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Well, the IRC was seeing very little traffic and some complained it was difficult to use.

To this end I have disabled the Chatroom button on the bar above and added one called "HalChat". When you click on this it takes you to a separate window and into a program called FlashChat.

This is a very intuitive interface and is pretty self-explanatory. There are definite benefits and drawbacks to an IRC client. It is more user friendly but as of right now I don't know what kind of spam filters it has. One REALLY good thing it has is that it automatically logs you in with your handle from the boards. So when I go in I'm Dave. When you go in it'll be as you.

You can create private rooms and password them. You can create PUBLIC rooms. If nobody is in them they disappear after a while so no fear of clutter.

Come in, take a look around and tell me what you think.

And don't worry if you have to type in the word "documentation". I don't know why it does what it does yet....

http://www.halforums.com/forum/chat/flashchat.php

Fascinating. I will now avoid it carefully, lest I become any less productive than I already am. Like, stump levels of unproductive.

Excellent!

Watch out! The thing comes with SOUND when you first log in! You can mute it but start with the SOUND OFF if it would get you in trouble!

Fair warning: If weird sounds will get you into trouble, turn your speakers off.

Yuck!

WTB Forum Nights on Vent!

Yuck? What do you mean, yuck?

Oh man..now I feel like a chat tease! I left to go settle the baby after waiting FOREVER for someone to get on...then I come back nd, like, everyone in the forum has tried to talk to me.

Not cool, fate, not cool.

aww man now I'm confused I was always in #pvponline and now i don't know how to find it !

'tis very quiet. I'm tempted to start singing old showtunes just for the hell of it...

I, for one, like it.

A number of points for those who jumped in and don't like it because it's not IRC....

Admins and Mods can still use IRC commands.
I thought I got rid of that annoying SPAM thing. I guess I didn't.
I didn't get a chance to go in last night like I wanted but I'll work on it today.
This isn't confusing. Getting to #pvponline is confusing.

So this explains the dive in traffic at #halforums.

Like I said before, I just did this yesterday. The dive in #Halforums traffic has been coming for days and days.

Yarp. I like the new Halchat at work. Easier to run on the side, etc.

I have fixed the spam message. What triggered it was saying the same thing X amount of times.

Dive? It's fracking empty. And no one left with the authority to kick the idiots who come in with nothing but ill intent.

A) I've been on IRC here and there (both halforums and pvponline) and NO ONE is ever on.

B) THANK HEAVENS for the lack of moderation. Overmodding is the number one problem with IRC (in general, not just us). Too many little chiefs booting people for basically not liking them.

DarkAudit said:

Dive? It's fracking empty. And no one left with the authority to kick the idiots who come in with nothing but ill intent.

Click to expand...

That's a shame....

The flash chat is way better.

I agree with just about everything Ame says. IRC is a far better option.

A flash chat client is rather discriminatory, too. Not everyone runs Windows. And not everyone runs 32-bit Windows.And that's about the only platform where flash does reasonably well. If flash is even available for one's platform of choice. And I don't see anyone switching from Linux to Windows just so they can talk to Shannow.

There are far more options for IRC clients, both standalone and web based. And honestly, if people have difficulty getting in with one of those, it's purely operator error.

what? I use Flash on OSX and Linux all the time!

"Works for me" isn't much of a defense, when for many it *doesn't* work, or it just isn't available. And there is still no 64-bit flash for any platform. And I repeat, not many are going to be willing to switch to different platforms just for the chance to talk to Shannow.

ITT: IRC regulars bitching about shit that really isn't that big of a deal to begin with. Open IRC in a tab. Magic! You can still talk to your regular IRC clique crew.

And I'm running a 64 bit Win 7 platform, the flashchat is working just fine for me.

Riiight...

I've got Win XP x64 on my desktop system which is not really supported by anything and I have no trouble with the flash chat.

DarkAudit said:

"Works for me" isn't much of a defense, when for many it *doesn't* work, or it just isn't available. And there is still no 64-bit flash for any platform. And I repeat, not many are going to be willing to switch to different platforms just for the chance to talk to Shannow.

Click to expand...

Sure it is, when I use the standard versions of something that's created for everyone by exact digital duplication.

Also, 64 bit or not, it still works on a 64 bit machine. I'm running it again on 3 separate macs, 2 of which are 64 bit.

