ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I think a great addition to the community would be a chat. Say I make a post and someone else is trying to help me. Instead of me posting 15 times and him posting 15 times which would take over an hour probably we could just click the chat link and be able to do it real time quick and easy. So if I wanted to help someone I could just click there name where they made the post and do a chat on that topic. Once they clicked solved the chat would end or something like that. Anyone else like this idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 http://www.phpfreaks.com/page/irc-live-chat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Yeah I saw that section of the site but I am talking about incorporating a live chat into the site rather than on irc. That way you can just click a chat link and talk to the user via the site on a specific topic. It would make it alot easier and not make you use an irc program. I use this site alot when I am at work and do not wish to install an irc client on my work computer so that is not a feasible option. I just thought it would be a great addition to a great community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 You can use a standalone client or the client already provided for using in a browser: Â One of our users on IRC, zavaboy, has kindly made a browser based client available for people who do not have a standalone client. You can find it here. Â Why reinvent something that already exists? IRC is a perfectly good enough protocol that's been tried and tested for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 I am not sure that you are understanding what I am referring to. Does anyone else have any input on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 As far as I can tell, you are referring to a live chat, which I am saying we already have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 No what I am saying is say I just made a post. Now a user wants to help me. Instead of them posting and waiting for a response from me only to repost again, make a chat link. The user can click the chat link and the original poster can accept their chat invitation. That way they can get it worked out easier in real time. Then you could still make it post what was in the chat in the forum for archiving purposes. the chat that is available now is not for those specific purposes. It is more widely used if that makes any sense Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zq29 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I personally don't like the idea. The good thing about posting in the forums is that the problem is documented so that others that experience a similar problem in the future can find their solution quicker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peranha Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 What he is wanting I dont think is really doable without editing the SMF code, which the admins here dont want to do because when upgrades are done, all the editing is erased. he also said to insert what in put in the chat window in the forum database to be searchable.  [...] Then you could still make it post what was in the chat in the forum for archiving purposes. [...] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Thats why I said at the end of the chat is post the conversation as if it was discussed in the forums. For the exact reason that you posted. Please read the topic before you post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 I find live chat an inferior type of helping. When it's not going on in real-time then you'll have time to research the problem. That's not as easy as when it's on a forum, mailing list, or similar thing. It's also easier to format things and insert large pieces of data such as code snippets. Â Besides, there is no reason why you cannot post chat transcripts from IRC now. The thing is just that people won't bother to to do that. They'll just move on once their issue has been resolved. Â HTTP is far from ideal for live chat purposes as well as it's stateless. Protocols such as IRC or Jabber are better for that purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 My main hangup about the phpfreaks irc channel is that 100 questions being asked at the same time in the same place causes massive confusion. Now in reality, that place is dead, so it's not really an issue, currently. But if it were busy, it would be a very big problem. I think having the ability to be able to open up a unique channel or room, based on individual threads, has some potential. But I do agree that it's not really practical, in a lot of ways. For instance, what Dan mentioned, as far as problems that take awhile to figure out. There's really no point in sitting around forever in a live chat room if people are off somewhere else looking at the problem and not talking.  Interface can be made and embedded inside the thread itself, as a collapsible div, or whatever. Rooms created and destroyed when first person enters, last person leaves. content saved and loaded up, just like thread content. Responses can be made in room or thread.  We're talking about massive work, though. Forum integration all over the place. Admin/mod settings/actions. Whole new pages for managing stuff. Search function integration. Login integration for viewing/posting. Addition to db structure for chat room data storage. Figuring out a system to handle actions that would have adverse effects on chat room content: for example, what happens when topics are merged or split?  Overall, I think that this idea looks good on paper and would make us stand out from the other support boards, but in practice, is not really worth it. At least, not as an individual addition to the community. Maybe if it were made to be very modular, even giving it the ability to be interfaced/installed on other systems, not just smf.  I think that the current irc channel more than serves to answer quick questions. And if you're looking for "live chat," well, you could always post an IM to reach you at, and people can choose to IM you at their discretion... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 Maybe we can make a suggestion in the SMF forums about adding it as an addition to an already great software and someone will add it. Thus saving us the legwork and allowing for a better community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 You can of course suggest whatever you want, but I think that the chances of them implementing it will be rather slim. It's not really the intended function for a forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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