A new Chatroom ?

**StatesideScouser** · #1 27-10-2009, 09:34 PM

I know I'm not on as much during match times these days, but the few times I have the chatroom has become more and more integral. This is great but the chatroom app right now to me seems too limited. FSi members like Stenelly and others who work ridiculously hard finding links are having to constantly repeat themselves with "no streams for team x" etc for every new person that joins. Surely we can find an app that at least has an editable "welcome" message that can post this kind of information (I know it kind of has a "Title" that you can edit, but it's not prominent enough)... granted people will still ask, but it may reduce the redundancy.
I've been away from the irc type stuff for a bit, but I'll take a look myself and see if there's any good javascript ones, or flash or whatever. What would you prefer on the server Admins ?
and in general what do you think ?

**revolver** · #2 27-10-2009, 11:40 PM

One of the main reasons the chat room is so good is because its hosted elsewhere, so that when match days get clogged up on the forums you can hit the chat room. Letting another company handle the load is preferable

**StatesideScouser** · #3 28-10-2009, 10:25 AM

Does that restrict the type of chatroom available Revolver ? Or the styling of the chat window etc ? Cause my other issue with the chatroom is the chat window itself is tiny, five lines of chat and its already out of view... ok maybe not 5 lines, but you kno what I mean.

Anyway, if it's server space we need, I have loads, and I'd be glad to host a chatroom for FSi if that would help.

**bazzer** · #4 28-10-2009, 11:11 AM

I can understand what you are saying stateside ,last night was a headache for stenelly ,several times last night stenelly posted the only links available were man.u and the whu games ,it was in clear white writing about 3-4 times in a row , members need to trust the guys ,if links are available they post them , use the slide bar to view previous requests for links , if the games are not being broadcast ,there is no link it's not rocket science ,the guys work hard getting us links they want to watch the games to ,just trust the guys , have a look at live streams and feedback or the chatroom, thats to all members,no malice intended

**revolver** · #5 28-10-2009, 11:22 AM

Yeah, maybe having a dedicated page with confirmed working links as well as the chat could be a good idea. I don't know what other chat rooms services are available out there - its not my scene these days.

I'd like to see a ban on "guests" cos you don't know who or what you're talking to - last night was 90% Guests.

I would definitely welcome and more user friendly chatroom (and where you have dedicated mods, as we dont have any in FSi2), perhaps even with a login to avoid anonymous people and some kind of shoutbox/bulletin on the page to display known, working links as a quick reference - as i think alot of the problem stems from people not being able to get onto the Feedback page and actually seeing any links

**StatesideScouser** · #6 28-10-2009, 11:37 AM

well to be honest I hate to be one who just asks for changes and not do anything about it, so I'm researching chatrooms now. On my server I'm running php with mysql, couple of cms sites, wordpress and joomla and can obviously host any kind of javascript, java or flash based chatroom apps. I'll try and set something up soon and post it in here for testing purposes. I have a great package from my host that is severely underused, so I'm happy to dedicate bandwidth etc to the FSi cause.
If anyone has suggestions on apps they like, let me know and I'll be glad to set them up and test them. Anything to help make this great site just that much greater

And of course if the Admins here want me to forget about the idea, I can do that too

**stenelly** · #7 28-10-2009, 02:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbazzer

I can understand what you are saying stateside ,last night was a headache for stenelly ,several times last night stenelly posted the only links available were man.u and the whu games ,it was in clear white writing about 3-4 times in a row , members need to trust the guys ,if links are available they post them , use the slide bar to view previous requests for links , if the games are not being broadcast ,there is no link it's not rocket science ,the guys work hard getting us links they want to watch the games to ,just trust the guys , have a look at live streams and feedback or the chatroom, thats to all members,no malice intended

the problem with the chat room is, when you log on, you don't see any of the previous text.that is the reason i was posting as soon as a new guest logged on to preempt the question "have you a link for".last night was the exception to the norm, on Carling cup nights its always the same only one or two streams. the majority of people are now used to streams for nearly every match, and have come to expect links. last night this was not helped with a spammer telling everyone he had links at a price. i knew this was a load of bull. but as i didn't have moderator rights in the chat room, i was unable to kick him off the chat.all i was able to do was tell people his site was full of spam, viruses,and Trojans.yes i did check his site,and it was dodgy as hell.i hope as stated previously by stateside we get something sorted, and quickly.we need to utilize a good chat room with moderators,sorting out any problems that might occur.you all noticed i was trying to moderate on my own because of circumstances out of the sites control. i was the only mod available, this is a one off an very unusual.all i can say was i did my best and thanks all for noticing how much time and effort i have given to the site.

