ARM chatroom

[Saori]

Yay, thank you for your hard work, wizzard! ' u '

It really helps to have a shortcut to everything. Even the link to the wiki's there! How handy > u <

[wizzardx]

Thanks, and I'm glad that you like it

[wizzardx]

There was a problem recently on the chatroom (while our regular chatroom mods were offline, yay timezones), so we thought it would be good to add some new chatroom mods (aka sysops/admins), to be able to help out if it happens again.

Here are the new chatroom mods:

• calidynd
• Chaude
• ilutiern

(They're also on this list).

Thanks for accepting the position

Basically, they'll be able to kick people off the chatroom, or ban them, if they cause a lot of trouble, rather than the other chatters being forced to tolerate it, or leave the chatroom themselves.

[ilutiern]

Mm, I'm not sure if it's just Opera or if it's the chatroom, but somehow the images are all mixed up.

Spoiler:  [ Open ]

It's... very strange, to say the least "orz

[Utsuho Lazy]

Mm, I'm not sure if it's just Opera or if it's the chatroom, but somehow the images are all mixed up.

Probably just Opera, I'm using Google Chrome without any problem

[ilutiern]

Mm, I'm not sure if it's just Opera or if it's the chatroom, but somehow the images are all mixed up.

Probably just Opera, I'm using Google Chrome without any problem

Hmm, the chat looks fine now, so I guess Opera was just acting silly that day

[wizzardx]

Good to hear it's working now

(Also, I just checked with my own copy of Opera, and it seems fine here too).

[b_alasdair]

Something odd just happened. The chatroom crashed, or perhaps my browser crashed (though Firefox is usually pretty stable), and when i re-opened it, ARC was stuck at "Chat loading ... Please wait" If it's just my browser, then I'm sorry for the disturbance, but if others are having this problem too, it might be nice for you guys to know so you can see if there's a bug.

[wizzardx]

Hmm, the chatroom seems fine now (and you were there too, lol), so it was most likely a temporary problem with your browser

Next time, try force-refreshing the chat page with Ctrl+F5, or even clearing out your browser temporary files. One of those should do the trick

[Utsuho Lazy]

This is probably a bit weird of a question, but... Are the RP and RP Chat tabs necessary to be opened every time the chatroom is loaded? As far as I can see, 99% of the time there is absolutely no activity in those two tabs, and many people who visit the chatroom do not have any interest in RPing. Thus, the two tabs are rather redundant. Is it possible that they be made to not appear immediately every time the chatroom is loaded, since anyone who is interested can simply join the two tabs later? Of course, there is nothing wrong with having them there, but still...

[wizzardx]

Yeah, I noticed that myself.

I don't think those tabs are really needed any more. Especially since the ARM chatroom is more active than when it started, people are more familiar with the chatroom commands, and the RP tabs are no longer used nearly as much as they were before, as far as I can tell.

Does anyone want to keep the 2 RP-related tabs?

If not then I'll remove them in a couple of days (though, as Lazy mentioned, you can always re-create those tabs in your browser with the /join command, and use /invite to pull over other chatters).

[wizzardx]

Sorry for the delay (as usual ), but I've made that change now (there is just the ARM chat tab now, not the RP and RP Chat).

You may need to force a reload (Ctrl+F5), or close and open your browser, to continue chatting in the chatroom. If you're still in the old version of the chatroom (before I made this update), it probably won't work correctly, until you do that.

edit:

There was recently some further trouble in the chatroom when our current chatroom sysops were offline, so we've appointed Aelisera as an extra chatroom sysop. Welcome to the chatroom sysops Aelisera .

edit:

If there are regular problems in the chatroom, we might want to give the chatroom ops a place to discuss it (eg: own sub-forum, or add them to the section mods forum). Was just discussing in the chatroom with one of the ops.

[wizzardx]

A quick notice, that I've updated the chatroom software to a slightly newer version.
Please let me know if you see any glitches or problems.

The main effect of the update is that the /deop command should now work correctly
(though, you may need to press F5 to see the shield icon disappear).

(I think it might also remove the ability to do some funky things with the /me command. That was actually a side effect of a security problem in the previous chatroom software version)

tl;dr details are over here.

