Shoutbox - let's give it a try

[modetwo]

We (the forum staff) decided to give shoutbox a try after seeing several members requesting it. This is currently just a try-out, we'll see how things goes and if we want to keep it or not.

No one are able to see or use the shoutbox by default, if you want access you have to request membership (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/profile.php?do=editusergroups) to the public usergroup named Shoutbox Access. It's harder to moderate a live shoutbox, so we'll have to be a bit strict with it. Anyone misbehaving will lose access to the usergroup and will thus not be able to use the shoutbox anymore. Ye be warned. ;)

The shoutbox is using AJAX technology which means you don't have to refresh the page in order to see new replies - you will see the reply as soon as it is posted. I'm going to have to monitor how this impacts on the server load and bandwidth, if the feature gets too resource demanding I might have to disable auto-refresh and instead put in a refresh-button.

EDIT: The auto-refresh function has been removed as it used unnessecary much resources. You now have to either shout or click on the refresh-button in order for the shoutbox to update with the latest entries.

Again, this is still a try-out. And it is especially created for you to go and set up Thievery/AS-games. Sure, discuss whatever you want, but keep out meaningless spam. Also, of course, standard forum rules (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/faq.php?faq=forum_rules) apply.

Once you get the membership approved, go to the forum home (http://forums.blackcatgames.com) and look at the bottom, there you'll find it.

1119

Shout, and have fun! :)

[Convict]

Membership - requested!

[modetwo]

Granted.

[Firetiger]

w00t!

Why do I need to give a reason to request membership?

[modetwo]

That's a default setting in vBulletin, I can't remove it.

[Bulletstopper]

Request membership!

[-KewlAzMe-]

nice auto-refresh feature.. ajax ftw!

[TafferBoy]

hook me up yo

[Bucchus]

I like that solution. Oughta keep everyone satisfied :)

[DiP]

May i have membership, Please?

[modetwo]

May i have membership, Please?
As explained, request membership here (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/profile.php?do=editusergroups).

[FistaKufs]

Now can we use this shout box for other games like Guild Wars and WoW?

[modetwo]

Sure, can't see why not. As I said in the first post;

...discuss whatever you want, but keep out meaningless spam...

[MjrHuRTz]

Could be useful :)

[PhaeThorn]

Where can I find this shoutbox once I'm "accepted" ? I guess it could come in handy ... but if it's on every page I'll pass.

[modetwo]

Why do I get the feeling no one is actually reading my post?

;)

[sky-fiwa-]

Long time, no sea

[Machine]

Ghost Moderator! I requested :)

[modetwo]

Sorry, TM. Rejected.









:joking:

[Machine]

Lollypops. Ey Mode, Can I ask, the times displayed are for what zone exactly? I ask because I can see FT and DIP talking about TUT at 5:50pm (which is +1 hour).

[BrokenArts]

Why do I get the feeling no one is actually reading my post?

;)

Because everyone is trying to Shout at one another, it's deafening. :P

[modetwo]

Lollypops. Ey Mode, Can I ask, the times displayed are for what zone exactly? I ask because I can see FT and DIP talking about TUT at 5:50pm (which is +1 hour).
It should follow your forum time settings, atleast it is for me.

[PhaeThorn]

Why do I get the feeling no one is actually reading my post?

;)
Maybe i'm blind ... or maybe you don't get my question. I know you have to apply to it first, I cannot see it right now. But my question is, once i'm accepted and I'm able to shout like crazy in that box, WHERE is the shoutbox located?

[BiG_D]

Once you get the membership approved, go to the forum home (http://forums.blackcatgames.com) and look at the bottom, there you'll find it.
Come on, Phae! You never used to be (quite) this slow! :P

[PhaeThorn]

Come on, Phae! You never used to be (quite) this slow! :P
It's late on the saturday evening ... (8 pm :joking: ) ...

[Radamanthus]

Membership Requested!

Can't wait ot get in - how about arranging a "shout-out" to M2? :P

[modetwo]

You should start drinking coffee, Phae.

;)

[daniel]

hah, it'a pretty cool! i had to correct my timezone. i've had it on GMT all this time :P

[Firetiger]

My only complaint here is the shouts trying organizing a game get pushed down where nobody see them.

