Chat room crashing
Here are the facts.
The chat room (which is great) on this forum has crashed for me, and blocked sound for alan d all just today. I logged on to chat after restarting and it crashed.
Here are some initial conclusions:
This is not a big problem. It's probably a problem with the operating system or flash working inside the browser, not a problem that can be fixed by people who moderate this webpage. This is something that adobe willl probably fix.
Here is what I would do:
1. Nothing is the first option, because there is no real problem I see here, but there may be future problems if you keep the chat working the way it is.
2. Change the chat to a different provider, which means use a different program for the chat, also in flash. Java will work a lot better than flash for websites though. I HIGHLY suggest changing chat lang to java or php with auto refresh. It will really speed up the transfer. Flash is much more than you need for this chat room. It's like hitting a fly with a sledgehammer, and it's causing problems because there is no dedicated person to monitor all the bugs with flash. You can do everything you are doing now in the chat and it will look exactly the same with java. With php it won't auto expand but it will even work faster. The simpler the language gets the less bugs (keep it simple stupid KISS). Flash is for browser video games, not a chat room like this, especially when it has compatibility issues.
3. Use a different website or an independent client program for the chat room. This is a lot easier than it sounds. Just pay 3 bucks a month to someone like justhost and they should have some kind of chat room option.
Here is why I can give advice:
I've been working on this for a long time. visit my website and see how fast it loads. the sidebar is totally resizable, and i have a working wow beta as well as downloads direct from the site. I know what i'm talking about with websites and technical issues because I've been doing freelance computer support for almost 5 years now with my new rate, and i'm very good at it. www.lecksite.com (this is not an ad, i'm trying to help)
Whatever you decide i'm all for it. I enjoy the chat even though I have the right to remain silent, sometimes i do not have the ability tho. JK but i do write too often, obviously.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bel-Rand on -
This is a Ning-site, meaning that we do not have very much control over what types of modules they are using for the differenct functions. We basically take whatever Ning gives us, and the chat is one of those things I'm afraid.
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Permalink Reply by Dani F, the troll slayer on -
What Bel said. We use Ning's chat, and we can't make any changes on it. We could stop using Ning's chat and use an external chat client, but we have tried that in the past and it didn't work so well. In the end it was decided (due to the response of the regular chat members) that we'd rather have Ning chat bugs than other issues we had with other chat clients.
We appreciate the suggestions though.
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Permalink Reply by Erlend Aakre on -
Never had any problems with the chat (using Chrome), always run it in full window (having http://community.watchtheguild.com/chat/index/popOutWindow in a tab).
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Permalink Reply by Chris Chandler on -
sorry, i didn't link this forum to auto email my primary email. I may do that soon when i stop checking the forum on a regular basis or when i'm here a while. I don't like a lot of emails and especially unimportant because my main email is my hub. electorite@lecksite.com. Any way to contact me is fine.
so about the chat room. yea i hear what you are talking about, however if you choose a forum in php or java, not flash it will have less bugs. You just haven't found a good host yet. Actually it's not the host, it's the software. I use phpbb forum and they have chat room and im capabilities written in, so i can either program it myself or download some im program. I used to teach flash and even though google chrome 0works with flash now it may not work in the future. Each of the 4 major internet browsers have had their moment to shine. right now because firefox is updating to version 4 a lot of people are having compaitibiltiy problems as they work the bugs out. when google does they may have the same problems.
All in all this seems like an intermittent problem and only for some of the users. I wouldn't have written a post like this if it were just my own problems, even though I really do know what i'm doing with web hosting. I wouldn't worry. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. there is really nothing wrong with the forum. if it crashes it comes back. the only thin i dun like is that you can't see or record the chat history automatically. i have missed links because i went afk for an hour that i wanted to see. this was part of the whole problem with caiti mike and masked. it was due to chat software inabilities to record the chat. I guess i could write up a javascript to record it but that would only work for me and my os that i write it for.
I suggest you can hire a consultent to build you a forum in java, or you test some others. don't change until you've tested it, that's why we beta test stuff. you can even invite people to beta test. i have every os but mac and 7, and i've beta tested and developed software professionally. I wouldn't mind helping, but i'm not writing code for free.
