Bleyd
DISCLAIMER: I know absolutely nothing about Ajax, Java, html, or bbc coding. For all I know, the following suggestions could be completely impossible or incredibly easy to implement. If you are a developer or programmer who knows about this sort of thing, please excuse my total lack of knowledge and leave some feedback on how this could or couldn’t work.
ADDITIONAL WARNING: This page contains very frank discussion about the chat lounge and its flaws, as well as very rough but well thought through ideas on how we can fix them. The ending is unceremoniously abrupt.
All right, let’s get down to it.
Chat lounge needs some serious changes. Too many spammers, too much server advertisement, and not enough mods (along with some other, littler things). All example images are likely too large but can be clicked to view them full sized.
#1: Room selection
When a user clicks to enter the chat lounge, they will be presented with a screen that gives them the option of which room to join, as shown here:
Users would then know for what purpose they were joining a room - regular discussion, server promotion, and other things. In short, the purpose of this is to hopefully stop server advertisers from joining the main lobby at all - if they actually pay attention to where they want to go, this could virtually end the entire problem.
Note that the Pool Party and Feedback rooms are lacking descriptions because, frankly, I have no idea what they are meant to be used for. I never see people in either of these rooms anyway; perhaps they could be defined more clearly or replaced with more useful themes.
#2: Automatic chat scripts
To reiterate, I have no idea how much of this is possible in Ajax.
I’ve been in many chat rooms before that have automatic scripts that detect when a user is spamming or whatnot. Simply put, our chat lounge ought to have the same thing to stop spam, server discussion, overuse of icons, and foul language. Such scripts would present a window to the user these types of messages telling them what they did and how to stop doing it.
Such a script should also have the ability to detect sequences of numbers and letters most often used in server IPs, potentially putting up yet another fence to server advertisers in the lobby. Ideally, it should provide the user in question with the option to immediately relocate to the appropriate place.
#3: Language filter option
A button beside the rest of the options could toggle a filter to obscure offensive language. Regular use of profanity would still be against the rules, but this would give users an option of a censor if they still find it offensive, or if a moderator is not on to keep such behavior in check. If I recall correctly, Cyprezz already has a list of obscenities from the short-lived forum censor. These words would be replaced with an asterisk as per the normal forum censor.
Such a filter ought to have three settings:
Strong: all profane words and variations thereof are censored
Moderate: “mild” language is not censored (hell, damn, etc.)
Off: no words are censored
#4: Possible rework of options interface
This is probably pushing it quite a bit, but right now the options interface is a little messy, unclear, and out of the way. If we were to take all the options and put them into a separate tab alongside the list of members online, they would all be a lot more accessible and easy to use.
And now a few other points that aren’t quite as big or revolutionary, but that I think would make the lounge a bit more fun, easy to use, and hassle-free.
#5: Help room and designated helpers
A while back, there was another type of lounge area available, something along the lines of “Help Room.” Members could go here if they needed assistance with installing mods, using skin making programs, or setting up servers. A lot of people in the chat lobby are asking for help with that sort of thing, so we should bring this room back and use it as an area where people can chat and solve problems together.
Concordantly, should this room return, there would also be certain members who are knowledgeable in those fields who are designated as “helpers.” These users could be notified (in a way similar to a private message) that someone is in the help room seeking assistance in a subject they are experienced with. They could then, at their own convenience, join that room and guide them through whatever process they are having trouble with. It might be stretching the potential of both the chat client and some members’ willingness to contribute, but it sure seems a lot better than saying “google it.”
#6: Profile option from member list
This happens to me a lot, but I’m probably the only one. Say there’s a member in the chat lounge and you want to see their profile. Unless they’ve spoken in the past few minutes, all you can do is open a new tab, go to the members page, look up their name, and select their profile. A much quicker and simpler alternative would be to have a “view profile” option come up under their name that allows you to simply click and get their page in a new tab.
#7: Get rid of rolls
Seriously, what’s the point of the roll feature? I could see how it might come in handy if people want to hold a quick contest, role play, or have a game, but when does that ever happen? Anytime one user rolls, immediately afterward a bunch of other users roll, jumping the bandwagon on a feature they forgot existed. It just causes spam and disruption.
Dats it.
ADDITIONAL WARNING: This page contains very frank discussion about the chat lounge and its flaws, as well as very rough but well thought through ideas on how we can fix them. The ending is unceremoniously abrupt.