Can shouts be sticky? :D

[BrokenArts]

You mean everytime a game starts, sticky the shout for that particular game? Too much work from the sounds of it. Someone would have to be constantly checking to see, and stick it. I don't have that kind of time And not sure if you can separate a line from shout and sticky it. You could copy it, but, just scroll down and check the shout box, or check the shout archive, for the last 10 lines or so to see if a game has started. That sounds better. ~m2 can elaborate more on that.

[Firetiger]

Well no, I wouldn't expect a mod to go and sticky 'em all. I was thinking more along the lines of a check box for any user to sticky their own shouts.

But I wasn't really serious about this idea anyway. :)

[BrokenArts]

More ideas the better of course. :)

[Firetiger]

The sticky shouts would need to self-destruct after some time. Mabye a few hours.

[DiP]

Can you please make an option for the Shoutbox to be at the top of the screen? As it is annoying to scroll down all the time. OR just have it at the top, Both way's work for me.

[DeepQantas]

Fun. :)

[-KewlAzMe-]

More ideas the better of course. :)
Can shouts be sticky? :D

Except for that one. :joking:

[BrokenArts]

I didn't say they couldn't be stickied, ~m2 can answer that one better.

[necros]

<<< Requesting access ^_^

[modetwo]

<<< Requesting access ^_^
Request access here (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/profile.php?do=editusergroups).

[Salvage]

I requested access, I doubt I'll use it much though.

My reason was "Because I'm oh so talkative." :rolleyes:


Why isn't the rolleyes smiley animated?

[Hybrid]

Eyestrain.

[FixXxeR]

Shout! shout! let it all out, these are the things I can do without! so c'mon!... am I talking to you, so c'mon!

[Convict]

You mean everytime a game starts, sticky the shout for that particular game? Too much work from the sounds of it. Someone would have to be constantly checking to see, and stick it. I don't have that kind of time And not sure if you can separate a line from shout and sticky it. You could copy it, but, just scroll down and check the shout box, or check the shout archive, for the last 10 lines or so to see if a game has started. That sounds better. ~m2 can elaborate more on that.
Perhaps the announcements of people joining a game could be in a different colour so as to stand out from chatter. The person making a game shout could click a "game announcement" button to make the font turn into a different colour from default.

Perhaps green.

[DiP]

I think it would cause less hassle and help the colorblind if it was just put in bold.

[BrokenArts]

You know, m2~ knows about all the requests, yada, yada, and etc too. He'll do what he can, when he can. Somethings with Shoutbox are the way it is, if he can change it, we'll be the first to know. So hang tight kids, let's see what happens shall we? =)

[Convict]

You know you want me it BA!:D

[UArchitect]

My only complaint here is the shouts trying organizing a game get pushed down where nobody see them.

Can shouts be sticky? :D

thats why organising games is best left to other means of communication


oh yeah...and ive made my request :D

[Salvage]

What options are available in the shoutbox? Can you post images, links, use the text formatting, smilies?

[Hybrid]

What options are available in the shoutbox? Can you post images, links, use the text formatting, smilies?
No, yes, no, and yes but not graphic smilies. :)

[Salvage]

I guess you're running Firefox with the linkification extension. The link you posted in the shoutbox is just text in Opera.



Here's a suggestion: have some indicator of who has shoutbox access in the Active Users section.

[-KewlAzMe-]

No, yes, no, and yes but not graphic smilies. :)

You can also make it sing to you, have it do your laundry, cook dinner, pleasure you, and drive you around... its a very fancy shoutbox :)

[Salvage]

I can make it talk to me, but not sing, through Opera's voice feature.

[-KewlAzMe-]

I can make it talk to me, but not sing, through Opera's voice feature.

Yes.. the latest beta of opera has the pleasure me feature.. it basically reverbs the voice into vibration.. and... oh nevermind.. my mind goes right in the gutter.

[Salvage]

You know, there's a vibrator that vibrates in tune to music. It's an ipod accessory.

[DiP]

my washing machine seem's to be ahead of current technology. It seems to vibrate the theme to Livin Da vi di loca at a tempo 0f 580. Quite cool, A washing machine/ipod. Altough, I don't think they want you to know about it. As they hide this feature under a button called "Super Spin." What a lousy codename...

[Pestcontrol]

I bet you noticed that when sitting on it. :)

Imagine being someone like Mick Jagger, and knowing that somewhere, someone, is "plugged in" with your tune.......

[Salvage]

The edit and delete functions in the archive don't work for me(Opera 8.51).

