Why don't we have it? I have gotten pms from people asking if I would appreciate it, I would. People keep mentioning it.....but it never happens.....? Why can't we have chat? Do the rest of you guys want it too?
Its an old issue... Chat has been discussed thoroughly only recently amongst mod/admin after receiving PM's from members but there are lots of drawbacks such as how to moderate it,how can we control trolling and flaming unless its moderated round the clock which would prolly need a few more mods i suspect into the bargain but above all it chews site bandwith and when it comes down to details like that then it no longer becomes our business,thats webmasters domain as he owns the site and decides what to do with it in those regards. I also thought it was a neat idea at one time but after seeing it discussed and hearing the pro's and con's then i realised we dont need it but thats just my opinion,iv got about twenty GKers on my yahoo contacts anyway but it WAS discussed and thought about and the consensus was to leave GK as it is... all we can do is forward these ideas to webby,but on this occasion(seeing as this has been talked of before in the past) we already knew how Webby felt and knew it was a non-runner.I aint the most clued up about site bandwiths and other details mentioned but it does make sense to me after it was explained.I think it was iheartmaryj who actually had PM'd me not long ago asking about this and i raised it amongst the team.Thats why i just set up a yahoo account(check my profile) and added up any GKers who wanted to be added,some did,some didnt.Peace
yeah losing bandwidth isn't good. I know sometimes I get stuck with a bad connection and it can take a while to load up the pages as is. Like apprentice said, maybe msn or other chat programs are the answer... you could always create a new email address if you are worried about privacy
I'm with TA on this one.... It's not worth the problems it can cause at this time.. I use Yahoo messenger and I can talk real time with people here. It doesn't cost anything and if someone wants to chat all they do is instant message you...
thanks for the answers kids Unfortunately I am anti messenger. I used to use them all the time, now I hate the livin crap outta them. I dunno what happened, but oh well, my loss. I guess i'll have to settle for the forum.
I hear ya there. My problem with live chat rooms is that topics change so quickly that by the time I respond to someone,or something, the topic has already changed 3 times. Chat rooms are cool, and I would check it out if we had one, but mostly I would just lurk.
shoutbox would be nice, AJAX refreshing. Don't get much troll/hate here anyway but a few usergroups can be granted acess to moderate it so maybe after people have "proved" themselves they can have access to edit/delete shouts and ban users from shoutbox. Drawing from the MySQL database eats little to no bandwith unless there's 60-80 active people on at anytime.
and i wonder how long b4 you would have bots spamming website advertising... i hate spammers. but LOVE bandwidth
Just to put a lid on the 'chat' idea>>>Great idea...but MAJOR flaws/probs! :hello: OK fellow GKers, since this thread has popped back to the top of the pile i thought i would try answer my original post with a better answer apart from the valid reasons i posted about how it would affect site bandwith. When it becomes a matter of the site as a whole(not just the forum) then that is completely none of us moderators business or part of our mod duties,basically GrowKind.com the site as a whole is webmasters domain therefore what he chooses to do with site bandwith same as advertising,etc is not the responsibility or business of mods,we are only here to serve the members of the forum as best we can and keep it flowing without any problems.Think of GK as the building and us moderators as= of janitors/caretakers,webby owns the building,we just keep it nice and clean for him....anyway i digress... I have been reading a lot of the growkind admin forum archive threads since this thread has became active again and after reading many pages of archives i got to the year 2004 and it became apparent to me that GK already had some kind of GK chat feature,iv just now been reading about all the problems it caused and not just for moderators,there were security risks to ppl who used it due to persistent attacks from 'wannabe hackers',etc,it also got way way out of hand to moderate,the mods were basically taking up most of their time having to moderate the chat feature as banned members kept coming back under different guises and there was a REAL troll problem. Honestly there was page after page ,thread after thread all about the probs of the chat feature,now i wasnt a member back in 2003 and 2004 when these threads are from but reading them all and the opinions of the mods at the time(and there were many mods come and go,most shared the same opinion) aswell as webbys its obvious that although ppl lked the idea of chat,it was troublesome for the site,ppl could troll the chat faster than admin could ban them basically but granted GK is no longer IMO the same site as the one from back then and while i personally understand we are all now a harmonious bunch of GKers it still dont mean that it cant or wont happen again in the future. Thats another thing,it was so long ago that is was on growkinds old ikonboard server,since then the sites had an overhaul and now uses vbulletin boards so even that poses its own probs cos obviously the way chat was run in the past on the old interface would take different coding/software,etc than the ones used back then. Basically for the members who were around way back then they will remember it and prolly loved it but for the mods from back then it seems that the chat was a constant thorn in their side as it stopped them from not only taking care of the main forum but also from participating as members from what i understand,remember im going from posts made by members who arent even members or active members anymore here so forgive me(to the