...

What platforms is flash not available for? BeOS? Amiga? iPhoneOS? Not exactly optimized for the bit depth of your processor doesn't mean not available.

I just wanted to say I had a great time hanging in chat last night.

Too bad no one is on to night.

I mostly use my little netbook for chat, which runs Arch Linux. Flash sucks majorly on this, using between 25% and 90% of my CPU for basic tasks like YouTube, whereas Konversation uses 2% of it... So I won't be using this HalChat thing, sorry.

Why not try this instead?

http://lightirc.com/

It's Flash-based, but can be configured to connect instead to #halforums. This way, there's the ease-of-use factor for those that don't mind Flash and in-browser chat, but it doesn't direct traffic away from the IRC channel, which some (like myself) prefer.

Seems really slow.

I'm just sayin'.

I found that the longer the conversation went on the slower it got. it'd be because the chat window gtes bogged down with all the text. Closing and reopening helped that.

YAOMTC said:

I mostly use my little netbook for chat, which runs Arch Linux. Flash sucks majorly on this, using between 25% and 90% of my CPU for basic tasks like YouTube, whereas Konversation uses 2% of it... So I won't be using this HalChat thing, sorry.

Click to expand...

It sucks on a Windows XP netbook as well, with similarly high CPU usage, even for HalChat.

We oughtta set up a netbook club. Mine's running Ubuntu. And HalChat sucks the CPU dry.

Impure Vyxen;346795][QUOTE=Dave said:

I have fixed the spam message. What triggered it was saying the same thing X amount of times.

Click to expand...

No, it isn't.

At times, I did not talk for 2 whole minutes and the first line I said gave me that. And it sure as hell wasn't a repeat of my previous line.

[/QUOTE]

It is triggered by saying the same thing, but not necessarily consecutively.

there's no one there now!

YAOMTC said:

I mostly use my little netbook for chat, which runs Arch Linux. Flash sucks majorly on this, using between 25% and 90% of my CPU for basic tasks like YouTube, whereas Konversation uses 2% of it... So I won't be using this HalChat thing, sorry.

Click to expand...

This. A few times I will log into IRC with my 10 year old Dell laptop (too big to be a notebook). It runs irssi like a champ from aterm or xterm. Flash? Not a smurfing chance. Even on the main box flash was a hit-and-miss affair if I wanted to use the proper build for my CPU for *any* linux distro. More often than not I'd just get a grey box where flash apps should be. Just like the majority of 64-bit linux users.

People in #halforums - 8

People in HalChat - 1 (it's me)

UUUUUNNNNNNIIIIOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

I totally looked away for a little bit and missed it

Look at the bar at the top. Better?

Now we have both. If you prefer 1 that's cool.

I like Halchat....Wish more people would go in though...We've had some pretty fun times in there like one drunken friday and the day of the big Olympic US against Canada game. I do see what the big deal is ....I think its pretty cool.

I love HalChat. That is all you need.

No one has ever been there actively when I log on... is there a way to have a little applet thingie on the boards showing who's on, like we had for Ventrilo? THAT would be awesome.

Yes, a who is on would be great for the chat. i use whichever during the day when I am at the office, though I very much prefer halchat to irc

Calleja said:

No one has ever been there actively when I log on... is there a way to have a little applet thingie on the boards showing who's on, like we had for Ventrilo? THAT would be awesome.

Click to expand...

There already is one. If you go to the main forum screen where all of those online are listed you'll see who is in chat.

And that's something we can't do with IRC.

It is possible with IRC, just not as easy, unfortunately. :/

http://t0xirc.si.kz/

I pop in the new chat from time to time... gonna try to be on a bit more often (mostly during the overnight).

Dave;348923][QUOTE=Calleja said:

No one has ever been there actively when I log on... is there a way to have a little applet thingie on the boards showing who's on, like we had for Ventrilo? THAT would be awesome.

Click to expand...

There already is one. If you go to the main forum screen where all of those online are listed you'll see who is in chat.

And that's something we can't do with IRC.[/QUOTE]

Oh... huh... I have, literally, seen that main forum screen like 3 times in my life... counting right now after you told me it's there. Is there any way to have the applet thing like somewhere we can see it with just normal browsing?

There probably is but it would be Ame style coding and I don't know if she's interested right now.

What cal said.