No Thanks Chatbox?

This is very true. For example, I simply posted a link to this on Voxli when I made it, and in seven minutes there were eight replies. (Don't worry; I didn't coerce people into supporting it or anything. :p)

On babysitting: You may be right here, or members may manage to behave responsibly, and not run amok as soon as Staff are out of the chat. For the most part, people manage to stay happy enough in Voxli.

On the note of moderation, I asked the developer about logging a while ago, and he said that logs were taken, but I'm not sure where they're stored. Members/Staff will be able to access them in later versions. (Again, not sure to what extent.) May be pro-only though. Either way, it'll be good fodder for the (hypothetical) test run, and you may be able to find the logs now if you poke around a bit. (That could be a tad difficult without server access though.)

We're not intending to rush you or imply that it's an automatic-in. We're just excited, and thinking ahead about the best way to do this. Currently, that looks to be via a trial of some kind, as members (me included) have some reserves about how the chat can turn out. After all, I can make arguments and counter arguments for why it'll be a bag of roses all day long, but at the end of the day, I can't predict how it'll turn out with 100% accuracy. It'd be nice to get some idea before committing to anything permanent.

 

Wait a sec, I don't think staff should be checking logs. A screenshot to give them is enough, like they do for private messages. I really dont want anyone sticking his nose in my stuff... really.

 

That's not what he was saying.
People like to have logs of their convos at times, whether for nostalgic purposes or whatever. He was basically saying that if need be, their might be a way to access the logs for people.
I don't think their was a suggestion of viewing the logs for anyone sticking their noses into things. :/

 

In the beggining he said though, "On the note of moderation".

 

Because the staff really doesn't have anything better to do than to just sit around all day looking at logs for a chatroom ._. They'd only use them if something actually happened.

It tends to turn into circle jerking then though, people just agreeing or posting to boast their friends' egos and such. People who never give a damn post just to say they support *insert friend who linked them here* in threads like these, just because it's someone they know. It also tends to make jokes be much more exclusive, like they'll be made in the chatroom and then they will post it on the forum where nobody but the people who were in the chatroom at the time will get it. KHV's inclusive community will take a hit if this goes through I think.

 

I mean that logs are recorded, and the admins could access them in theory. Kinda like PMs. (No, your PMs aren't encrypted or anything. They sit in the database in plaintext, for any admin to read if he or she bothers. There's a nice plugin over at vBulletin to make it even easier for them.)

Presumably though, our staff aren't in the habit of going through others' private conversations, so we should be fine.

Exclusive jokes are nothing new; they've been around in Forum Families, in The Last Person to Post and in Staff, to name a few places. They even arise among fandoms. For example, I've made countless Homestuck references here, as have others. They're just a part of having closer groups of friends.

The circlejerking is an interesting idea. Are people posting here because they genuinely want the chat, or simply because they support me? I'd like to think that while my name adds more credibility to the suggestion than a newbie asking, "why dont you have a shoutbox?" in the end, they're posting for the sake of the chat. It's certainly possible for that to be the case, as although you spend time in Voxli/around me, you're happily disagreeing, as has Makaze.

 

... you're joking right?

 

...You mean you -do- go through others' PMs? o_0

 

Doesn't sound too good to me.

 

Unless you have something to hide it shouldn't be that big of a deal. I understand the whole privacy thing but it is the internet. Not much you can do.

 

Supposing I have something to hide, it would be a big deal for me. Can't really say that I'd be ok knowing that some things could be accessed by other people, especially if the logs were stored just a click away. But it's no biggie since anyone could just not use it to talk about personal stuff.
Regardless, it's new and it's buggy despite the fact that it got updated yesterday. I say wait a while till it's stable.

 

The staff would need to be able to see the logs in order to see that the system was not being abused, spam was nto ahppening, etc. Screenshpots can be photoshopped you know ... we'd need to get our stories straight before acting. PLus, if you have something PRIVATE ou need to discussm then use MSN ... also, it's the lite version only one big chat? With no option to make one-to one or group chats?

 

Not really m8 everything can be altered pms vms even the logs.
also... soz but i couldnt make out some parts of your post.

 

While that is true about the exclusive jokes, people tend to be a bit more inclusive with them while on the board, when it's on a chat it's more "you had to be there to get it!" Y'know? Exclusive jokes aren't that bad as long as you don't spam it every where without telling people what it actually is. lol

Because Makaze and I are like most of the users of Voxli :B After all the discussions we've had you know that I'm not the regular voxli user xD Y'know what I'm talking about *nudgenudge*

 

People abuse the PM system though. How is this any different other than it being...... well quicker.
If anything this would be easier to catch.

