what I would like to see would be descriptions, (that aren't in the profile), different colours for posting speech and actions, (like the purple action, blue speech for iChat) and I hate the boards-chat username linkage. It's forced me to sign up again and have to stick a nasty underscore in my name.

Hum.

Aside from that, however, it runs fine on my machine and seems alright. Though being able to be in two rooms at once makes me go a little "???" at times.

 

[Chitara]

Sorry for being stupid tonight but I'm confused. Wouldn't the decision to move rooms mean you're going to take your attention away from who you're talking to by moving? The current command (ichat) to find out how many are rooms does it in the same frame, but it makes the chat scroll and then you have to check whether you missed something. To me having it in the other tab is handier, but that's me.

And I suppose the prob with having the chat automatically change your name is that the name version may already exist. I doubt that's be too common considering us ISRPers have the ability to be creative in our names, not just half a dozen variations on uber_paladin but there will be some cases where its a prob...

- Chitara

 

[Cystuni]

Sorry for being stupid tonight but I'm confused. Wouldn't the decision to move rooms mean you're going to take your attention away from who you're talking to by moving? The current command (ichat) to find out how many are rooms does it in the same frame, but it makes the chat scroll and then you have to check whether you missed something. To me having it in the other tab is handier, but that's me.

- Chitara

everyone knows the exits in ICHAT I never have to look for what room I'm going into, I just go as I;'m sure most of us do. quiz us, we know every exit from which room

 

[Qijdi_Goldwing]

Ok...... Now that chatmace ( intentional sp ) has been inspected, I have comments after the shock - heh - is over.... Much of what I said still stands but was also inspired by said earlier emotion.. So please excuse my almost outrageous and direct reaction, but Thanks to Sun we indeed do not have Java support directly. However, the platform is still supported if an original copy of msjava86 is installed in XP... I found a copy on a Euro site... So there is little excuse as long as the files are hosted. Microsoft is continuing to update installations of this manner and older for now. I know it's a hassle to have to install more than one, but for everyone's info - MS java can still be found for now and still a vital portion of windows funtionally.. Longhorn is supposed to phase it out completely by 2007 so Sun will no longer be able to gripe about their pittiful products not being able to complete when they now have absolute dominance of the chat market execpt for mIRC. Back on track - the Who's Online in a separate popup or within the main frame somewhere and PM windows are most essential for chat fluidity as is a resizable main frame... Squinting is most disgusting and bad for the eyes. Those of us with small monitors like 15" and below have a hard time already. Interface colours are better than SigmaChat and the userlist is less difficult to view and also less distracting in the blue... One thing that must be there is the description editor and viewer... A long standing and depended upon tool. Also... the ability to interface with Cheeta or some other standalone is also recommended. One of the most cherished of features has been the ability to gather scripts of our most enjoyable moments and of important scenes for reference during long storylines...
i.e. Anyone who actually manages to play with Qijdi has to get through many doors and have a long memory to say the least. Some plays can take months and records are invaluable. So... anything else missing?...... Oh yes... What about predefined emotes like the old GUI?... They are not very critical to me personally, but I see people use them frequently. Tabbed favorite rooms or just tabbing the rooms on that particular branch would be nice but possibly confusing to some. It might solve the different exits problem though - or a small sidebar perhaps... I have had my username for 9 years 3 months and 21 days... I would most definitely appreciate and require retention of this name. The current method of registering names is most acceptable and should be continued.


Qij.

 

[Elf_Ariel]

Uhm...this is scary?! I think most of the probs have been stated previously. But *eeps*. Ahh well, we'll all either learn to deal with it, or not. Can we get the help link in the chat window somehow? There may be some people it might help...*tentatively puts up hand*

 

[Qijdi_Goldwing]

Uhm...this is scary?! I think most of the probs have been stated previously. But *eeps*. Ahh well, we'll all either learn to deal with it, or not. Can we get the help link in the chat window somehow? There may be some people it might help...*tentatively puts up hand*

Good idea... The Chatspace has a help icon of sorts but having it open to the natural help page would be much preferred.

Since Juxta is for the chop lets do it in style.. Qij has kept its interstitial alignment on a deep set of layers for many millennia... Those who submit should be allowed to be informed and participate in the event...

