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Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 1:58 am
by Benjamin
Without knowing how much server capacity is available I don't know if this is feasible or not. I think it would be really cool if we could have some sort of live chat system in place (web-based) on here. I know there is an IRC channel and possibly another offsite chat room of some sort. An on site chat system, even if it was cheesy would be really cool.

I'm sure this will get shot down, but I encourage you to seriously consider this.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:00 am
by matthijs
An interesting idea. Are there specific reasons why you like to have chat software here?

If you compare a chat system with a forum there's many similarities. they mainly differ in the implementation.
- You can post a message
- You and others can respond
- You can see who's online
- You can search and browse through the history

Maybe the "need" for a chat system is because the normal forums are still quite clunky. Load page. Click forum. Wait for forum to load. View threads. Click thread. Wait again. Browse through long pages of posts. 80% of available space is used for miscellaneous stuff, meta data, of the posts and the posters, repeated again and again on the page. So the most important content has little importance/contrast.

Compared to that a chat room is much more focused and simplified. Post message and without reload your message appears. Others' messages appear instantaneous as well. No clutter. Faster, easier to use.

I see a great opportunity here! Take the best of both and combine them in a smart way and you have a killer app.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:42 am
by onion2k
I can think of lots of disadvantages of having one on here, like it'd slow the site down, it'd increase the cost, someone who have to implement it... why not just use an off-site one? What advantage is there having it on this particular server?

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:47 am
by Benjamin
I think it boils down to the fact that hardly anyone uses the offsite chat systems. I may be able to track down some java software that would interface with the IRC room. That way the devnet server would only need to host the html and java file. If there was a prominent link to it people would use it and it would be fun to chat with everyone in real time.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:15 am
by onion2k
I'm on MSN pretty much all the time. Talk to me!

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:08 pm
by RobertGonzalez
I am usually on IM as well, on the MSN, Yahoo and ICQ channels.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:11 pm
by onion2k
Small caveat actually ... talk to me on MSN about stuff that isn't coding or business related. I do not help people with their scripts over MSN before anyone asks.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:16 pm
by RobertGonzalez
onion2k wrote:Small caveat actually ... talk to me on MSN about stuff that isn't coding or business related. I do not help people with their scripts over MSN before anyone asks.
+1 for me as well.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2008 12:15 pm
by pickle
I have a personal IM account that I don't want anyone but people I know to use. I don't think it's wise for everyone to open up their IM. Granted, only a few people would do so, but that is further reason why it's not a valid option.

Hosting any other app on our server wouldn't be a great idea either. As I'm sure we've all noticed, the server isn't handling our current load flawlessly. Adding any other load (a web based chat or a Java app) would only be detrimental to the server performance.

If we have an IRC room, and people want to chat, we should direct them to that - that's what it's for.

Incidentally, what's the room name? I'm not a frequenter of IRC, but now that I remember it, I could probably poke my head in from time to time.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:05 am
by Kieran Huggins
there's an IRC channel??? Maybe we should start one if there isn't. Thoughts?

On a related note, many tech & related people in Toronto (TorCamp, specifically) subscribe to a Skype public chat. That being said, this is a somewhat more technically proficient bunch so IRC would be fairly appropriate.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:20 am
by Chris Corbyn
I used to have my IM details visible here but I removed them over a year ago (maybe 2? Time flies). Basically I was sick of people who just joined the forum and immediately started to IM for help. I even had some people being completely rude to me because they did not get what they wanted from me. It was enough to convince me that having your IM details available to anyone is not a good idea. Now I just get the occassional PM which I usually don't even bother to respond to unless it's about my own software.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:22 am
by Kieran Huggins
I just tried both #phpdn and #devnet on freenode, and #devnet is already taken (something about a morgue...)

I'll hang out in #phpdn for a while and see if anyone jumps in.

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:36 am
by Chris Corbyn
You mean the morgue discussion isn't us? 8O

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 2:45 am
by Kieran Huggins
Couldn't be... we're a pretty verbose bunch, and it was dead in there!

<insert cymbal crash>

that's right, the k-hug is back... and punnier than ever!

Re: Speaking of Chat Software

Posted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 10:19 am
by RobertGonzalez
Kieran Huggins wrote:Couldn't be... we're a pretty verbose bunch, and it was dead in there!

<insert cymbal crash>

that's right, the k-hug is back... and punnier than ever!
Oh man I have missed you. Not in that way. NTTAWWT.