New Chat (and Temporary Chat) Discussion

[Snoopy76]

Very excited I can get on via I phone!! Really miss my /me!!

Funny log out issue that takes a while to let you log back in with same user name!

Snoopy xx

[DoxysTurtle]

I want to elaborate about chat a little given the comments that I've seen in the room today... We aren't quite ready to launch chat, but felt we had it functioning enough, and stable, so that we could use it to offer as a temporary chat while the current chat system is down. Please bear with things as we get it setup and more fully featured, it may not be pretty, but it's a system that will be considerably more stable. Here's some of the features that will get turned on and made available as time goes on...

• +Milovana Integration: We plan to make it a seemless process like the current chat in terms of login, and having drop down links like the current chat system
  +Room Panel: Provides a list of rooms available to join.
  +Inline Images: When a user posts URL to an image, the image will get rendered directly inside Chat (like the current system, without the uploading, though uploading may be enabled as well)
  +Color: Currently this is using the basic B&W theme that came with chat. It'll get updated to be a bit more colorful
  +Colors: Send and receive colored messages, and colored usernames!
  +Directed Messages: So you can aim who your public comment is directed at
  +Spell Checker: There is a spell checker we can enable to messages if people would like
  +Timeago: Be able to see the time a message was posted previously in a fuzzy amount ie a few seconds, 2 minutes ago, etc...
  +Message Arrival Notification Sound: So you can turn it on for PMs and Main chat, or either or none! (Shout out to Shell and Banquo for the suggestion)

This is the main list of plans (roughly in the order...). I know plenty of people will miss some features or un-thought of things with this chat system, but it should prove to be considerably more stable (Facebook chat used to run on the same back end software...). One feature that doesn't look like it will exist anymore is whispers. That's no to say there aren't other possible features or things that may get added, those are simply those that I know are on a ranked todo list. If there's something people really care about, feel free to comment about it, so we know and can take it under advisement

@Snoopy
Thanks for pointing out the bug Snoopy, I know about it and will be working on getting it resolved. Am glad you're enjoying it on your iPhone. One of the many advantages of this chat system.

The other known bug is there is a tiny second or less of lag when you send a message... It should get taken care of with some tweaking and adjusting of things.

[Banquo]

Good work Turtle :)

So does this mean that the old chat system has finally passed?



*EDIT*
Just tried the new temporary chat system and no offence but it is shockingly bad, people were getting disconnected left right and centre. I dont understand what was wrong with the refugee camp.

The sooner a proper solution is found to this persistent and long running issue the better.

*goes to invest in a carrier pigeon*

Banquo

[DoxysTurtle]

Good work Turtle :)
So does this mean that the old chat system has finally passed? ... I dont understand what was wrong with the refugee camp.

No it doesn't. There is still plenty of setup work to do... We more opened it to give the people a temporary chat that was stable and hosted on Milovana... People were having issues not being able to load the refugee camp, and or a few other issues with it.

This is what the permanent proper solution should be, once it's fully setup. We opened it up to provide a temporary chat while old chat was down, and to stress test the server some

*EDIT*
Just tried the new temporary chat system and no offence but it is shockingly bad, people were getting disconnected left right and centre.

Any clue on a guess at time (and time zone for the guess)? I hadn't heard of that being an issue... But would love to go look at the logs and find the reason for it and fix it. I've seen people join and quit quickly... But not seen/heard anyone with legitimate issue in that regard... I promise to work on it to get it working as a proper, stable solution

[Banquo]

No it doesn't.

Ahh ok, just assumed it was dead seeing as there seems no sign of it coming back online, does anyone know when the old chat will be back up? or when the new chat will be fully working?

There is still plenty of setup work to do... We more opened it to give the people a temporary chat that was stable and hosted on Milovana... People were having issues not being able to load the refugee camp, and or a few other issues with it.

