55 replies to this topic

[dubbyah]

chat box has been disabled? i really enjoyed that feature, i'd like to see it back

[Luke Parrish]

that and put it at the bottom of the screen.

I liked it better at the top... Maybe make it customizable?

[tlm884]

I much prefer it back at the top of the page

[k10]

I prefer it at the top as it is more active that way, but what I would prefer even more is just a separate "chat room" instead of a shoutbox so you aren't bothered by this box every time you visit the forum and have the option to enter the chat room through a link if you really want to use this feature.

[caliban]

Thanks for the feedback.
Regarding the headache - inducing refresh box, you can disable that under under "My Prefs"

An alternative chat now exists at:
http://www.imminst.o...hp?autocom=chat

but there seem to be browser incompatibility issues.
Let me know if you prefer this more sophisticated version.

[Shannon Vyff]

I think that a "live chat" button on top will be sufficient, people can then open the chat and have it in the corner of their screen while doing other work.

[AgeVivo]

I think that a "live chat" button on top will be sufficient, people can then open the chat and have it in the corner of their screen while doing other work.

or instead of having "live chat" displayed, have the last chat entry displayed eg:

Click here for Live Chat: (11:32 PM) AgeVivo I much prefer it back at the top of the page

[brokenportal]

Ive seen no less than 10 requests for it to be put back at the top of the page. The chat in there has been all but dead since moving to the bottom. Progress can happen, many times just about as fast as we can chat about it. Having it at the top is a very valuable tool. The chat that I saw was around 90% about the cause too, which is remarkable. I noticed that the forums seemed to be teeming with good action topics at that time too. Not so much in the last week though it seems.

[Mind]

At the top certainly draws more attention. If it is moved again, I would only request that consideration be given to the sponsor ads, perhaps we can try it with the menu bar, then info box, then sponsor ad, then shout box, then forum topics/posts. Whew! a lot of stuff up there now. Caliban, if you need info about how the ads are inserted (at what point in the code), I can send a message to Kamil. He was the one who set it up.

[Athanasios]

Ive seen no less than 10 requests for it to be put back at the top of the page.

Just make sure you are drawing from the whole pool of ImmInst users, not just comments from chat box users.

Some of the decline in use could also be attributed to the fact that it is less new.

Another option is to have it at the top but by default minimized.

[caliban]

We can discuss the existence and position of a chatbox at the upcoming recorders/management meeting.
Further comments on this issue and other feedback on both the box and the full chat are welcome.

[brokenportal]

Just make sure you are drawing from the whole pool of ImmInst users, not just comments from chat box users.

Some of the decline in use could also be attributed to the fact that it is less new.

Another option is to have it at the top but by default minimized.

I havent seen any major objections to it being at the top, none that stand out from what I can remember anyways. All members are free to comment here in this topic too. There are however many people who are eager for it to be at the top. It also gives us more benefit there. I could be wrong, or I might be missing a point in here someplace, but from what I can see, less good chat about the cause is never a good thing, and from what Ive seen, its almost nothing but good chat in that box, which is now pretty much inactive. The suggestions for other places and ways to place it are good, but I think that where and how it was at the top before is best.

I understand that crowding the top isnt a first choice for where to put it. I dont want to say the top isnt an ideal place for the chat, because I dont think thats quite it, but it is definitely a highly functional place. Besides all the great chat that goes on in there amongst everybody, it engages new members. Engaging new members is one of the best things we can do. Before, engaging them was kind of hard. Out of 10 welcome messages I send to new members, I get about 1 message back. I think dnamechanic was sending some too. If we ask him I'd bet youd get the same kinds of numbers. You see about 1 introduction message every two weeks or so. In the chat box however there are new members who are already making plans to help out. I think this is because of the box. The members Esoparagon and rhodeder, (or some spelling like those,) are two examples, and there is at least one other that I noticed but I cant remember the name. New members like these are going to be coming in in greater numbers over time.

The chat box also helps us to inform people about stuff. Its can be like an interactive front page at times. There are some members that have been here for a while that still dont even know about things like F@H or the Sunday Evening Update. Ive seen a lot of people asking and telling about things like those in there. I recruited a couple of people to fah in there already. People had started discussing projects and joining teams before it was moved. Keeping it at the top will also be crucial in continuing to have a high volume of people to recruit for projects for.

It could go under or over the sponsor ads, which ever works best. Keeping people locked on to that spot will probably also greatly heighten the attention to the sponsor ads.

It could have been a novelty effect, that it was getting traffic then because it was new, like you say Cnorwood. I dont think it was though.

Edited by brokenportal, 07 July 2009 - 04:34 AM.

[brokenportal]

I was looking through the other chat box you made Caliban, and an idea is that it seems like it would work well to put under the shout box chat thats in the forums, "Over fill chat here,for General (Lobby), Action and Supplements." The three you got in there like that seem like a good amount with good names too.

When the forums shout box chat page is at the top, if it goes back to the top, I suspect that it will continue to over fill often as it had been.