veteran members:icon_salut:'class of 2003',etc) if iv picked up/misunderstood what iv read tonight in the admin archives about the 'chat' feature. But from what i read, it does seem that GK DID once upon a time have a 'chat' feature on the old interface, and apart from the main bandwith reasons and other software,financial,practical reasons,etc,the 'cons' far outweighed against the 'pro's'. It looked as if it was a NIGHTMARE to moderate:5eek:so theres no doubt about it,although I WAS ALL FOR A GK CHAT/SHOUTBOX....ITS OBVIOUS TO ME NOW THE REASONS WHY WEBBY CHOSE TO END IT. Once again fellow GKers,when iheartmaryj PM'd me about this issue a while ago i did take it to the admin forum and it WAS discussed(i also see its been discussed a lot in recent times before i was made mod) ,but the reasons why it is a 'non runner' are the same reasons it got shut down i guess,too much bandwith and too much trolling.What was a great idea and a supposed enhancement of the forum became a source of frustration rather than enjoyment from what iv read in archives.The reasons for keeping chat shut or not having chat are even more clear to me after what iv read along with the reasons i was originally explained,all very understandable, acceptable and sensible. Iv got approx between 20-30 odd GK members who have added me up to their yahoo and to the rest of you i invite y'all to add me up aswell if you want to,i use it for practicallity at times but it is also good when an unexpected engrosing conversation comes from a member who you just stop by to say hello to and then you end up finding out so much about them,it makes your fellow member seem more personable to you instead of only knowing them for their posts,pics,avatar and signatures.I have found out way more about friendly members on my yahoo than i ever would have through posting so IMHO yahoo chat is THEE answer,it works for us mods and the members who all added me up. Like i said every member could create a yahoo account and even our own usergroup,call it like GK club or whatever,and basically we could all network through instant messaging on yahoo or msn,etc.Besides ppl that come to GK always comment to me how the forums always got FRESH threads every day...this would be SEVERLY affected if we had a chat/shoutbox feature,our post counts would suffer and thats one of the reasons ppl LOVE GrowKind's forum cos its got a very active membership who start fresh and great threads regular and for instance if we had 'chat' ppl might get answers to their questions on chat but then that information would NOT be written down for all the new members that have the same question,thats a perfect example of WHY post counts are important cos they contain and PRESERVE the knowledge for future growers/members and if the advice was given via 'chat' then GK would lose SOME of the great info we get posted on our boards in replies to members questions. Iv notice on this thread that the opinions on a' GK chat ' feature seem pretty evenly balanced,theres no one majority in favour of a GK chat or Against so straight away it kinda shows you that a lot of ppl either like GK the way it is or they wouldnt really use a GK chat feature,as has been said we can use various IM services like yahoo,y'all are welcome to add me up anytime:icon_thumleft: Hope this LONG LONG LONG POST:eusa_shifty: kinda finally gives ample reasons about why the chat idea got 'composted' and puts a lid on this subject for y'all,us mods/admin DID talk it over and agreed against it,we do respond to all members ideas on GrowKind even though we might not be able to accomplish the request due to various reasons.Iv tried my best to answer this once and for all,hope iv kind of made a good explanation,its like 6am and iv been toking all night and supping some .Anyway heres to all who add me up,hope i answered your thread canna,i tried me best girlCheers
I went in there, ONE time back in the day, cause I thought people that liked ol master were in there, it was ONE female with three dudes slobberin all on her, I just wanted to say high to three of them, and it was like I went in there to borrow money from an inlaw. I said fug dat, and never mess'd with that again. People used it for all kinds of deviltry, and in another post, someone mentioned just today a freak on a leash back inna' day that would haunt in there. You had several people in here, who also had multiple personas and would use them like sock puppets to mess with people. The techy reasons not to have it just compound it. Its not my server, but I can see lots of reasons to leave it as it is.
Do I get that with basic cable? :laughing5: Master don't even know what that is, I think I'm smart using MS Word. Do explain;
Rent a 10 man teamspeak server. Hell i think they give you a ten person one free for 30 days to try out. Or just open an MIRC room up.Million different ways we could do it TBH W/O using GK's bandwidth but still keeping a real part of the site we could even hotlink an activex control that opens up the mirc ot TS directly from the webpage. Let me know if the webby is interested ill gladly help him to figure what would be most effective for this particular app. W/E you guys decide let me take a look see before it goes live,all those proggy's MIRC TS ventrillo etc.. allow file sharing wich in-turn presents some very seriuos security concerns for us and webby GK as a whole TBH. Lucky for us i have the source codes to all of them and can pretty painlessly write up a custom security app for GK itself or even go the lazy route and just elimnate the filesharing completly from the proggy. All you guys gotta do is decide wether you want voice text or both. If you guys need me to consult i won't charge and apprentice has my yahoo if you need me in realtime.
It's pretty safe to say that he's not interested. This was tried before and as AP said...it created far more problems than it was worth......techy issues aside. I think the best way for people to keep in touch with those they wish to keep in touch with is to step outside of GK. The Web has many many ways of doing so.