 

[WotC_Mel]

Okay, I am back to answer what I can. The open house was intended to add to my "to investigate" list -- and it certainly has done that -- so many items I will be cataloging and "going away" for awhile with. That doesnt mean all issues/compaints raised will be addressed to everyone's satisfaction. It means that if it is a doable change we will do it! but not everything is.

Okay, so with that caveat, here we go:

1> the porting of over 30 screen names and descriptions. give me a way to tie my characters to 1 boards name and tie descriptions to the screen names themsevles, not the board names.

There is no way to tie 30 chat names to one boards name -- it is a one to one relationship. For all intents and purposes, boards log will be chat log in. And there is no way to "dump" ichat names into the existing boards database. I know, becuase I wanted to. But ichat's registration is, from every tech I have discussed this with, a "black box." Info goes in, but it is not exportable by any means. I dont know if later revs of ichat continue with this silly practice. As always, with new chat you can register as many screen names as you want.

2> having to physically log out of one room to join another. I can't be in two places at once, if i wanted to... I'd use another screen name on another bowser

You shouldnt have to, I frequently am double logged in across RPG and ISRP chatspaces. Have you tried it and been unable to?

3> I want a code expert to look over the client and make sign off that it's perfectly safe and secure and no one can hack my PC from ANYTHING or WITH anything involving said program

I don't believe that Wizards would agree to make that kind of promise to individual users. It has been vetted by our technical staff and the do not have any heightened security concerns about the software (as, say, they did with IRC). However, you might be able to discuss specific concerns with the owner of the software Akiva (Akiva.com) under the auspices of looking into what chat software you were considering using.

4>the incredible time it takes to log in... has to be fixed

I agree that it is too laggy to log in. I am trying to see what can be done about it.

5> I'm on XP Pro, I don't have a problem, but for those that do, I want that fixed

I am going to have to get details about what users with problems are experiencing.

6>if you're taking away Ichat which we all love, I want private rooms.

We've actually considered private rooms. In testing I encourntered some issues with them -- namely that someone creating a private room could kick even moderators, which was not okay. So I asked an Akiva dev to look over this and they said they would. depending on how this goes, this may one day be enabled, however it is not a priority.

7>the /go <room name> thing... works great. if we can't have that. I want a window with all the rooms in them that aren't private so I can point and click.

The "Rooms" tab is exactly what this is for. It should show all avialable rooms, their topics (if they have been given one) and the number of screen names there.

8>I didn't see a way to customize my text colors for actions, easier that looking for the little action icon.

The default I believe is to show actions in red.

As an aside, the client came with color options for text and background, though I dont believe it distinguished actions from speech.
However, the buttons were removed becuase the exisiting ichat client does not allow colored text and, in fact, colored text is considered room disruption. On ichat this was set for all areas, however, and now it is possible to change this setting local to ISRP. There has been some discussion about wanting colored text (which I gather is possible from CheetaChat) and I'll take this up with the team to revisit if it is still considered too much a potential disruption (like reading white text on yellow backgrounds).

9> I want a larger chat window, the one on Ichat takes up a sizable portion of my screen, I can see LOTS of info at once.

If you go into your "Chat options" screen, you can click on a button called "Float" at the bottom. This should give you a resizeable chat screen. I know that many people have had issues with the Chat Options screen having text "whited out" and that is right near the top of things I am trying to have addressed by Akiva.

 

[WotC_Mel]

All I can ask really (and except a possible consideration for) is an attempt at some description functionality for the ISRP rooms. The profile screen is too small and will probably be limited to a very small amount of characters.

This is the item I mentioned I'd be getting back to. There are three or so serious disappointments for me in terms of what was promised for the chat before purchase and not delivered. I knew that the description field was inadequate when I saw the test version. I discussed custome work to the code being done to expand it and was told that, yes, that could be done. Well, after purchase when we get down to it, in fact it can not.

I know that descriptions are essential to RP, and thus we need a makedo. My intention is to actually create a roster or a roll (or a better, more flavorful name) for each "main" room on the chat site (CRT, Emporium, TMP) where you may create a entry/post for the character/screen name. That thread would be able to post images as well so you could include portraits along with written descriptions. PLacing the link to that individual post in the "Home Page" field would then allow others viewing your profile to click on the Home Page button and pop open the post in a separate browser.