Spoiler for "teal dear":  [ Open ]

Let me know if there are any glitches (I needed to do a few hacks during the update to preserve our chatroom customizations. The hack where the forum went offline was unintentional though ).

[Calyrica]

If there are regular problems in the chatroom, we might want to give the chatroom ops a place to discuss it (eg: own sub-forum, or add them to the section mods forum). Was just discussing in the chatroom with one of the ops.

I think, regardless of problems, this would be nice to have. That way we're informed of any problems as they arise.

Also, I very much miss the RP and RP Chat tabs, not specifically because of what they were, but because it was a record of joins and quits and name changes. If I didn't know who someone was, I could click over on one of the tabs and find who they were. It's not crucial to have those tabs, but is there another way to see such a thing?

[Nash]

Ditto here. I use them to keep track of name changes too.

[wizzardx]

I think, regardless of problems, this would be nice to have. That way we're informed of any problems as they arise.

I've raised the idea before, but it didn't seem necessary at the time. However, there does seem to be more demand for this now (a few people have mentioned it). I'll check again with the other ARM staff.

Also, I very much miss the RP and RP Chat tabs

There's no easy way to do this without those tabs, that I know of Some possibilities:

1. Disabling chatroom nickname changes
2. Re-adding a tab (maybe called "Log"), for this purpose
3. Modifying phpfreechat in some way. eg:
3.1. Adding an option (when you click on their name in the name list), to show their previous nicknames
3.2. Adding a command (eg: /aka), to print out their previous nicknames when you run the command

(1) Annoying for chatters.

(2) Simplest, but I'm not sure if other ARM members would mind having the extra tab added. If there isn't an objection, I might do this. Lazy is this fine? (since you requested the 2 RP tab removals)

(3) Interesting, but a fair amount of work so I probably won't get around to it unless it's important enough.

[Nash]

/aka sounds fun, if it's not too much trouble.

Even with the old RP tag, once a user quits that tab on their screen, the tab would stop tracking their logs, ja?

[Utsuho Lazy]

Even with the old RP tag, once a user quits that tab on their screen, the tab would stop tracking their logs, ja?

I believe so, since closing a tab means you no longer participate in it, and thus it will stop tracking name changes and joins/quits.

[wizzardx]

Since it seems fine with the staff, I've authorized all the chatroom mods to visit the Platina forum, if they'd like to discuss any chatroom issues

/aka sounds fun, if it's not too much trouble.

Even with the old RP tag, once a user quits that tab on their screen, the tab would stop tracking their logs, ja?

/aka (or similar commands) might actually be a bit of trouble to add

Spoiler for technical stuff:  [ Open ]

I'd need to spend time studying the chatroom internals in more depth, and after that, figure out the Javascript I'd need to add for keeping track of user nick changes, and so on. Probably not too complicated, but it will take a bit of R&D.

I'll try to make time to look into it, but there's a chance I won't get around to it in the near future (like many other things around here ), since it will take a few hours at least to work on, and it isn't urgent.

Most likely, the main way you're going to get the log back in the next few days, is if I add an extra tab ("Log", or something else). It won't be perfect, but neither was RP and RP Chat. Also, besides closing the tabs, people can also leave the chatroom page and re-login, if they want to bypass name change tracking (even with a command like /aka).

[wizzardx]

Okay, finally got around to ^.

Not an actual /aka command, but close enough.

If you want to see the person's previous nicknames, then you can do one of:

1. Use the /whois command, eg:

Code:  [ Select all ]

/whois wizzardx


That will show a bunch of info, including an "aka" line listing previous nicknames (before the chatter used the /nick command).

Alternately:

2. Press F5 (to reload the chat page), and then click the member's name on the right side of the screen. In the popup box you'll see "aka", and a list of the person's previous nicknames.

If you want to clear out the "aka" info, then you need to quit all the rooms (eg: use the /quit command), and then sign in again (eg: press F5 to re-open the default chatroom). Or alternately, use a second browser. The "aka" info should also clear itself if you close the chatroom page, wait a while, and then come back (I think).

edit: I've also put this info in the wiki over here.

Let me know if you have any questions about this change, or if you see some problems.