ARM chatroom

[wizzardx]

Well, I have a few more things planned, but I'll need to do a bit more research when I have time, since I've very rarely done web-based programming in the past ^^;

In the meanwhile, are there any random requests or suggestions for the chatroom?

And for those interested in researching a bit on the kinds of available mods/etc, you can find more information on the phpfreechat website and forum.

update:

Well, here's an idea for how people can have more fun in the chatroom... ava chats!

What you do, is get a faceset from somewhere (eg: toukousphere avas, or ARM game face sets, or generate them with a program, or find them online, or draw your own), and then post them in front of your messages when you chat.

You can be "in character" or not, although "in character" can be more fun.

It's kind of like roleplaying, but very informal. For an example of what I mean, see this post.

I think that people can have a lot of fun this way . And also, it has the side-effect that some of those chats could even be used for ARM Game sketches, later

[Jeth86]

I really don't know where to post this so I'll just put this here. I've been encountering a problem with the ARM chatroom. Basically, everything is messed up, like this:



I don't know if it's because of my Internet browser or what, but it always ends up looking like it and I can't even write a message...

And by the way, I'm the one who signed in as Anon earlier, so apologies if I seem to be randomly going in and out of the chatroom and acting like an ignoramus.

[wizzardx]

I don't know if it's because of my Internet browser or what, but it always ends up looking like it and I can't even write a message...

I'm pretty sure that's your web browser ^^;

The reasons are kind of technical, but basically Internet Explorer can do a lot of strange things compared to other browsers, and often web programmers have to spend a lot of time fixing things just for Internet Explorer. The creators of phpfreechat probably didn't bother because it was too much work to make hacks and work-arounds for a browser with so many weird bugs, even if many people use it.

Anyway, the easiest way for you to fix this, is to use another browser. I'd recommend installing Firefox, but just about any non-Internet Explorer web browser should work fine (eg: Chrome, Opera, Safari, etc)

edit:

Hang on, I think there may be another fix...

edit:

I've added some extra web code to the chatroom, which might in theory help with the IE problem. Could you and other people who have had problems with IE on the chatroom, give IE another try, and let me know if it works/still has problems?

[Jeth86]

I tried with IE again, but there was no change on the interface - it was still messed up. But this time I was able to type something, at least.

[Vermilion Sky]

Looks like you need a java update..or the browser just need updating.

[Niyaya]

I tried with IE again, but there was no change on the interface - it was still messed up. But this time I was able to type something, at least.

What version of IE are you using? (Help->About Internet Explorer)

(Ah, I see... IE 8, at the very least, is totally messed up as you've shown... yeah... )

If you do have IE8, however, you can go to "Tools"->"Compatibility View" while on the chat page and it should fix it. (It did for me.)

[wizzardx]

Thanks for that update, Niyaya

Also, I've created a wiki article for the chatroom, and added a link to the first post:

wiki/index.php?title=ARM_Chatroom

[Utsuho Lazy]

Also, I've created a wiki article for the chatroom, and added a link to the first post:

wiki/index.php?title=ARM_Chatroom

Thank you! This will help me a lot~

[wizzardx]

Glad you like it

And by the way, I discovered a useful command, /invite

The /invite command lets you automatically pull other chatters into a new chatroom, without them having to run the /join command. This can be useful (for instance), if you want to start a private discussion, but don't want to have to explain to each person how to use the /join command.

More information here.

[wizzardx]

By the way, something I should recommend to chatters, is this:

If you have some interesting conversations in the chatroom (maybe even something random), then you should also consider making a related forum topic for further discussion by other people who weren't online at the time.

Example 1: I tend to get involved a lot in canon-related discussions in the chatroom. So I made a new topic for people to discuss them with me (and others) on the forum, for instance when I'm not in the chatroom (and so I have more time to research a few things).

Example 2: The other day we were chatting about the different Teru schools of magic, and people in the chatroom were voting for their favorite Teru school type, just for the fun of it . So one topic I want to make soon, is a "vote for your favorite Teru school", with a poll somewhere, just for fun.

