DM CHAT

[cowsmanaut]

Hope you don't mind me posting this Gambit. but I figure I can't make this decision since it affects the community not just me.

Gambit has the chat software now. I went and got us a copy. However, this poses an interesting question:

Gambit Wrote:

As I mentioned on the forum before, if we upgrade I'll lose all the
custom skins and such like and I really don't have the time to create
those all again.

If you just want the flashchat as a standalone thing I can probably do
that quicker but it means people having to register again

so, do we want to lose the skins that gambit made? The others will still work as the default dungeon master is the Chronicles official skin with a few images changed. we also get what other upgrades are added to the new version.. but we would also lose things like the quickreply at the bottom of threads and other things Gambit has changed.. (I think.. that's right isn't it?)

Or, do we want to keep those skins and our changes and just make it a stand alone chat.. this means we would need to create a different login (it could be the same name you use for the forums or different if you like) for use in the Chat software. It's not such a big deal.. you type a name and password.. and only applies to those who will use it.

a poll has been added. so feel free to vote..

[Gambit37]

It's probable that the template files don't actually change much between versions of phpBB. If that's the case we may well be able to continue using the skins -- (same goes for Chronicles).

Quick reply was quite easy to add I recall, just a few edits to some of the core PHP.

To be honest, if I explicity set aside a few hours then it shouldn't be a major hassle. But I certainly don't want have to do a ton of work to get it back to where we were, especially if that all has to be done again when phpBB2.2 comes out which may be around the summer.

Hmm... just had a look at phpBB dev baord and they're talking about ver 3.0 -- guess it's a much more significant update! Betas may be available March or April, but I won't hold my breath.

[Gambit37]

Note that I made ton of minor amendments/improvements to a lot of templates across different skins, many of which I can't even remember! I've still got all my backups obviously but it take time to work out what changed...

[Sera]

it be great to have a dm chat around here, nothing like irc or whatever else thats needed to be installed o.o

[purple1]

Well, couldn't you have the flash chat use the forum login data? Like if you log in to the forum, you can access the chat using the cookie that you get for logging in? I dunno, I don't know anything about web services.

[Gambit37]

Have a look at the thread that brought it up, I already covered that:

http://www.dungeon-master.com/forum/vie ... 8451#48451

We need to upgrade the forum software if we want it integrated

[Gambit37]

OK, it's done! Flashchat is now available as an option from the menu bar at the top of the page.

You can use your same forum login details to get in -- we'll take it from there once a few people have used it for a while and we find out what works and what doesn't...

[cowsmanaut]

Toni found the bug for offsetting the emotes. ending a /me line with a bad character..
example:
/me likes cheese :>

the ">" char will bugger the post and won't send it.. this will offset the emotes from then on.. so try not to do that.

the only fix is to flush the chat room (meaning everyone leaves) this will reset it and when you come back to it.. it's working again.

moo

[Guest]

No one is there, is there going to be like a set time once a month or week when everyone meets?

[beowuuf]

Everyone is in different timezones and so on..I imagine some people will just log in and leave it on, others will join if a forum thread starts...who knows!

For example, I checked it briefly before work to see it working, and Selie and Toni were both logged on *shrug*

[copperman]

chat is groovey, but can its link open as target="_blank" plz i keep forgetting to ctrl click it :S

[Gambit37]

I don't believe in using target="_blank" -- opening new windows should be a user choice not a designer choice. Browsers have forward and back buttons for a reason.

If all sites opened a new window on these kinds of links the web would be become unusable. Oh wait, it already has!

Sorry, I won't do this. It's bad usability etiquette.

[beowuuf]

I guess you get used to not needing it with Firefox too!

[copperman]

indeed.