[-KewlAzMe-]

The edit and delete functions in the archive don't work for me(Opera 8.51).

Same here.

[modetwo]

Works fine here, although it cuts off any text behind a ' (as in I'm...)

I can't fix all issues as I haven't written the plugin this system is using. The best I could do was to wait for a bugfix or work around it somehow.

On a second note; I have enabled bbcodes. Let's hope people don't spam down the box with big red letters. ;)

[Salvage]

It will look like it edits the shout, but when you refresh the page it goes back to what it was originally. Delete gives me the confirmation dialog, but just disappears when I click ok and doesn't remove the shout.

I think that edit and delete work for you because you have administrative access. Most likely all staff have edit and delete access.

[modetwo]

Yeah, there are some flaws in this plugin. I might just remove the edit/delete function all over from the templates, it isn't very usefull in a shoutbox anyway.

[modetwo]

I'm going to disable auto-refresh of the shoutbox. It hasn't been a week, and it's already had 118,946 hits. This is much because it's only a few members that have access to the shoutbox, and right now it only seems to take up loads of resources for nothing.

If a member leaves the front page open and goes away, the shoutbox will still update every second for as long as the page is open in the browser. And there aren't that much activity to justify this.

But don't worry. I'll implement a "Refresh" button in the shoutbox which you can use to update it with the latest entries. This is however not nessecary to use all the time as it will automatically refresh when you shout yourself.

[BiG_D]

What, if you don't mind me asking, is an average monthly load for the forums?

[Pestcontrol]

<+Carth> how come modetwo has posted IN the shoutbox thread since i requested access, but i still haven't got access
<+Carth> oh it's at the bottom >_>

[Carth]

stfu :mad:

Why would I bother scrolling to the bottom (unless I had read this thread... which I didn't)

[TafferBoy]

to be honest it took me a couple of minutes to locate it as well :)

cos you have to be on the 'main' forum page

[BrokenArts]

/me raises hand, a few of us had trouble finding it. "Oh THERE it is." :rolleyes:

[Machine]

I'd rather it was up top too.

[modetwo]

I'll see what I can do, it is a hard-coded setting right now.

[Pestcontrol]

THN (http://games.thehavennet.org.uk/) has it up top :)

[BrokenArts]

I don't like it up top, makes the forum seem mainly about Shout box, and it's not. Just my opinion.

[BiG_D]

I'm with BA on this one, it'll only serve to clutter things up if it's up top.

[modetwo]

That's why I put it at the bottom. But have it as an option is even better. :)

[BrokenArts]

Can you make it an individual option for the forum viewer?

[modetwo]

I'm looking in to it...

[modetwo]

The auto-refresh function has been removed as it used unnessecary much resources. You now have to either shout or click on the refresh-button in order for the shoutbox to update with the latest entries.

[Carth]

Is the server struggling from all the people refreshing? Certainly seems slower to me :/

[BrokenArts]

Its fine, just you guys don't type all the time. I hit refresh, and sometimes, there is nothing there. When chat is going, it refreshes just fine.

[DarkLord75]

Seems normal to me...

[BiG_D]

Its fine, just you guys don't type all the time.
No, it seems the only person typing all the time is BA... :joking:

[BrokenArts]

And you right next to me D. ;)

[BiG_D]

Well, I'm doing my best

[modetwo]

Is the server struggling from all the people refreshing? Certainly seems slower to me :/
Nah, load seems just fine. If it was the shoutbox making trouble, it would have been much worse when I had auto-refresh on.

[-KewlAzMe-]

I just want to send a thank you out to Rythmix for having this great shoutbox idea (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/showthread.php?t=8132&highlight=shoutbox).. So far it looks likes the TUT servers have definitely improved in head count in the past week. I mean there were 12 people on 2 different Coop servers yesterday! and that was before I read that post in the shoutbox and joined myself. I've been playing TUT all week with at least 3-6 people and its great fun!

Thank you to ModeTwo and the other mods for being open minded to the idea and giving it a shot! Speaking of which, has there been any progress on making the shoutbox location user settable? I am one of those who would like it at the top if possible.

[modetwo]

I'm looking into it...