Example 3: You start some random once-off roleplay. There's also the option of posting that roleplay's transcript over into a new topic over in the RP section, and then continuing the random RP over there, if the people you want to RP with aren't online at the chatroom enough. Or possibly starting a RP with the same premise, but possibly a different result to how it went down in the chatroom

The general idea being, that the chatroom is a lot of fun - but conversations there are very temporary. Unless people make backups of the interesting chats, then those chats tend to disappear forever, unless someone remembers to bring it up again later. And also there's the problem that only people who are online in the chatroom at the time get a chance to participate.

So I'm suggesting that we continue (or restart) some of those conversations over in the forum, so they last for longer, and more people can participate

edit: I also added a section about this to the wiki:

wiki/index.php/ARM_Chatroom#Continuing_conversations_in_the_forum

[wizzardx]

Randomly, it looks like people have found a way to use images in your nickname. Although this is technically a bug, and kind of annoying to use in practice:

wiki/index.php/ARM_Chatroom#Hax_for_using_images_in_your_nickname

Perhaps at some point I'll add better support for this kind of thing. Or maybe not, because it is a pretty ugly hack to begin with . But what I have done for now is increase the chatroom nickname length limit from 50 characters to 100, so that you don't need to use tinypic hosting

[Utsuho Lazy]

This is more of a minor problem than anything, but...

In certain rare circumstances, Pomoticons appear in place of proper texts in the chatroom. For example, when I type 9:30AM, it appears as 90AM.

[wizzardx]

This is more of a minor problem than anything, but...

In certain rare circumstances, Pomoticons appear in place of proper texts in the chatroom. For example, when I type 9:30AM, it appears as 90AM.

I think that's because, unlike the forum, the chatroom (phpfreechat) seems to ignore spaces around the emoticons, when deciding whether to insert an image.

So for instance on the forum, ":3:3:3" looks fine, but on the chatroom it will look like " ".

I'm not sure how to fix that, except by changing the chatroom's version of the smiley code from eg, ":3" to "::3:", ie make sure that each smiley has colons on the outside. Or maybe there is a way for me to update the phpfreechat code so it always checks for a space before and after the smiley code.

I think this change (require spaces on the outside for smiley substitution) should be possible, since that part of the phpfreechat code isn't too complicated, and I have edited it before. I'll take a look at it a bit later when I get some time for it .

[Saori]

This isn't really anything major but it might help if we have a link that lead to the chatroom in a more 'visible' place. Like in the bar with FAQ, Members and Logout.

I'm not entirely sure how many members look at the Observatory so there's a possibility of having them uniformed = u =

[wizzardx]

I'll see if there is a way I can add it there (along with other requested changes), when I get some time to work on it
Also, one way that the chatroom is visible outside of Observatory, is the Members and Community section, via the "Funny ARM Chatroom quotes" topic.

[Utsuho Lazy]

This might be really difficult, but is it possible to add a Spoiler button on the chatroom's toolbar, so I don't have to type out the spoiler tags every time? It's a bit inconvenient

[奈落天魔]

This might be really difficult, but is it possible to add a Spoiler button on the chatroom's toolbar, so I don't have to type out the spoiler tags every time? It's a bit inconvenient

I second this. It'll be really helpful for those who didn't know that you could add spoiler tags in the chat too.

[Fayharn]

This might be really difficult, but is it possible to add a Spoiler button on the chatroom's toolbar, so I don't have to type out the spoiler tags every time? It's a bit inconvenient

I second this. It'll be really helpful for those who didn't know that you could add spoiler tags in the chat too.

Me thirded this, many people who visit ARM chat haven't play At3 yet

[wizzardx]

Okay, I'll see if I can add that soon.
Actually, most of the work for me is drawing an image for the "spoiler" button, that doesn't suck.
For reference, here are some of the current buttons:



(I made this one )

Could I ask someone to make an appropriate button image, for the "spoilers" function, and upload it? Otherwise I'll see what I can make a bit later.

Also, I haven't forgotten about the other requests here and in Observatory - I'm just swamped with work, etc at the moment, but will get to them as soon as I can. Small things like members helping with artwork will help me to get it done sooner.

[Utsuho Lazy]

Could I ask someone to make an appropriate button image, for the "spoilers" function, and upload it? Otherwise I'll see what I can make a bit later.

The IMG button looks excellent, so I think you should make a SPOILER (or just SP) button too