Temp Chatbox

Well, the whole premise of this is that it's temporary. Currently there are around 6 of us on skype, and it's pretty dead most of the day for me (im in UK, everyone else is in USA), but we still have fun having a good ol' chat! It's worth joining for now I think.

 

My problem is that I just forget about it. I never have Skype up and by the time I realize that I see that nobody is on haha.

 

Skype is the devil.

 

You seem to have quite the love for it. One of my issues with it is that it seems to take over your computer when you install it.

 

Steam or go home.

 

Shoutbox integrated in forum "or go home", lol

Not everyone wants to be forced to install Skype, Steam, social media or whatever to do things. A forum is for discussion so therefore any Chat that isn't on the site is not part of the forum so therefore academic to the interest of the site. IMO.

 

Nobody is forcing anyone to install anything, its just a temporary solution until the shoutbox comes back.

 

There is one, but not at the moment because of security with Xenforo.

 

Sure, understand.

I have used the Chat here on occasions as others do, hopefully the security issue will be resolved at some point so it will be back again. Chat isn't a reason to use a site however it does add value to one and helps with a community spirit, so positive.

 

Is the security issue related to the problems with bandwidth usage that ASSEMbler posted about?

 

No idea however one thing I know about Chat (which isn't much) is if Chat is using the site/server then it will be a major resource issue. Facilities like Ajax access the Chat data logs held for every member that is online, every 2 seconds. So, if let's say the log file is 20k in size, 40 people logged onto the site, that would be 1.6mb a second; which equates to 138Gb a day, 768Gb a week bandwidth. (my maths is right, yes?)

I have had a few websites over the last years, one I started about 6 years ago, unlimited bandwidth. I put Ajax Chat on, worked nicely. Within 3 days my site was put onto suspension by the Host due to bandwidth. I asked why, which is why I know. Had to remove it from the site to get the website re-enabled again!

Hence, choose a Chat which is not using your bandwidth. Chatroll (which I previously suggested) gives a plan depending on how many use it, zero load on the site as it's all on theirs. I got that in writing from them at the time. If you use their free limit of 10 on at a time in Chat, you could take the shoutbox off the site, put in a "Chat" tab, then those who want to chat have their own area. No impersonation either with usernames, who you speak to is who you think you are speaking to.

Just sayin'

 

We just don't really know how long this will last. Whenever the site went down over the summer, none of us thought it would take a month the way it did. Not to fault anybody, just saying you never really know how long it will take for something to get fully up and running.

 

None of the moderators know either. I guess the only real way of knowing is asking one of the admins.
An IRC channel wouldn't be bad, I use it for another forum. Usually chats have the same handful of people usually though, just like the shoutbox did.

 

This, we have a Steam group where everyone can easily enter the chatroom.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/assemblergames

Btw I've just added you and @Jackhead as moderators there.

 

Might want to add Borman too.

 

Done!

 

Can you use steam on your phone? Nope! Hence why I didn't choose it

 

With the power of F5, this thread could become a chatroom.

 

Isn't the only difference really between a chatroom and a forum the speed of replies and only being in one place? Not thought about it before but kinda makes sense! lol

 

For a lot of us this isn't an issue, though. I barely ever get on the site on mobile. I think that would apply to most members here. I don't want to speak for anybody, but Steam not being on mobile doesn't make a difference to me.

Either way, I'll log onto the Steam chat tonight. It's usually empty so we can revive it.