A chat function

H

Hawk

Well-Known Member
#1
#1
Yo.

Got a request to implement some sort of chat function here at TFF.

Personally, I prefer MSN for that sort of thing, but what the hey.

Anyways, here's one little thing to try out and see how it works.

Click here to try out TFF with chat enabled.

The beauty of this way of doing it, is that it's only enabled for those who want to use it and thus doesn't slow down the connection without a reason for those that aren't interested in it at all.
 
R

runestar

Well-Known Member
#2
#2
This is not exactly the chat function I had in mind...
The idea is that it is built into the website, possibly either at the top or bottom of the site, not an additional window that ends up blocking the TFF site...
For an idea of what I am trying to refer to, look to this site for inspiration.
http://bzfanfictionstudio.spreebb.com/

It seemed to work quite well over there, which is why I was contemplating the viability of porting it over here.

I concur that MSN or other chat engines might be much more effective/efficient. The idea was that completely unknown people could just pop in and rant about anything under the sun. This can be useful especially if they just wish to crap about how their day was without the want to start a new thread and possibly cluttering up the boards.

Then again, I am not what you would call an avid user of such chat functions(heck, I only use them once in a blue moon for project discussions. -_- ) So maybe there's something out there I am missing.... :p
 
B

Bluezone777

Active Member
#4
#4
that link is to my board which uses a cbox. you could have it at the bottom or the top if you wanted to.

it doesn't take much more time to load pages and those who use it can enjoy it while those who don't can just ignore it. of course if the admin of the board has no desire to use it then that person should invite someone who does want to use it to take care of it and kick out any troublesome users.

not everyone is a fan of it but thsoe who don't like it have had no problems with loading the forum with it being there so it is a good idea that has worked.

the one you got for TFF doesn't work for me or maybe it is just my connection.
 
B

BlackSun

Well-Known Member
#6
#6
I dont think Hawk can change the code of this board to add a chatbox like runestar sugested. This is hosted by Invision Free, Hawk can only control his own forum, not the code the forum uses.
 
B

Bluezone777

Active Member
#7
#7
Actually you can via board wrappers found in the admin cp. it's a standard feature of any forum including Invisionfree.
 
Z

Zenithos

Well-Known Member
#9
#9
I heard this shoutbox doesn't slow down the load much and is quite easy to implement in any website. It's called cbox

I'm trying to create a website of my own at the moment and I'm struggling a bit, but I'm getting there. :p

Btw, does anyone know any good sites with website-making guides? Thx.
 
Z

Zenithos

Well-Known Member
#11
#11
I don't know any, but what do you want to do with your website.?
Click to expand...
Well....Perhaps I'll tell you when I've finished the site as right now it's next to nothing and I'm having trouble adding features. *shrugs* It would be pointless if I say what exactly and end up not finishing the site.
 
H

Hawk

Well-Known Member
#12
#12
IRC/MSN/ICQ/Yahoo Messenger/Whatever is mucho prefered by me.

Cbox is the alternative to Gabbly Chat. Problem is that cbox shows up even for those that has zero interest in it, which is why I'm reluctant to use it.

Gabbly can be used like that as well, so it shows up on either the top or the bottom of TFF istead of it's own window, but again, then we're back to where everybody has to suffer through it's use.

Cbox is less resource-demanding then Gabbly however, so if I ever decide to inflict a no opt-out permanent chat feature upon the TFF crowd, it'll be cbox instead of Gabbly.
 
H

Hawk

Well-Known Member
#13
#13
As for building a website, just do a search for "Tutorial html website" and you'll be buried in more intel then you ever wanted to have on how to build your own website. :)
 
R

runestar

Well-Known Member
#14
#14
Problem is that cbox shows up even for those that has zero interest in it, which is why I'm reluctant to use it.
Click to expand...
Just curious - is that such a bad thing. My experience tells me that it has a minimal impact on page performance, even for those with dialups. If they are not interested in said feature, simply do not partake in it. I really do not see any negative externalities involved with it... :p
 
Z

Zenithos

Well-Known Member
#15
#15
As for building a website, just do a search for "Tutorial html website" and you'll be buried in more intel then you ever wanted to have on how to build your own website.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Hawk-san. I'll do that.