 

Lite version only has a single group chat and one-to-one chats. No multiple group chats. That's Pro only.

If there's a way to disable the group chat, it may be best to do so. It seems to be where most of the qualms are coming from, while the one-to-one system is relatively acceptable.

Also, everyone seems to misunderstand the log privacy thing. Not even your PMs are truly 'private'. If Misty, RvR or Tie wanted to, they could access them somehow. From what I gather, other staff can't, and from what I hope, our admins don't. I expect it'd be the same for the logs.

Screenshots -can- be photoshopped. However, it's even easier to manipulate what a PM to you says by using Firebug, yet from what I know*, there haven't been any PM related drama, nor do admins feel the need to regularly look up member PMs.

*(I have little knowledge of going-ons in staff. Am I correct in suggesting that no one has shopped a PM and that the Admins don't trawl through member PMs?)

 

Why photoshop when you can use Java to edit the entire page and make it look 100% legit. Just saying though. It is possible to edit things seamlessly regardless of what we are doing if it is PM's or otherwise.

I do like the idea of individual chats and disabling the group chat function. In my eyes I see nothing wrong with this idea.

 

any news?

 

I asked Misty briefly, and she mentioned that Staff were considering holding off until it's less new, and postponing until the developer has had more time to iron out bugs and glitches.

The first thought to this is "Isn't testing for bugs and glitches the purpose of a trial run?" but there are pros and cons to the approach of waiting.

Pros:

• Developer has time to iron out bugs.
• More likely to be a good trial, and ultimately accepted, if we wait.
• If we fail to wait, the plugin may fail to function correctly, meaning it'll potentially be rejected purely on faulty code that could have been fixed if we had waited.
• More features will be added as time goes on, potentially assuaging some of the concerns raised.
• More likely to have more moderated features in place later, potentially averting drama that would be caused without them.
• There have been problems reported by other users in the vBulletin thread, mostly to do with clashes with other plugins.
• The plugin is updated regularly, unlike AutoPM, so there is a good chance of solutions actually being provided by the developer.

Cons:

• It could very well turn out to be perfectly fine.
• We cannot use the plugin during the waiting period, while we can if we install it now.
• A trial run is intended for testing glitches and the like.
• We can always trial it now AND later, if it is too glitchy at present.
• It could be permanently put on hiatus as a means of avoiding the issue of trialling it.
• Repeatedly postponing a trial run on the basis of the plugin potentially not working is the same thing that happened to AutoPM, and in that case, it was fine.
• It appears to be working well enough on the demo site.

Ideally, I'd want to trial it now, and if it fails to work due to glitches, turn it off and try again later, effectively having two trials. Alternatively, an Admin could look over it briefly now, to see if it works successfully on-site, and decide whether to trial-run it now or later based upon that.

If we do decide to wait, I'd want to have a defined date at which point we return and review the idea again, so as to ward off the possibility of the postponement merely being procrastination, or rejection by another name.

More importantly, what do other members think? Do you want to wait for it to be updated, or do you want to give a trial now? Are my suggestions of a defined date or a dual-trial acceptable?

 

Is it just me or are all the cons bascially just "It might work!!" and "We'll have to wait!!"? Let's see here:

Cons:

• It could very well turn out to be perfectly fine. - Yup
• We cannot use the plugin during the waiting period, while we can if we install it now. - Waiting, check.
• A trial run is intended for testing glitches and the like. - It might work!! and if not then we can tell them about the glitches!!
• We can always trial it now AND later, if it is too glitchy at present. - It might work!! If not then we can try again later!
• It could be permanently put on hiatus as a means of avoiding the issue of trialling it. We'll have to wait, might be for a long time!!
• Repeatedly postponing a trial run on the basis of the plugin potentially not working is the same thing that happened to AutoPM, and in that case, it was fine. - This is more of a comparison than anything tbh, but with AutoPM what happened was "We had to wait!!"
• It appears to be working well enough on the demo site. - It might be working!!

Alright, enough with that. I think we should wait. For one there might be glitches as has been stated, it will also be better when the chatrooms can be more easily moderated, obviously lol and last, but not least, as of right now it's a TERRIBLE chat. I used it on that other forum P linked to... It wasn't very good... Or decent even... Waiting to see if he could improve it seems to be the ideal idea here. Why rush into getting a terrible chat that might have tons of glitches and bugs that will me easier to moderate at a later point in time? Answer me P, answer me!