I have some hope that I canget the names of the fields in the chat changed to better reflect what is going on by using the feilds this way.

The WizOs were actually supposed to bring up this as a solution during open house, but of the few ISRP folks who popped in, not many of them poked around the interface to discuss it.

-Mel

 

[Krystal]

The default I believe is to show actions in red.

As an aside, the client came with color options for text and background, though I dont believe it distinguished actions from speech.
However, the buttons were removed becuase the exisiting ichat client does not allow colored text and, in fact, colored text is considered room disruption. On ichat this was set for all areas, however, and now it is possible to change this setting local to ISRP. There has been some discussion about wanting colored text (which I gather is possible from CheetaChat) and I'll take this up with the team to revisit if it is still considered too much a potential disruption (like reading white text on yellow backgrounds).

I can tell you right now that you indeed CAN change colors, not only in cheetachat, but ichat as well. If you'd like I can take five minutes from my schedule (I'm preparing for a cross-country move and am packing/etc) to take screenshots that will show you so.

For example: When I used to log on via the webpage of the site, I had ichat configured so that all /tells came up green. This set it off from the default pink, which is what was used for actions, so that I'd not miss them. Also, if I so desired, I could change it so that the actions came up orange and speech came up red... and never once when I played with it and chatted did I hear people say that I had changed the colors THEY were seeing. It's because it didn't. It only changed the colors I was seeing.

Cheeta chat is the same way, though if you want, you can click on a little color chip and it will send anything you type in that color (I've accidentally done this once in a while).

As for the user names, yes, you can get everyone's names crossed over, without requiring the users to do so. It's called getting some of your techs to manually take the names registered to ichat and register them for us with default passwords or some such for us. You can have users here say what names from ichat they'd like crossed over, and give an email so that default starting passwords can be emailed rather than set here. And I think you owe it to us, at the VERY least. Many of us have Old names that we don't want others to get...

Here's a scenario... if I hadn't had Krystal as a boards name, someone could register Krystal as a boards name for the new chat, and IMPERSONATE ME on the new chat. Not to mention, now I, a LOYAL CHAT USER AS WELL AS A CUSTOMER have to try to come up with another name, contact EVERYONE I USED TO ROLE PLAY WITH and tell them that the Krystal on the new chat site is infact, NOT ME BUT AN IMPERSONATOR.

You owe us at least that.

 

[WotC_Mel]

I can tell you right now that you indeed CAN change colors, not only in cheetachat, but ichat as well.

I know that you can change the colors for the way you see themn in iChat. I use this fucntion myself. I was referring to sending to the screen color text so that others can see it. It is, technically, considered room disruption and WizOs can warn for it. Since ichat does not have any easy or intuitive way to send colors to the screen (for others to see) this is not really a spam problem for newbies walking around and punching up obnoxious color combinations.

What I didn't know is if CheetaChat allowed to send colors to non-CheetaChat clients.

As for the user names, yes, you can get everyone's names crossed over, without requiring the users to do so. It's called getting some of your techs to manually take the names registered to ichat and register them for us with default passwords or some such for us. You can have users here say what names from ichat they'd like crossed over, and give an email so that default starting passwords can be emailed rather than set here. And I think you owe it to us, at the VERY least. Many of us have Old names that we don't want others to get...

No, we can't. I have asked. That is what I mean by ichat being a "black box" where data goes in but can not be retrieved. Not in a comma or tab delimited file, not as any other kind of raw data.

I completely understand you having old names that you want to keep for yourself. That is in part why I have been asking WizOs to urge current chat users to secure names via the message boards so that they have those names when the switch takes place. I asked WizOS to please bring to my attention any longstanding chat name user who couldnt not register a name that they "own" on the boards so that I could attempt to sort it out. This has already happened with one user and, as it turns out, the boards name was abandoned and it was easy to reassing to the chat user. That offer still stands and I will be glad to investigate any screen name collisions. I can't promise that every collison will resolve satisfactorily, but I will do my best to make sure impersonation scenarios are avoided.