Viewing topic: *Experimental* Chat room

I've set up an experimental chatroom (the 'chat' link up there is now live) and I will try to organise a student-teacher chat session soon.

Feel free to go in and experiment - it's very bare (like the forum but that makes it simpler and faster. If you decide you like it, I'll add a few more features to make it more fun!

To enter the chat for the first time, just enter a username and password in the left hand pane and you're in immediately. After that, you can log in again using the same name and password. The dodgy English isn't mine, it belongs to the guy who developed the original script

As usual, comments and criticisims are heartily welcomed.

One problem I can see with the chat is that it would be helpful to know if anyone is online/be able to invite them in. Maybe it would be better if it automatically detected you when you're logged in to the main site?

It's a bit complicated, I think I need to go away with a beer, sit down and think about how to do it!

I have to say that I haven't used chat myself since I was a bored student as I couldn't stand the monosyllabic, acronymical nonsense of teenage chats, so it's GREAT to be able to talk with you guys, and in just a few hours of the system going up I've had some very interesting chats. Jim was right about it all along!

I think a private IM system may well be in order in the near future - just a simple popup window that lets you have a private chat out of the main room without having to leave the page.

Any ideas you have, please let me know. Like I said, until now I haven't been a fan of chat so I'm a bit out of date regarding the features a modern chat has!

I know there is a way to make an HTML link that opens up AIM or some equivilant program to start a chat in.

The slow refresh and not knowing who is on isn't too helpful. Also, I leave and forget its open because there is no way to notify me of new messages.

Yes, I've been looking into letting people put their ICQ# into their profiles, and then having a list of users whose ICQ's are online, or have been online in tha last five minutes (checking with the ICQ server is a bit of a hefty operation, so would need to be timed.)

Also thinking of setting up an internal instant messenger that you could keep open like ICQ when you're online. The chat here is definitely a bit of a one-hit flop

My only worry about putting too many contact details online is that I don't want people getting spammed.

Nobody's using it...

Has anybody noticed weird stuff happening on the esl.visarus site? I'm getting server error pages when sending pm's and when writing in the forum. Weird...