Integrated Chat

[Bo]

If Brennor's RPG Corner had chat integrated into its main interface, would this be something the community would consider valuable and something it would use? We have the IRC now - either in a stand alone client or opening in a browser window - but it would be easier to access if it was right there on your screen as you were navigating the site.

I, for one, like chat because I can show dice rolls there, talk about OOC issues in games, and I think it helps an online community grow closer.

Thoughts?

[Brennor]

Bo is specifically referring to making the IRC #rpg channel available somewhere directly on the website, as opposed to the second window that is currently necessary.

One of the suggestions that has currently come up would be to replace the shoutbox with an IRC feed.

Any other suggestions for this?

[Vardaen]

Some folks can't get on chat things, from work, etc. Myself included. Im not no so sure its a great idea.

[Brennor]

If it were a replacement of the Shoutbox, to the outside world it wouldn't appear any differently than it does now, just have more participants in it (because all the IRC stuff would be echoed there).

[Vardaen]

That mightnot be bad, assuming people can actually get on the chat, and aren't being blocked or otherwise limited by ports, connection, and proxy stuff. I believe, and I'm not certain, that a few people can simply not connect to the chat, but can still use the shout.

[Hayabusa]

Well, do we really want the outside world to read some of the things Tet's said in the IRC. I'm not even going there anymore due to things I heard and witnessed...

Anyway, I think it's a nice idea, but it might become tedious to scroll around through a lot more message in the tiny shoutbox.

[Vardaen]

I would suggest not removing the Shout Box, just because. If its is its own modual, then people can close it out to ignore it, or to make it more work friendly.

[Brennor]

IRC would remain as it always is... it's own thing that needs a client to connect to on a specific port. If it was going to be a Shoutblock replacement, IRC messages (20 or 25 max) would be stored in the DB by a piece of software, which the Shoutblock would read and display. The connection of Shoutblock and IRC would be through the DB itself. Shouting in the shoutblock would also get carried through to the IRC if this merge were to happen too.

Shoutblock currently displays 20 messages, I think, though it stores all of them and lets you access them that way. I wouldn't keep all of the IRC history in the same manner, which would remove some of the concern about what has been said in IRC.

Messages wouldn't be stored infinitely, otherwise we'd run out of disk space eventually!

I'm not sure whether the IRC messages are longer than shoutblock messages in general or not, so not sure how it'd compare to the length of current shoutblock messages.

[Bitom]

My take: the shoutbox is mostly used here as an instant form of communcation with people who can't or won't be on chat: "Hey, Trog, you forgot about my +5 to donkey-kicking!" or for sharing things we think are funny: "Woo, I'm drunk today!"

the first example would be benefited by linking shout and IRC (Essentially, everyone gets to be on IRC, in a way that will trick anyone trying to prevent their employees from doing so.

The second would not be hindered.

Functionally, the shout block would work the same as always, only refreshing when you re-load the page, etc. It would just show the current IRC conversation, and allow people who can't be on the chat to participate, albeit more slowly. it would also, as Bren says. make the site seem more active to new people checking it out.

I wouldn't want to have both a shout and a shout-> IRC. I don't see the point. Why would we shout something to everyone on the site, but not want the people on the IRC, who are site members, to see it there?


some technical considerations:
Shoutbox currently shows 20 posts, shoutbox history stores all of them ever. I think we'd have to limit the history somewhat, but it could be fairly large without having a major affect on space, maybe the last 200 or 500 or something like that.

There would have to be some screening from the IRC-> shout side: we wouldn't want system messages (Connect/disconnect/notice change) or rolls to come through.

[TetNak]

You will have to have a bigger buffer to the shoutbox. If I want to see what was said 5 minutes ago, if someone is being chatty, I might miss it.