All right, let’s get down to it.
Chat lounge needs some serious changes. Too many spammers, too much server advertisement, and not enough mods (along with some other, littler things). All example images are likely too large but can be clicked to view them full sized.
#1: Room selection
When a user clicks to enter the chat lounge, they will be presented with a screen that gives them the option of which room to join, as shown here:
Users would then know for what purpose they were joining a room - regular discussion, server promotion, and other things. In short, the purpose of this is to hopefully stop server advertisers from joining the main lobby at all - if they actually pay attention to where they want to go, this could virtually end the entire problem.
Note that the Pool Party and Feedback rooms are lacking descriptions because, frankly, I have no idea what they are meant to be used for. I never see people in either of these rooms anyway; perhaps they could be defined more clearly or replaced with more useful themes.
#2: Automatic chat scripts
To reiterate, I have no idea how much of this is possible in Ajax.
I’ve been in many chat rooms before that have automatic scripts that detect when a user is spamming or whatnot. Simply put, our chat lounge ought to have the same thing to stop spam, server discussion, overuse of icons, and foul language. Such scripts would present a window to the user these types of messages telling them what they did and how to stop doing it.
Such a script should also have the ability to detect sequences of numbers and letters most often used in server IPs, potentially putting up yet another fence to server advertisers in the lobby. Ideally, it should provide the user in question with the option to immediately relocate to the appropriate place.
#3: Language filter option
A button beside the rest of the options could toggle a filter to obscure offensive language. Regular use of profanity would still be against the rules, but this would give users an option of a censor if they still find it offensive, or if a moderator is not on to keep such behavior in check. If I recall correctly, Cyprezz already has a list of obscenities from the short-lived forum censor. These words would be replaced with an asterisk as per the normal forum censor.
Such a filter ought to have three settings:
Strong: all profane words and variations thereof are censored
Moderate: “mild” language is not censored (hell, damn, etc.)
Off: no words are censored
#4: Possible rework of options interface
This is probably pushing it quite a bit, but right now the options interface is a little messy, unclear, and out of the way. If we were to take all the options and put them into a separate tab alongside the list of members online, they would all be a lot more accessible and easy to use.
And now a few other points that aren’t quite as big or revolutionary, but that I think would make the lounge a bit more fun, easy to use, and hassle-free.
#5: Help room and designated helpers
A while back, there was another type of lounge area available, something along the lines of “Help Room.” Members could go here if they needed assistance with installing mods, using skin making programs, or setting up servers. A lot of people in the chat lobby are asking for help with that sort of thing, so we should bring this room back and use it as an area where people can chat and solve problems together.
Concordantly, should this room return, there would also be certain members who are knowledgeable in those fields who are designated as “helpers.” These users could be notified (in a way similar to a private message) that someone is in the help room seeking assistance in a subject they are experienced with. They could then, at their own convenience, join that room and guide them through whatever process they are having trouble with. It might be stretching the potential of both the chat client and some members’ willingness to contribute, but it sure seems a lot better than saying “google it.”
#6: Profile option from member list
This happens to me a lot, but I’m probably the only one. Say there’s a member in the chat lounge and you want to see their profile. Unless they’ve spoken in the past few minutes, all you can do is open a new tab, go to the members page, look up their name, and select their profile. A much quicker and simpler alternative would be to have a “view profile” option come up under their name that allows you to simply click and get their page in a new tab.
#7: Get rid of rolls
Seriously, what’s the point of the roll feature? I could see how it might come in handy if people want to hold a quick contest, role play, or have a game, but when does that ever happen? Anytime one user rolls, immediately afterward a bunch of other users roll, jumping the bandwagon on a feature they forgot existed. It just causes spam and disruption.
Dats it.
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Updated with an instance of the roll being abused, which happened literally minutes before the post was edited. Yet another reason to do away with a pointless, harmful feature.
Ironically, there was a mod in the chat lounge at the time. Don't you just love when they join and then go afk for hours at a time?
Ironically, there was a mod in the chat lounge at the time. Don't you just love when they join and then go afk for hours at a time?
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I was banned from the chat lounge.
My IP was banned from the chat lounge.
Due to proxy servers the whole city of Sherman was banned from the chat lounge.
My IP was banned from the chat lounge.
Due to proxy servers the whole city of Sherman was banned from the chat lounge.
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k
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Lulz good ideas. Most of it is planned already, Paril and Zaralith are rewriting the chat code.
