Resolved Please fix the shoutbox

Hello,
I understand the site was having problems with bandwidth, so the shoutbox was changed to retain a very limited amount of messages before they disappear from the chat. This makes it very difficult with keeping up with conversations, especially when there a few people talking—the chat fills up quick and the messages disappear.

A few of us were collectively coming up with ideas about what we could suggest to fix the problem with the bandwidth and also restoring the shout box to its former glory.

1. Hide the shout box from people who are not logged in.
2. Stop embedding the shout box and make it accessible only by clicking on a different page.
3. Keep it embedded but make it collapsable.
4. Offload BW to an IRC server (FamilyGuy may need to elaborate more on this)
5. Add more lines in the chat than there are now to a more reasonable amount.

If anyone else has any other suggestions about fixing the shoutbox while keeping bandwidth in mind, please chyme in here.

Also, I just wanted to say that I know I'm a newer member here and I don't want to come off like I'm stepping on anyones toes. I really love the site and the friends I've made here and just want the chat to be more efficient. Thanks !

 

Being honest, I have no idea why Assembler left the chat public in the first place.

Taigachat uses Ajax/Json/MySQL which means every person who loads the page sends multiple requests to it. On my site which has it only for members I had 42561 requests sent to my server using about 22mb of bandwidth in a month, but here at Assembler it has around 2000 requests every few minutes, This is alot. But hiding it to guests would improve server loading time and reduce the load.

Even if you change tab in browser and leave Assembler open it'll still send requests, Think of that with the traffic here, Assembler gets around 1000 visitors an hour. That's 1000 people who might leave a tab open to lurk or forget to close.

As for limiting the amount of messages showing it won't help as the same amount of requests are still being sent no matter what. this increases load again on the server.

I wish Assembler would take my advice, I have 4 websites running XenForo, 3 of those run TaigaChat, 1 uses Siropu Chat so I do have a clue what to do. Along with being able to help with the theme issues to which I sent a pm almost 2 days ago and have had no response.

I understand Assembler is a busy guy but you can't just leave these things.

I told him about the exploit in the shoutbox and it was just turned offline, I'm not sure if Assembler knows but the files are still on server meaning it could still be exploited, It should have been upgraded as soon as possible. There was 3 patches that week meaning I had to do it myself 9 times it isn't that hard, Backup then overwrite files and import the .xml file, It only takes around 5 minutes for the actual upgrade on the shoutbox to run.

@ASSEMbler @assembler_EX I know you may not know me and I do understand trust but I would never do anything to harm the site, If I had bad intentions I could have used that exploit but I wouldn't so I let you know before knowledge of it was fully public.

As I said in my PM's please feel free to message me, Even if it's just a question I'll do my best to help with any issues you might have with XenForo/etc.

 

Is it possible to embed an IRC channel in place of the shoutbox? I know there's webclients for channels like SlashNET.

 

Yes with a few XenForo conditionals and the XenForo pages an IRC page can be intergrated, Depending on the service it might be an iframe or better yet something we could add custom CSS to making it fit with the styles Assembler has currently.

EDIT: Found this, https://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenhabla-irc.100/ I haven't got a clue if it will work in the latest XenForo though.

 

I think it'd be worth it to simply hide the shoutbox to unregistered users, and put back more lines of text and maybe avatars. How it is now is unpractical, with only 8 lines of text. Unregistered users don't have to see the chatbox, and this way the traffic it generates will be reduced a LOT.

It's also probably the easiest solution to implement for @assembler_EX and @retro.

 

Irc is the best answer IMO.

 

guests cant post in chat anyway, why should they see it?

 

Well it's now Sunday and i've still yet to get a reply. Guess it's time I give up helping, A reply goes a long way. I didn't put the effort into typing the pm's/messages here for nothing lol.

 

You have been here longer than me, you should know messages of help get ignored.

I gave up offering years ago, as was completely ignored and things were never fixed.

 

Lol, I haven't really been active here since the site was converted to XenForo, But I agree nothing much seems to be done which is a real shame. The site can be more and be better. By tweaking some settings it can also save Assembler money but who am I to know what it costs.. Having 30+ domains, 5 VPS's and a dedicated server along with helping out multiple other sites. Including running a webmaster forum.

2/3 PM's I've ever sent have been ignored, The only one I got a reply to was when I reported the shoutbox exploit.

 

Only people you can get a reply from that can actually act is ASSEMbler, or retro. If it was me, you would've most likely had a solution in 12hrs or less.

 

Sorry Demon, been super busy with deadlines and stuff - haven't even been on the site I've been that busy. Meant to update you, fell asleep before I could... and wanted to have a time that we can both spend however long doing whatever, like before I'll PM you.

 

That reply wasn't aimed at you I had sent Assembler 3 also but only 1 was replied to. Understand you're busy also so not an issue, I've sent you some private contact info via PM.

Thanks

 

Well, this is a forum, not a lifeline. I know people would like to get a reply quickly, but it's not a life or death situation here.

Personally, I say dump it. Too much trouble and goes against the idea of a forum in the first place. If not, definitely go with the separate page idea above.

 

That is true, The issue was I've offered support to the owner, Assembler. Yet 2 out of the 3 messages have gone unreplied to. I took the effort to type it least you would expect is a thank you or a simple response. The only message that got responded to was about the shoutbox exploit, Instead of patching it was disabled.. It might be disabled on site but the PHP files remain on the server and you can still load them if you know where they are meaning you can still exploit the issues.

The shoutbox was offline for over a week, It's a simple 5 minute job. Uploading files, Clicking install, Waiting for the installer to run and bam.

Like I said, I get Assembler might be busy but you cannot neglect a websites security in this day and age. You see it over the news daily.. "X & Y company in databreach"

If a simple PM can't be responded to and a simple fix uploading then how in the hell can a site be managed ? The upgrade took Assembler over 6 hours, On any large site that would take around an hour tops on decent hardware.

I offered help, I got nothing from Assembler other then a simple thank you about an exploit and that it had been disabled, Now it's back broken and the issue with bandwidth still has not been fixed.

It gets rather frustrating when you make effort to help and don't even get a reply back. If it wasn't for @retro I wouldn't even be bothering to type this and would have just gone back into lurking like I have done since I joined here.

After all, I do have my own sites to manage.

 

I sometimes don't even get replies from ASSEMbler, he's a busy man - there's other things he's discussed with staff which does affect how active he is on here. Sometimes he only has a chance to make a post once every 3 days maybe a week.
Making assumptions that he doesn't care isn't it. Don't take it personally.

 

I understand this, But in most cases even a simple pretyped message would go a long way. I would rather that then nothing, It's not like I was even asking Assembler to do anything, I was offering him tip's and my time at no cost to better the forum just like you and all the staff do here. And I wasn't asking for staff or anything also as I have too many sites to manage as it is.

There's things I suggested that take 30 seconds to change like the shoutbox issues, A simple 30 second fix at the max.

Hopefully Retro has some time this weekend though and we'll get cracking on fixing the Blue theme etc.

 

Well you or I are not him, so I wouldn't know the exact details. The best you can do is offer (which you've done) and wait.

 

Why don't you simply hide it for guests? I'm pretty sure that'd fix the problem fast and easy. Maybe even free resources to put more lines...