[AgeVivo]

just passing by, a few ideas/opinions:

top, bottom, side ?:
- i agree with brokenportal
- it is not too bad currently: a link on the top towards the chat at the bottom
- however having it at the top would help catch the attention and get people more aware of and/involved in projects and better know each other
- the chat could otherwise be on the side. it is indeed possible to display text vertically , ie 90° rotation.

chat/text ?:
Some people mentioned that the chat perturbs their computer. one solution (apart from having them changing parameters) is to display the most recent text of the chat when the page loads, just like any normal text, and to add a button/link towards the real chat

[brokenportal]

I tested out the save preference button to see if you can turn the shout box off for all of the pages all of the time. Well, it works, but now I dont see any option for turning it back on. I searched through controls and everywhere. If somebody knows then please let me know. I feel like I just stepped out the back door of an active indefinity night club into an enclosed alley and the door locked behind me.

[rwac]

Click this, then you will be able to access the shout box and change preferences.

http://www.imminst.o...utocom=shoutbox

[brokenportal]

Wow it worked. Thanks

[caliban]

Turns out, the "meet and greet" box can create major problems. I had to remove it.
If you want to chat, please use
http://www.imminst.o...hp?autocom=chat
(you can tell who is currently chatting from the bottom of the forums)

[brokenportal]

Thats to bad. We will attempt to make due with out it but I sincerely hope a fix can be found. Maybe only those who enable it would have it at the top all the time, I dont know, whatever might fix the problem.

With just the forum, the people looking to engage in action discussion around here can get about 1 to 10 action topics going about 3 or 4 days out of the week.

With the new ustream chat box, and I imagine the other imminst chat box that the shout box was replaced with, we can get about an extra 1 or 2 action conversations going every day of the week.

But with the shout box we can get about 3 to 10 extra, on top of those, action discussions going every day. This is priceless. This is absolutely priceless and essential in the long hard struggle toward world recognition of and support of this cause. With those combined 5 to 22 discussions per day, the potential in the member pool was just getting to the point where we could begin to make a noticable difference by communicating and working on stuff. I think we could have been at a next level by the end of the year. With out the shout box, I dont think we can be. Of course could be wrong, but Im pretty sure about this the way things are currently headed.

[brokenportal]

I feel a suffocating squeeze, driving the blood from the veins of this cause because this chat box is gone. Before that we had the imminst.org/tv chat, but the show has lost all of its momentum, at least lately, and we had to work really hard just to keep that chat box filled with chat about the cause, and ustream now requires people to register to chat.

So, we went from pretty good chat, to pretty great chat, and now nothing. We were recruiting volunteers left and right, informing people, getting them in to the cause, getting them in to the idea of making a difference and things like that.

People respond to active discussion. Thats part of the reason the indefinite life extension topics in the forums die off so often. When people dont know what the odds that their response will ever get read is, if ever, then it makes them much less likely to respond. With chat, we can keep bringing people in until the indefinite life extension chat is alive and rolling all the time. At that time we wouldnt even need a chat, at this time though Im all but convinced that we do.

The other one doesnt work, or doesnt load for me, and I dont even know where it is anymore.

If we can take coding ability out of the shout box, then can we bring it back?

[caliban]

The other one doesnt work, or doesnt load for me,

can you specify what problem you are encountering?

if you just forgot where to find it, its at the bottom of the main forum page.

[brokenportal]

Before, that chat box would show up, but when I tried to type something it just wouldnt work, it wouldnt show what I typed. Now when I click it it shows a message that says I dont have my cookies set right. I cant find cookies. Can you or somebody tell me where to go to change the setting?

With this version, somebody will have to constantly prime the pump to keep people coming in to the chat. We are hard pressed to find anybody with time to do anything the way it is. Im so loath to think we may have to settle on a communication method that we have to put work in to that way, rather than have a hands free open throttle shout box.

[brokenportal]

Anybody who may be reading this, please help me test out the new imminst trial chat by going there now. Ill be in there.

When I type, it doesnt show what I type. It just sends if off in to cyber space instead of the chat room. This may, be because nobody else is in the room. Im not sure.

I, and probably others, have a need, every day, to chat with members to help with tasks. I am constantly looking for helpers and asking them to sign up for skype so I can get their input, get their edit, ask them a question, poll them, try to interest them in a project, get their feedback. This also gets people involved, and shows them theirs action, draws them in more. This creates more active people. Once you start in on something, like volunteering, its much much much easier to keep going, and I find that that happens often times. I need the shoutbox. Its a priceless tool. I harness aptitudes, and feedback, and potentials, and ambitions in there all the time, left and right, and others can, have, and I suspect will be, doing more of the same if we can get it back.

If we cant, then all, please, lets work on this imminst trial chat and see if we can get it working. So far its non front and center spot has rendered it practically non existent.

[brokenportal]

After clicking the minus sign, the reduce sign, and then enlarging it again, past chat has appeared now in the box, but when I type it says Im disconnected, even though I am connected to Imminst here.

[rwac]

The chat was really a lot of fun. I think it would be great to have it back, perhaps with the code ability disabled ?
Is that going to be hard to do ?

The current chat doesn't work at all.
It's hard to get the history to display, and I can't send any message at all.

It really would be nice to have the chat box back on top of the page ...

[brokenportal]

Beyond fun it was useful in helping create progress and volunteering and awareness and stuff like that to the Nth degree.

For example, I work with rwac here in skype most every day. Not everybody is in skype though. If there are a few in the short skype list willing to help out when given the chance and the heads ups and things like that then the shout box is like that except with indefinite of the same potential, and that was demonstrated there when it was here too.

If we can dissable coding in the shout box then please bring it back. Ill be willing to pay upwards of one billion dollars for this.