Chat trial

[admin]

I have installed (attempted!) a chat function into the forum, I am not too sure how well it will work, I am rather hoping it will work without problem but who knows!.

It is easy enough to use, you must be logged in to use it and at the bottom of the main index page is the following:

There are 0 user(s) on chat now [ Click to join chat ]

clicking this should bring up a chat window allowing you to chat to each other in (almost) real time, lets try it for a while to see if it works or how well and we can review if it's worth keeping in a week or two.

Let us know what you think.

[AJC]

Has anyone actually used it yet?

[alison]

Yes The first night Tricia and myself used it. It wasn't brilliant but not too bad. And we have used it again I think with Kaz. It isn't too bad, but it only allows 255 characters (including spaces) before you have to click on send so you need to keep an eye on when you get to the end of the line as it stops any more letters. I just keep an eye on it and when that happens if it is between a word I backspace to the previous word and then send and continue the sentance and send again. Sometimes you get a bit topsyturvy with your chatter putting their sentance inbetween your two lines, but of course if you are a girl you can cope with that.
The other thing to note is that although it says at the bottom 0 people in the chatroom or 1 in the chatroom etc.. it doesn't respond immediately that someone is in. I think the best thing to do if you are just going in and noone knows you are there is to login to it and stay there for a few minutes and hopefully someone will also just check. The other way is if you are already on and know someone else is on the same post and they are already aware of you, you can put in the post "lets go in the chatroom" and that way you can both be there.
Maybe the best thing to do is just give it a try. I know Tricia asked if there could be a bell or something like that that lets you know someone is in the chatroom, but as this was something that was just a freebie it only does what it does, and we can't change it at all.

[AJC]

cant we make a regular chat night then?

[alison]

I don't see why not if that is what people want. Lets see who is interested and go from there.
So anyone reading this please indicate if you would like to have a chat night, what night might be best and at what times would suit you.

[Anyanka]

I'm up for it, but don't have a preferred night (no predictable schedule in this household!). I've tried the chat function before when other people have been on line same time as me, but nobody's joined in might be more successful if we arrange a time.

[AJC]

yep i can play too

some people dont even know its there i think!

[alison]

I suppose it isn't very noticable at the bottom of the screen. I have just been in when I saw Sue was online. I stayed in for a few minutes waiting to see if she came in. She didn't The thing that I noticed though was that no matter how long I was there, the chatroom stayed saying there was no one in there. I think it only updates occasionally and then sometimes when you have already left the chatroom it says that you are in it.
I think the best thing to do is just to go in and see if anyone is there and write a little message if no one is there, to let anyone coming in know that you are online.
We had a threeway conversation last night with Tricia Dave and myself and that was okay.