Am I to assume there was some kind of legal issue with the chat being hosted by a third party?
I wasnt aware of anyone having any issues getting into the fugee camp. I spent a fair amount of time in the camp, and I cant remember any stability issues. I had heared of people having trouble locating the link though.

Any clue on a guess at time (and time zone for the guess)? I hadn't heard of that being an issue... But would love to go look at the logs and find the reason for it and fix it. I've seen people join and quit quickly... But not seen/heard anyone with legitimate issue in that regard... I promise to work on it to get it working as a proper, stable solution

As I said in the PM it was around 9pm GMT. But others had told me of severe connectivity issues that had been occuring throughout the day. In fact at the time I was logged into this chat solution there were a number of people with different user names because they had been disconnected from the chat.
I tried logging in again this afternoon, roughly half an hour ago or so, and got disconnected.

Good luck with making some form of chat work again though, and I look forward to coming into a stable and interesting room in the future.

Banquo

[DoxysTurtle]

Ahh ok, just assumed it was dead seeing as there seems no sign of it coming back online, does anyone know when the old chat will be back up? or when the new chat will be fully working?

Unfortunately no one knows about when the old chat will be back up. It's unusual for it having been down as long as it has. As to the new chat fully working, bugs are being patched as fast as they can be tracked down. Part of the issue is some bugs require restarting the chat server / taking it offline, leaving us without chat again, so it's been waiting til the server is relatively empty.

Am I to assume there was some kind of legal issue with the chat being hosted by a third party?
I wasnt aware of anyone having any issues getting into the fugee camp. I spent a fair amount of time in the camp, and I cant remember any stability issues. I had heard of people having trouble locating the link though.

Not that I'm aware of in terms of legal issues, though I know many didn't use it because it wasn't hosted on Milovana, and that there were people like tea, amongst others, who simply couldn't get the chat to load, or when it did, it wouldn't let them change their name or actually post anything. The one plus side to us using this new system right now, is it means I'm finding a lot of the bugs and kinks in the new setup, and getting them straightened out.

As I said in the PM it was around 9pm GMT. But others had told me of severe connectivity issues that had been occuring throughout the day. In fact at the time I was logged into this chat solution there were a number of people with different user names because they had been disconnected from the chat.
I tried logging in again this afternoon, roughly half an hour ago or so, and got disconnected.

Thank you. Hearing about the bugs and having times, makes my digging in the logs and trying to piece together what is happening slightly easier. The issue with having to choose new usernames is known, unfortunately fixing the random disconnects, in turn has left it so some people when they get dc'ed have to choose a new name. I am working on it to get it sorted out.

Good luck with making some form of chat work again though, and I look forward to coming into a stable and interesting room in the future.

Thanks. I appreciate it, and people having patience while I get things sorted out. I was expecting the old chat down for only 2-3 days at most, so was figuring this would have been a short mini stress test, then I would have had time to look through logs and get to bug patching, not quite what it has turned into, as I knew there would be bugs and that it wasn't quite production ready.

[shell]

*reads and stays informed*

[Banquo]

Temp Chat is more and more stable for me Turtle so thanks for that *smiles* One feature I really wish the chat had was a sound when a message arrives, not just a private message, just any message on the chat. When I log into chat, quite often I will be browsing other things at the same time, and checking in on the chat when the little beep comes to signal a message has appeared on the public board.

Understandably there are more pressing issues but I think this is a feature that would help

Banquo

[shell]

One feature I really wish the chat had was a sound when a message arrives, not just a private message, just any message on the chat. When I log into chat, quite often I will be browsing other things at the same time, and checking in on the chat when the little beep comes to signal a message has appeared on the public board.

Agrees with him about this. *Smile*

[DoxysTurtle]

Thank you Shell and Banquo :). I'm going to add this to the todo list. It's hard to tell about missing features and what is/isn't cared about. Obviously bug issues, and a few other things are higher on this list, but I promise to get this on the list and get to implementing it when I can

[plbl]

It seems that the new chat use xmpp. What are the parameters to connect with a classic jabber client?