**bazzer** · #8 28-10-2009, 03:15 PM

stenelly can you pass this post or extracts from it to admin ,stateside idea sounds good ,he is willing to set up and give a trial for chatroom dont know if they have sent him a pm , or if they will sanction it ,maybe some feedback from admin will let stateside know if he is wasting his time or not , good job done last night mate

**stenelly** · #9 28-10-2009, 04:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbazzer

stenelly can you pass this post or extracts from it to admin ,stateside idea sounds good ,he is willing to set up and give a trial for chat room don't know if they have sent him a pm , or if they will sanction it ,maybe some feedback from admin will let stateside know if he is wasting his time or not , good job done last night mate

no need to pass on to admin as believe it or not, admin actually read the forums.i know everyone knows they only come out at night and sleep in a coffin.I'm positive admin will be over the moon with statesides offer they will be in touch by pm to stateside direct

**bazzer** · #10 28-10-2009, 04:51 PM

cheers stenelly , i'v no doubt admin work just as hard as the mods , we are just wanting some of the load took of yous on matchdays

**stenelly** · #11 28-10-2009, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by berbazzer

cheers stenelly , i'v no doubt admin work just as hard as the mods , we are just wanting some of the load took of yous on matchdays

thanks berb [hope the admin read this] see you in chatroom later no doubt

**StatesideScouser** · #12 28-10-2009, 06:07 PM

Thought you might be interested Stenelly

Well as far as I've got is a good free open source Ajax app :

https://blueimp.net/ajax/

It looks pretty powerful, nice and customizable so it can rock the FSi stylee... it is possible to integrate it with vBulletin which means it can use the same user/pass etc (obviously the admins will know that - not sure about whether hosting on another server would make a difference there tho. My limited web development knowledge would say no, assuming it can get into the database with Admin user/pass).

Take a look, as it's well documented too

**Sharky** · #13 28-10-2009, 06:14 PM

Aye. I've added that on my darts site.

Problem (I think) is going to be that to integrate it with vbulletin it'll have to be on the same server as the forum....and that's the one which goes down under the weight of traffic...despite being by far the best and most expensive.

**StatesideScouser** · #14 28-10-2009, 06:41 PM

well that was my initial thought, but wouldn't the website and the database be on two different servers ? the site itself goes down, not the database right ?

**Sharky** · #15 28-10-2009, 06:48 PM

I think you'd have to integrate it (ajax) with the forum. The links page (and chatroom) is on a different server. I don't know if it's possible....You'll have to wait from a reply from those crazy admin sorts who know more than me. Some say they have only ever seen the sun once and after 1 minute exposure turned bright red.

**stenelly** · #16 28-10-2009, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StatesideScouser

Thought you might be interested Stenelly

Well as far as I've got is a good free open source Ajax app :

https://blueimp.net/ajax/

It looks pretty powerful, nice and customizable so it can rock the FSi stylee... it is possible to integrate it with vBulletin which means it can use the same user/pass etc (obviously the admins will know that - not sure about whether hosting on another server would make a difference there tho. My limited web development knowledge would say no, assuming it can get into the database with Admin user/pass).

Take a look, as it's well documented too

thanks ss lets hope those crazy admin sorts can sort out the server issues

**StatesideScouser** · #17 28-10-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sharky

I think you'd have to integrate it (ajax) with the forum. The links page (and chatroom) is on a different server.

yeh, I think that's gonna be the problem. It must be the database that goes down, in which case integration would be a waste of time... however, this can be built on it's own database, we'd just have to sign up/in that's all, no big deal really... I'll set it up on my server to play around with it, I should get to know more about Ajax anyway

**StatesideScouser** · #18 05-11-2009, 02:35 PM

ok lads. So I've put together this Ajax Chat on my server and modded it just a bit. There is still some work to do, but the general feel of the chat is there. I would love some feedback from you lot as to it's ease of use etc etc.

As far as the look goes, I nicked FSi's banner and modified it... this of course can change if the mods here are not happy with anything.

Right now no one is set up as a Moderator... I will be working on a sign-up page with a valid email address necessary to confirm sign-ups to make people Users. As of right now it will need me as an Admin to make those that sign up into a Moderator, otherwise they will stay a standard User.
I will be PMing those that I reckon should be Mods already soon about a jump on this.

At the moment Guests are allowed to come in and chat. I think we could talk about whether they have the right to chat or not - I think Guests shouldn't, if you want in on this chat, you should have to sign up as a User.

I will also be working on a Moderator only page where the Welcome Message can be modified to reflect the games streamed that day etc.

There is a few other things that can happen too... like keyword triggers that will auto answer the redundant questions asked : Any streams for X etc etc. This I'm initially having problems getting to work, but hopefully I can get that solved at some point.

Anyway, if you want to have a look, the chat is here:

you can just hit "login" to come in as a guest. But change your nickname when you are in

. To do that type "/nick" then a space, then your nicname.

Anyway, as I said before, if this doesn't seem appropriate to the FSi Mods that is fine by me, I'm having fun learning a bit about this anyway. But I do think it could be a nice improvement to what we have here for a chat already.

We can also lock the chat down so it's only operational during busy game times which is a cool option...

**deadlywill** · #19 05-11-2009, 04:51 PM

had a bit of a play looks good mate well done

**bazzer** · #20 05-11-2009, 06:40 PM

ye agree with deadly , you've worked well there stateside good job