Richard's Animorphs Forum
RAF Section => Suggestions / Feedback & Issues => Topic started by: Sorunome on July 30, 2013, 08:04:41 AM
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Hey, (i think i'm not the first one, but) IMO the chat system RAF currently uses is kinda dead, as it requires another login etc it isn't been a lot and there is barley anybody on.
So, my suggestion is a chat software that eases the chatting, hooking up with SMF and maybe even IRC?
Well, I know this chat system (ok, i am one of the developers of it, but not since too long, only since like 8 months now....) that hooks up to SMF, it has been developed for SMF 1.1.18 and already been portet over to MyBB (by me) so i guess making it for SMF2 wouldn't bee too hard :)
It has tons of features, like multiple channels, hooking up to real irc, topics, operators, userlist, tab-completion of usernames, a ton of options etc.
On the 'main forum' of it the chat is embeded on every site on the top which is pretty useful :D
so yeah, it looks like this:
(http://www.sorunome.de/webdeveloping/omnomirc/omnomirc_2.5.png)
also, it is open source https://github.com/Sorunome/OmnomIRC2 (https://github.com/Sorunome/OmnomIRC2)
I would also volunteer my server to host it :)
Just a suggestion......
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I like it! Chat does need a bit of an overhaul to get more people to use it.
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Yeah, it's rather dead these days, which is sad. It used to be a lot more active, especially during the RAFparties. And I read its interesting history too.
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*nods* Yep. I feel like there are really only three or foil people who ever really use it anymore.
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I'm not sure how a new chat system would help? :huh: ...RAF Chat is dead because no one bothers to use it. What difference would a different chat system make?
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I think RAF chat is partly dead because using it isn't that easy, you have to make a seperate acc for it etc....that chat system integrates itself into SMF (the forum software)
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It doesn't take that much effort to make an account for it. :P And it used to be plenty active, even with needing an account. People just don't use it. We've tried plenty of times to get people to use it more, and it ends up being short lived. People just use other things to chat. :shrug:
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because they already have those 'other things' like skype open and the current chat system requires another open browser tab.....not many ponies have 20 tabs open on a regular basis (like i do)
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I'm kinda inclined to agree with Soz on this. Part of the reason I don't get on RAFchat is because I just don't like taking the energy to log in every time. And, even a little tiny bit of laziness, goes into a vicious cycle, because if one person doesn't use RAFchat then it becomes less active which means that other people won't use it which makes it even less active and then the whole thing just spirals downhill and everybody uses Skype instead.
. . . Which I generally have no problem with. I love Skyping with RAFians. But, it would be nice to also chat with those RAFians who don't have a Skype account.
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Like me.
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^^ Yeah. And the option for chat to be embedded in the forum page itself seems like it would make an absolute world of difference to how many members use it. I know I'm on RAF all the time, but rarely bother logging in to chat, because, like Dino said, logging in a second time seems like a lot of work to reach an empty chat room.
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And when you log into said empty chat room no one will know your on because the (1 online) message is at the bottom of the forum and is easy to forget about.
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Which is why now that chat's more active, I pretty much check it all the time :P
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I added a poll to (hopefully) get some numbers :D
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So, um, so far everypony would want a SMF embedded chat system.....
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Wow, 6 straight votes. We need more people on the poll though.
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/me pokes some admins.
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The problem with a SMF-based chat system is that when the forum goes down so would the chat. The aim was / is, to keep the two systems a part from each other in case one fails.
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In that case it still hooks up to IRC, there could still be a chat link to mibbit.
EDIT: Also, all the time the forum was offline in the past the chat was offlien too, so it would actually be an imporvment due to it hooking also up to real IRC.
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honestly, i'm against an overhaul of the chat. Instead of making an entirely new chat room, simply make it more noticeable (somehow) that there's people in the chat room, or just make the chatroom button slightly bigger or something. Just my 2 cents :P