[DoxysTurtle]

pibl the new chat is in fact xmpp based. We aren't sharing that information at this time, and would request people not try to figure it out and connect that way on their own. We're in the process of finishing integrating the authentication system of our xmpp server with that of the rest of the website. Once that process is finished, we will be opening up chat to allow anyone to connect in that fashion

Please have some patience, and that information will soon be there, for anyone who would like to connect that way

[breathplayslut]

So my question is why does the chat here keep getting fucked up? Orgasmdenial.com uses the exact same software with no problems at all ...

Maybe getting someone on board who has a clue might be a start ... Used to work pretty good when I was here about a year or two ago

[DoxysTurtle]

So my question is why does the chat here keep getting fucked up? Orgasmdenial.com uses the exact same software with no problems at all ...

Thanks for asking. To an extent we wish there was an answer for you. Part of the issue is traceable to the fact that the version of flashchat in use is outdated and seems to have a fair number of bugs, that as flash continues to be updated seem to become more and more of an issue. Upgrading to newer versions would be a considerable expense. Though there isn't a known cause to why the flashchat server keeps crashing, if it was known, there would be someone working on fixing it. I personally can't comment as to orgam denial's chat, stability, or why there seems to be a difference.

Maybe getting someone on board who has a clue might be a start ... Used to work pretty good when I was here about a year or two ago

While I can agree chat was more stable here in that time frame, I can't comment as to why fully. And since this isn't a pay site, getting someone who knows the software well, and is willing to freely donate their time, is a challenge to find. If you know of someone, I'm sure Seraphox isn't against having more reliable help around...

Lastly to address an issue you don't bring up. The current plan is to get our new chat software debugged and open to the public ASAP. I happened to hear that they currently were in search of new software and made a suggestion and ended up getting involved in getting the new software setup and running for the site. I do in fact have experience and know what I'm doing, the larger issue at the moment, is that we opened, the buggy, current setup, so that it could function as a temporary chat room while Milovana's flashchat is down. The unfortunate part to this, is it's delaying my work on chat some, as I can't be constantly rebooting the server, and patching and adjusting things, with so many people on. We average in excess of 8 users at any given point for the temporary chat room while Milovana's flashchat is down.

Here's the good news. It is being worked on and considered a priority to get a stable, working solution up and running. We're actually going to two new pieces of chat software. Our backend server, as someone earlier in this thread asked is now becoming XMPP/Jabber based. This means that once we get the kinks worked out, we should be able to stably host 1000+ users connected to the chat system on a single server without issue. Once we have things configured, this means you'll have more flexibility in how you connect to chat, include from numerous IM clients, but also through the website, which being html/php/javascript based, means you can more easily access it on an iPhone, tablet, or other device. We know there's bugs to be worked out, and if you read above, a LOT of features not enabled in our web client yet, but I hope you can bear with things while the new system gets configured and debugged. We plan to continue to offer it while flashchat is down, and don't yet have an ETA on a transition time or plan, but will announce it to the community once we have more definitive information.

Thanks for bearing with us, and putting up with me, as an unofficial spokesperson for status updates.

Turtle

[breathplayslut]

New Picture (1).jpg (16.31 KiB) Viewed 2455 times

Invalidates your argument about constant updates being the problem. Thats usually the answer I get from subbordinates i work with who scramble for answers, and dont have any.

I can speak to ODs chat being stable, as I've already asked their administrator, Indecisive about it - he has had next to no issues with his implementation.

XMPP/Jabber is the same type of chat that google talk, and facebook uses, isnt it? That seems more like trading a donkey for a mule. Why not just devote some actual effort into fixing what was working in the first place? I remember when chat was gabbly, and after that it was some irc crap. flash may not work on iphone but its a pretty universal standard with a clean look and decent performance overall.