[DiP]

Thank you to ModeTwo and the other mods for being open minded to the idea and giving it a shot! Speaking of which, has there been any progress on making the shoutbox location user settable? I am one of those who would like it at the top if possible. And Thanks to me for Making up this brilliant idea first. (http://forums.blackcatgames.com/showpost.php?p=174961&postcount=34)

[Fuzzy Bunny]

Actually, you didn't. (http://games.thehavennet.org.uk/showpost.php?p=396&postcount=4)

[BrokenArts]

Ok, ok enough with the who has the bigger e-penis. :P

[-KewlAzMe-]

Ok, ok enough with the who has the bigger e-penis. :P

Not just Bigger! I have many e-penii :)

[TafferBoy]

yes, but you would do better to keep your hands off them once in awhile.

[-KewlAzMe-]

yes, but you would do better to keep your hands off them once in awhile.

:sniff: no one else is touching them.. and I can't resist! Please feel free to help yourself

[Shug]

Not just Bigger! I have many e-penii :)
unfortunately one of them is on your forehead

[Machine]

Lollercausts.

[-KewlAzMe-]

unfortunately one of them is on your forehead

One of them IS my head. Plus I got a Dickfor!

[FixXxeR]

You must have an incredibly small head

[-KewlAzMe-]

You must have an incredibly small head

about the size of an Englishman's intelligence! (:P)

[Machine]

So Lame, no need to counter.

[BrokenArts]

So are most of the replies on the last two pages.

[-KewlAzMe-]

So Lame, no need to counter.

Aww cmon.. if you can't play the game don't step up!

[BrokenArts]

I may have to clean this thread, I really hate cleaning, let's keep it on topic shall we.

[-KewlAzMe-]

sorry..

So now that we have the shout box addon, what else can we add?! Are there any game-related hacks available? Would be cool to have a server plugin like the utplug to show who's ingame right from the forums.. but would only look nice if it was made to be a vb addon

[-KewlAzMe-]

Can the Shoutbox Archive be added to the search? I'd like to search some old shoutbox convos!

[Machine]

Are there also options maybe userside to resize the number of viewable lines in the shoutbox instead of having a scrollbar?

[modetwo]

Sorry guys, there are no fancy features like that. This is a user-written plugin and is not created by the vBulletin developers. And I'm not good enough at writing code for plugins.

[-KewlAzMe-]

Sorry guys, there are no fancy features like that. This is a user-written plugin and is not created by the vBulletin developers. And I'm not good enough at writing code for plugins.

Ok you're fired.. hire me! I know how to mod vb.. so i can also mod forums :)

[DiP]

Ok you're fired.. hire me! I know how to mod vb.. so i can also mod forums :)
*Slaps KAM*

Is there really no way of getting the shoutbox psp compatable :(

[modetwo]

Ok you're fired.. hire me! I know how to mod vb.. so i can also mod forums :)
You know how to open php files and paste in code after reading instructions, or do you know how to code php?

Sure, I'll send the ftp root password over right away.

lol, who use PSP to browse the Internet anyway. ;)

[-KewlAzMe-]

You know how to open php files and paste in code after reading instructions, or do you know how to code php?

Sure, I'll send the ftp root password over right away.

lol, who use PSP to browse the Internet anyway. ;)

Well opening php files and pasting IS all that really needs to be done for most vb hacks.. but yes I also know my way around the php world.. tho I'm no expert

I ported UTSTATSDB to integrate with Nuke and DragonFlycms.. that takes a bit of coding:
(see here) http://www.rythmnation.net/home/index.php?name=UTStatsDB&file=careerhighs

[modetwo]

Well opening php files and pasting IS all that really needs to be done for most vb hacks.. but yes I also know my way around the php world.. tho I'm no expert
You are way behind, plugins and vB products is the new way. No need to edit php files anymore. ;)

However, php code needs to be edited in order to change a plugin's behavior. I'm reading up on it, so might be able to tweak the shoutbox more soon.

[-KewlAzMe-]

You are way behind, plugins and vB products is the new way. No need to edit php files anymore. ;)

However, php code needs to be edited in order to change a plugin's behavior. I'm reading up on it, so might be able to tweak the shoutbox more soon.

Lets just go back to that giving me the ftp info idea :thumb:

[Bulletstopper]

I applied for shoutbox, but i havent been able to access it yet, how do I access it?

[Bulletstopper]

woah nvm i see it my bad lol.

[DiP]

m2, please consider in the shoutbox thread, put bold size 8 underlined text, reading "SHOUTBOX IS LOCATED AT THE BOTTOM OF the screen :p "