What do you think about that idea?

I would be more intretested in the idea if someone would organise weekly debates on various topics. To have a chat on the site just per se I'm not in favour of since we already have the forum and private messages.

What do you think the chat would be good for?

Nanos joined through the chat. That is just an example.

I'm very much for a live chat system myself, on the basis that it allows rapid development of ideas, a social coherence factor for members, and a place for those interested to ask questions.

I would suggest having the chat archived so useful information could at a later date be extracted by anyone, as often things that are very useful are mentioned in chat and then forgotten about.

Few organisations have live chat, and those that do make little use of it, apart from the FNF who use it a great deal, though sadly they make little use of forums, it would be wise for us not to make the same mistake in the other direction.

We could have it open for non-members.

I have an idea, but am a bit worried about the effect it might have on the performance. We could join in the forum and the chat! In other words, display the chat below the forum on the same page. That way everybody who comes to read the forum would automatically become part of the conversation. Neat, ha? The only problem is how fast the page would load so we need to test it.

EDIT: The chat, as described above, is now installed. Let me know about the performance. Does the forum load completely before the chat? Or does the content wait (probably not, but I have to check)?

Post edited by: lupus664, at: 2007/05/28 19:03

I have to say, its a neat idea having chat as part of the forum, not seen that idea before.

A better chat system would be nice, but its not too bad, the flashing advert though is annoying though..

Perhaps someone with technical skills could write a gabber advert blocker.

Perhaps;

drupal.org/project/chat_gabbly

Nanos wrote:


It's the best chat that I could find to be so easily integrated into the site. I'm actually not sure what ad you're talking about, I don't see anything that flashes. Maybe because I run Firefox with an extensions that's called Adblock Plus so it protects me from most advertisements on the web and you can even add those that it missed. I think that Avant browser also has something like that and probably other browsers as well.

The problem is that the code comes from another site and I can't tamper with it to remove anything such as this ad that you mention. Where is the ad located on the chat?

Match.com or friendfinder. I guess it's because Nanos is not single.

Ok, I've found a way to remove the ad that appears in the text when you join. It has to be replaced with something else so I'll put our logo and title of the org instead of it (currently it targets a non-existant page). The other ad I can't remove, the one in the top right corner. The adblockers with have to take care of that one.

That didn't work well, the chat stopped appearing in Firefox. I'll add a real page instead.

Post edited by: lupus664, at: 2007/05/28 22:59

is this chat responsible for that annoying beep? If so, can we stop it? Thanks.

Yes, you can disable it by clicking on the feet image or the bell image on the bottom left part of the chat. I think that should make it a permanent change - it should remember your IP and that setting so that you don't have to click it every time you come to the forum/chat.

doesn't stay off.

The chat should be voluntary, in a pop-up window which you could click to start.

I think that it's ok as it is. You don't have to participate in the discussion if you don't wish to. I'll try to find a way to turn off the sounds by default so if someone wants them they can turn on.