I hope it turns out well, and as always, anyone who wants to talk to me visit my website www.lecksite.com and go to about leck section and click on contact inforomation link, or i have a link to the same exact place buried on my first page. Any way is fine, but the contact page explains everything about contacting me, in a nutshell any way is fine 100% anytime.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Chandler on
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flash is like hitting the chat room as a sledgehammer hits a fly, it's ooverkill. flash is better for video games, and it can even simulate 3d. the simpler the code involved the less bugs, almost every time. there are so many oses and browsers that the geniuses who make them have not made a standard. for everything you do with the chat room it's functioning like a normal chat room. With flash you could actually make the chat room like the sims. I would suggest getting rid of the flash or changing the chat hoster if you can't get a new chat software. I know some hosts offer chat room software included, but if it's not a layman's web hoster (layman web hosters are the premade gui make a website like angelfire and geocities without allowing you to input any code manually) you can add a new chat room software to your current webhosting plan and you won't have to chnage plans. good website host plans allow you to run 2 chat rooms or more, so you could even test a 2nd chat room without losing the current one if your host had that ability. i use justhost for web hosting. you may wanna use something like godaddy. godaddy is a tad slower but when you change the language of the chat room it will balance out. justhost and godaddy are only 3 to 4 bucks american per year, and godaddy has a 15 dollar a month plan that will handle this forum and chat room nicely, it's the unlimited one.
if you want help on this i don't charge for tech support over the phone. if you want me to do it i have a bill i can write up and we agree on the rate beforehand. It's actually not that bad compared to other consultents and agents, but i'll be more expensive than your friends.
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Permalink Reply by Erlend Aakre on
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Well, like Dani and Bel both said, this site relies heavily on Ning, so either Ning has to update it's software, or the guild has to change to another social network software.
"it may not work in the future", that's very speculative and unlikely. Is firefox 4 having flash problems (the flash plugin is made by adobe), or are you referring to general web (html/js) problems?
As tempting as leaving flash (I'm a Java programmer myself), I doubt they will spend money on having a consultant to custom build the site software. Do you have any other suggestions software to run the community site other than Ning? Reviewing alternative solutions, and eventually installing it and migrating the old content would be TONS of work.
Writing a chat room like the one on the guild chat is trivial, so it does not really matter if it's flash/javascript or a java applet. I would like to see a new one from Ning that uses html5/js/ajax, but no idea if/when that will happen.
the chat and forum is integrated with the site, don't think an external chat/forum would be feasible. Just trying out a forum would not require a hosted account, just any server to run the software on. (Godaddy == horrible hosting and dns)
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Permalink Reply by Dani F, the troll slayer on
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The Guild had a phpbb forum before this Ning community, but I don't see it moving back to that any time soon. Here's the thing, Ning has a few bugs sometimes, yes, but it's also easy to moderate and it doesn't take much time, or money. I can not speak for them on this, but as much as we all love this community - and they love it too - hiring a consultant to build another forum or chat is just not a priority.
What exactly are the problems you are having with chat? The fact that you can't record chat history isn't really a problem, the way I see it. It's just an option you don't have. And in all external chats we've tried before this wasn't an option either. If you missed a link or something like that, just ask people to post again, that's not a big deal. Another known issue is the lag and sometimes posting double messages. Basically if you write too fast and push enter too fast, it'll double your message. It's annoying, yes, but we all got used to it. You'll get used to it too, I'm sure. Apart from that anyone having issues loading the chat, it's probably compatibility issues, and whoever have those issues can post something on the forum and we'll tell them to update flash.
We appreciate the suggestions but this is just not something that I think it's important for The Guild to spend money on right now. But as I said, I can't speak for them on anything money related, but as the Community Admin, that's my take on it. I'll at least let Edgar know about your suggestiong though.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Chandler on
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um erlend how is that speculative? i haven't needed to work ever. I will be independantly weealthy and i'm working on a way to have everything even without a working government, in anarchy essentially.
as for ning, i did not suggest phpbb. I suggested php custom made. I know you have to change stuff to change the forum but that's why you beta test, you don't jump around trying different chat rooms before fully testing them.