I really do not see any negative externalities involved with it...?
Click to expand...
As for Cbox, I sort of agree there. There's nothing to lose really. I've seen it used on two other forums and it didn't really affect my dialup, well, not enough to be noticeable.
 
M

Mereo Flere

Well-Known Member
#16
#16
Honestly, I'd prefer if it opened up in a new window, rather than the one you're using. That's not too big of a problem though, since one can do that themselves.

Still, it'll be a while till a lot of people are using it. For now, it will be inactive for a lot of the time. I'll probably be around myself-but I don't see that being much incentive for the rest of you.
 
A

armedlord

Well-Known Member
#17
#17
Actually, the cbox CAN be put into a 'non-auto' open like state and be a clickable link to open it if I recall on a forum that I go to. (Which should be here with basically empty of members coming and going) I believe that it had to require java or something.

As for the Gabbly Chat...I tried it a moment ago...I find it annoying. Load time: took a minute. (DSL/LAN connection) Could have only seen about three 'gabbers' tops (there were four in the chat) and even then, sometimes changes of who's name is visible or not.

DO NOT...reload while the chat is onscreen. The chat reloads along with it, causing the site to load longer. I tried this with mozilla and it practically froze my browser for a few moments. If you use tabs, then use a different tab to reload instead of the one with the chat. (probably the best reason why I'm annoyed)

...I really prefer the cbox compared to this at the moment.
 
D

Dark_Plague

Well-Known Member
#18
#18
The C-Box is rather convenient, in my personal opinion. When placed at the bottom of the page, people who don't want to look at it, won't have to look at it.

And it has minimal affect on page performance. I had dial up for years, and it's never been slowed down for more than a few seconds.
 
V

VoidHawk

Well-Known Member
#19
#19
Dark_Plague said:
The C-Box is rather convenient, in my personal opinion. When placed at the bottom of the page, people who don't want to look at it, won't have to look at it.

And it has minimal affect on page performance. I had dial up for years, and it's never been slowed down for more than a few seconds.
Click to expand...
Hallo Herr DP ^_^

And yes, quite right!

I had Dial Up with a extremelly poor line for years, and I was always able to use the CBpx perfectly well considering the line I had.

Cbox being at the botton? It is something I do not think convenient, as we need to scrool down whenever we load a new page. But that can be choosen by choosing another skin with the CBox in different positions, like the options BZ has. That was a very smart way of doing it, alhough I think most of us kept the CBox up ^_^

And it is a very good way to interact, although we need to have proper respect when using it, nicht wahr? ^_^
 
H

Hawk

Well-Known Member
#20
#20
Wasn't affected on a dial-up?

*blinks*

A smallish forum or was people just really inactive with the cbox?

I'm on one which uses the cbox feature, some 800 members total, though it's rare that more then 30 are online at the same time. But the cbox is quite frequently used by a large amount of those that are online and it's utter *hell* whenever I'm away from the apartment and visit the forum with though a regular old 56k phone modem. Loading times for each page is nearly twice as long with the cbox turned on.

Here there's 1977 members at the moment and considering how common it is to ramble, go off topic and the amount of resident 4chan:ers, I'm guessing a chat will see quite a lot of use. So I'm having quite a hard time imagining that dial-up:ers won't be rather noticably affected.
 
PCHeintz72

PCHeintz72

The Sentient Fanfic Search Engine mk II
#21
#21
Heh... I myself despise on line chat, I *far* prefer a forum to any type of chat.
 
B

BlackSun

Well-Known Member
#22
#22
Are you going to try the cbox, to see if it will cause trouble to dial-up users?
 
J

Jakkun

Well-Known Member
#23
#23
On a webcomic forum, they wrote one. It's being worked for general use. I'm not sure how it will handle a lot of users since it hasn't been an issue. That one is its own page though.
 
M

Mereo Flere

Well-Known Member
#24
#24
Since we have Gabbly right now, the problem is getting people on it at the same time.

One easy method is to just make a thread for it, and just have people post when they're bored and feel like talking in chat. Granted, it will take some waiting on someone's part, but...

Well, for example, I'll be waiting in the chat right now. I'll probably be on for an hour or two, just to see if anyone will show up.
 
Z

Zenithos

Well-Known Member
#25
#25
So I just post a notice here, right?

I'll be on the chat for half an hour or so, if anyone's interested.
 
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