Could you tell us where in the process you are at in creating this? (That looks so grammatically wrong, but I don't care.)
Approximately 70% complete; the client software is complete which was the most time-consuming task as I despise the language it's written in (Java). I'm working on the server at the moment.
Channels are a fundamental design concept so they will certainly be available but can be omitted if desired. As for access to member information, yes, this is available and therefor your meetings could indeed be facilitated. Channel passwords could also be implemented if desired.
In regards to the age restrictions I agree it's quite impractical due the aforementioned circumvention (I'm not sure why this wasn't obvious to me immediately) but more to the point I really do not believe that age is an indicator of maturity; more of an ad hoc generalization. Regardless, a possibility [depending on the precise design] users can be assigned to their age group chat by default while requiring explicit expression to join the "adult" discussion.
I do like the idea, but I wonder how it is best implemented. Should there be a global chat channel or would it be flooded to the point when it becomes unreadable? If not, how should it work? Do you invite people (might be problematic if the chat doesn't follow you when you navigate)? Are there premade channels, like one for cascual talk, one for Diablo talk, etc. Should it be accessible from anywhere on the forum, or only on a specific page? If the former, does it have to reload when you move around (if so, how long does it take, does it increase page load time)? If the latter, it would sort of distract people from the actual threads and be quite inconvenent (i think most people would have a tab open for it).
A general good idea though is to have a fairly short character limit, to prevent text walls.
The current design plan entails a global channel which is accessible to anyone on any forum page (placed under the forum path (e.g, [..] DiabloFans.com > Diablofans General > Off-Topic Forum) and will retain state across reloads (which is, frankly, a pain in the ass to provide on the technical side). The reasoning behind this design choice (as opposed to multiple independent chats) is to avoid situations where users, particularly those who are new, preemptively dismiss usage of the chat due to a lack of visible activity when others are gathered in the non-default.
You bring up a good point about chat congestion and have considered it myself; the only real solution, again, is to segregate the chat and possibly to assign users to home channels in a round-robin fashion. In any instance of a multiple-channel design the capability to join and enumerate a list of available channels will be facilitated.
The load-time overhead associated with using this system (which will be a Java applet) is negligible; the software itself is cached and operates asynchronously within the page and thus will not affect overall rendering time. The applet (of which is fetched by the client) along with the server software will both be hosted by myself to alleviate the burden on the DFans server [as I have unmetered upload and a system uptime of 99.98%, it is of no consequence to me]
P.S., ofcourse another option in the multiple-channel design is to enable the viewing of multiple channels (most likely via tabbed display)
Could you make two chat rooms so us adults can have our own 18+ chat room, allowing freedom of speech and such?
Alright I'll see what I can do.
In what language are you writing it in? as long as its not java i'm fine with it, to be honest if you write in java i might kill myself, everyone using java these days... its too slow.
I've heard drowning is peaceful; unfortuantely it's the only viable method due to server dependencies and the desire to be as least intrusive as possible with the site (the backend is written in C)
A poll is kinda pointless because no one here has a reason to be against a chat system, but I vote yes nonehteless. It's up to the site devs...
There were concerns such a feature may draw attention away from the forums themself.
Sixen and I have been discussing implementing a chat system to enable people on DFans to communicate in real-time while they are on the site to facilitiate a more convenient discussion medium that will hopefully render increased overall site activity.
As the software is being written by me personally you may also suggest features and such.
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The current design plan entails a global channel which is accessible to anyone on any forum page (placed under the forum path (e.g, [..] DiabloFans.com > Diablofans General > Off-Topic Forum) and will retain state across reloads (which is, frankly, a pain in the ass to provide on the technical side). The reasoning behind this design choice (as opposed to multiple independent chats) is to avoid situations where users, particularly those who are new, preemptively dismiss usage of the chat due to a lack of visible activity when others are gathered in the non-default.
You bring up a good point about chat congestion and have considered it myself; the only real solution, again, is to segregate the chat and possibly to assign users to home channels in a round-robin fashion. In any instance of a multiple-channel design the capability to join and enumerate a list of available channels will be facilitated.
The load-time overhead associated with using this system (which will be a Java applet) is negligible; the software itself is cached and operates asynchronously within the page and thus will not affect overall rendering time. The applet (of which is fetched by the client) along with the server software will both be hosted by myself to alleviate the burden on the DFans server [as I have unmetered upload and a system uptime of 99.98%, it is of no consequence to me]
P.S., ofcourse another option in the multiple-channel design is to enable the viewing of multiple channels (most likely via tabbed display)
I've heard drowning is peaceful; unfortuantely it's the only viable method due to server dependencies and the desire to be as least intrusive as possible with the site (the backend is written in C)
There were concerns such a feature may draw attention away from the forums themself.
As the software is being written by me personally you may also suggest features and such.