All in all this should not be a hard problem for whoever set all this up. I was really talking to someone who understood how to do this, so if you pass this along to them or relay the message it should help them because it wasn't setup the best way and bugs are getting in the way. Dani does a fine job managing the chat room but i mistook her for a dev also. it seems watch the guild is a bigger organization than i thought. in my pserver i will be the only gm and the only creator, so i made an ass out of you and me, as they say and thought wrong about dani, which created confusion.
dani you do not have to pass this along, i don't really care either way. You can even say you thought of everything i said, and maybe you'll get hired and paid. This won't cost much at all to test, i don't undrestand where you got the money part. But i know time is money and someone who knows how to do what i'm saying costs a lot, so their time is expensive essentially.
dani i didn't realize you didn't have someone (consultent) on staff who knew this. that's fine. you should have a business relationship with someone who set this up, i guess it's edgar, so he can make the decision, thx for passing it along. I don't think erland knows what i'm talking about. the only reason he has a clue is because we chatted about it so much. if you doubt that ask soma. soma understands what i'm talking about.
dani i can listg all the bugs, but i'm not a troubleshooter for you. i do it as a profession for my own business. I'm not eager to list all the bugs. i'm telling you that in addition to al the bugs i noticed there are more that i have not found. just change the forum to a different more basic language or get a better flash forum. It's the platform that needs to be fixed. flash is a mess to troubleshoot problems, even if you did. it's just easier to do a php with 1 second refresh, or a java for this chatroom, trust me. it will really cut down on bugs. DO NOT USE PHPBB. and by the way phpbb does not even have live chat, they use a plugin that was not made by phpbb. I am going to add it so i already researched it. and phpbb is good for me, it's not good for you.
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Permalink Reply by Erlend Aakre on
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It's speculative because it's unfounded guessing about future events.
Good luck on your road to wealthiness in the post apocalyptic future anarchy.
Unfortunately your post is mostly unintelligible, how about listing a few of the bugs at least like Dani requested instead of going on a long rant full of erroneous assumptions about the structure of the guild (This is a fan site, we don't get paid, we cant pay for a custom made system) and non sequiturs?
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Permalink Reply by Dani F, the troll slayer on
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I'm really don't want to go on and on about this but you don't seem to understand that this is a Ning site, or maybe you don't know exactly what Ning does. Maybe you should go and set up a Ning site for yourself to see what you can and can not change, and then you'll understand what I'm saying better. Or just read the FAQ and About on Ning's site, like I linked to you before.
Who set this up originally was Felicia, then Edgar and me are the Admin, but anything that the person who set this up can do, an Admin can do too. Setting up a Ning site is fairly easy (not saying Felicia didn't do a great job though), there is no programing at all. None. It's all done through Ning's interface.
As I said before, we have considered and tried external chats, free chats didn't work that well and there's no reason to pay for a external chat, or pay someone to do it, because the issues with Ning chat are minimal.
About "you should have a business relationship with someone who set this up, i guess it's edgar, so he can make the decision": Felicia set it up. Edgar and I help manage it, as volunteers. Felicia gave both of us the power to make any decision about the community. I only pass the issue for them if it's something that involves the show, not simply the community, and/or if it involves money. For example, when Ning changed from a free service to a paid service, Kim Evey (The Guild's producer) looked into what would be the best Ning plan for this community, asked for our input, and made the decision from that. If me or Edgar felt like it'd be worth hiring someone to build another site/forum/chat, we'd let Felicia and Kim know, and then they'd have the final decision. So, I didn't have to explain all of this, but since you are suggesting "you should have a business relationship with someone who set this up", I felt like clearing that up.
As for "i don't undrestand where you got the money part", you clearly said "hire someone to do it", hiring usually implies paying someone.
And finally, "i can listg all the bugs, but i'm not a troubleshooter for you. i do it as a profession for my own business. I'm not eager to list all the bugs", then I have to ask, what's the point of your post?? If people have issues with the community, they can post here on this forum and we can 1) solve it if it's possible or 2) forward it to Ning if it's something only they can solve it. If you say you have chat issues, which apparently only happens to you because what happens to everyone else is the issues I listed, but you say there's more, but you don't want to tell me what those issues are, there's nothing I can do (or Edgar, or Felicia, for that matter).
Again, we appreciate the suggestions. I can guarantee you that we understood 100% of your suggestions and we'll keep that in mind.
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Permalink Reply by Harriss: CHATKILLER!! on -
Chris.. This is basically a social networking group profile, like you'd find on myspace or facebook. Hence, the user has no really web design capabilities. Pretty much the clearest terms I can put it in.
"The Guild" is a comedy web series about a group of online gamers and how they interact offline and online. www.watchtheguild.com
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