Alacrity -> a virtual dog game | sim of the century

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Revamped Chat

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Crevan and I were talking the other day about needing a better chat system for Alacrity. Currently the chat loads slow, breaks, gets stretched, etc etc. It is a HUGE pain and has a horrible IM system. You aren't able to alert mods or anything else.

Crevan and I suggest using the Mirc chat client. It can be put right into the site but can also be downloaded to your computer so you don't have to be on the site to use it.

Pros:

-Nicknames you can register so no one else may use them
-Colors are still able to be used
-An alert system where you can have certain words make your computer beep. This is handy. By saying 'mod' the moderators sitting in there would all have a beep being heard. Regular users can set this so maybe conversation words beep them like if the topic is on border collies or something.
-A better IMing system that won't freeze up on you or delay
-There will be no lag
-Be able to see IP addresses for mods
-Moderators can easily kick, ban, etc from the room
-Set up certain words that automatically can kick a user off chat if it is used
-Longer chat logs for recording when mods need to
-Ability to clear chat of bad content
-Won't stretch with links. Links will show up as clickable links when posted so users don't need to know HTML for it
-Ability to use it while Alacrity is down
-Applications for phones and ipods to use chat

*There may be more but this is what comes to mind

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Cons:

-It may be a little confusing for those who wish to fully customize their chat client, however, there is a separate help chat room for those needing assistance
-Side chat -may- not be possible. I am unsure of if this would need to leave or if it can be made to fit that space

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There aren't many cons to this as you can see. I think Alacrity seriously needs to upgrade one of the most used features it has =)

03-21-2012 at 1:53 PM

Support! Also it would be easy for mods to just run an IP search if some player was in the chat causing issues since the IRC rooms do post IPs for admin/mods to see. Also I played on games that had IRC rooms and never really had an issued with outside people popping in to troll. Really it just wasn't worth the bother to do so. I'd personally love if someone said mod, help, admin, staff, ect.. to get beeped to check it out. Its a lot more helpful, and lets staff cruise the site for other things that might need to be taken care of. It's a lot more efficient in my opinion.

03-21-2012 at 11:30 AM

Outside people? Anyone can sign up on Ala and post inappropriate stuff as it is. In our current system who knows how long it would be sitting there before a mod saw it? I only say this because there's no way to get their attention unless you know their MSN/AIM names. As I've said, you can easily IP ban people on the chat and delete entries. It's not any different. On the other virtual game I was on that used mirc we hardly had any outside people come in. The only ones that caused issues were actual players on the site, and they were only a matter of time. You say many loopholes but you've only said outside people which is easily remedied by IP banning if they break rules, kicking, or warning. Everything that moderators do and are supposed to do anyways so I don't get the rebuttal to be honest. ;(

03-21-2012 at 11:08 AM

Here's a con for you - ircs are not safe from outside users, which would be people who have not read and agreed to the TOS. How would we know? We wouldn't. Because there would be no user ID attached to the name. Sure, we could say we require one, but really that's a bit of a pain, especially if someone decides to impersonate someone else. The reason most places have an integrated chat system that's only accessible when you're logged in, is to prevent other people from abusing the chat. Sure, you'd maybe have mods react a little quicker, but it'd be more likely that more people would troll, start cursing, harassing people, posting inappropriate links, etc. How do you stop people from doing that, when it's accessible to everyone, even off-site? Can we even really police who uses it? Far as I'm aware, irc's allow anyone who knows the address and port number to connect. It's just not really feasible. Too many loopholes. This coming from someone who generally used IRCs exclusively for a long time.

03-20-2012 at 1:43 PM

It's been really bad lately, not sure why. We had multiple people post x4 times because the posts weren't going through Dx Side chat always lags for me too no matter the browser

03-20-2012 at 1:06 PM

Side-chat ALWAYS lgs for me but main chat lags about a couple secs

03-20-2012 at 10:44 AM

Thanks guys. I can't even talk on chat lately. It's taking over 5min for my posts to even show up. It's really getting me frustrated. =|

03-18-2012 at 3:47 PM

Support! The current chat room can become a bit frustrating with all of its lag and such.

03-18-2012 at 3:32 PM

Support :) This sounds great.

03-18-2012 at 3:31 PM

Ah mk Tiger =). I haven't set up a room on mirc myself yet and don't know the capabilities for it's size to fit on the page and how that'd exactly work =) What do you think of the overall thing?

03-18-2012 at 3:28 PM

Side chat's could be set up. Just have more than one chat room registered to one of the admins and have "links" to each chat show up when each player enters the chat (to hte entering player not EVERYONE)

03-18-2012 at 8:44 AM

Thanks guys ^^;;. I hope this is put into place. It would be so much nicer in my opininon =)

03-17-2012 at 2:20 PM

Oh my gosh, this sounds like a wonderful chat! I support!

03-17-2012 at 11:02 AM

100% support. I've used MIRC before and it's great

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