Slow Days & Talking to Your Teammates

Yup, looks like that time of year again. :D

Each year the last couple of weeks before Christmas seem kind of slow around here. People (myself included) just seem to have an awful lot of other things on their plates. Of course, with IB taking a much needed retirement & Moogie in the middle of a move, things are probably going to seem even more quite than usual. I suppose that means that I'll have to take up the slack. ;)

At any rate, to keep people from getting too bored, I'm hoping to have the new website & new forum ready to go by some time next week. I think you guys will like the new forums. They've got some nice new features (we'll be moving from the 2.x vBulletin that we're on to a 3.x version).

In the midst of updating the site & the forums, I've been wondering about our IRC stuff. It doesn't seem to get much use anymore & I'm wondering why. Are people just not interested in live conversations? Is it IRC itself? Perhaps some other means of live chat or maybe just a really good web based IRC client would make things easier.

Personally, I think an embedded window (or a popup window) that logged me into our IRC channel (or some other type of chat room) with my forum name (& maybe my avatar for a graphical chat) anytime I accessed the forums might be neat. Does anyone else have an opinion about this?

I just never got into IRC that much-- I'm usually flipping thru the site from the office, so it can be difficult to get into an extended conversation (I dunno, they expect me to work or something :D ) Also, I type dead slow, so I'm usually 3-4 comments behind in a live chat.
If you add it into the new site design, I wouldn't build it as a popup window. Integrated would look better, and you wouldn't lose the window behind other apps.
Looking forward to the new design :thumbs:

/me :hiya: to everyone (dp and the warlock the bot) in the irc channels :D

It certainly would be nice to see som more people there - or are we so bad no one wants to talk with us? :cry: :p

I'm usualy the kinda person that just logs in to see who's on. I log in every now and then and check to see if IB by any chance would miraculously appear....but he's not. Just doesn't seem the same without him bossing me around to add stats to the history database :cry:

:rotfl:

I used to IRC all the damn time. Then I met my fianceé. Coupled with work, I have absolutely no time for IRC. If the day was 48 hours long, I would surely find time for it :)

I barely have time to peruse the forums these days :D

Quote:

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Then I met my fianceé

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Oh damn! I'm sorry alpha! :rotfl:

It's ok I'm in the same boat, but I have learned the fine art of "selective hearing" works wonders on them pesky creatures :crazy:

Work :confused: :jester:

/me ponders how Dyyryath would make an embedded chat window work - using frames? :scratch:

That's a good question, pointy. Right now it's all theoretical, though I do have one or two ideas. :D

:rotfl:

I could imagine you had already made a few prototypes :D

Although I don't use the chat often, I don't mind having the capabilities around here.

So, Dyy, let us see your prototypes.

As long as it can be disabled? So it keeps the browsing fast? Please?

If I want to IRC I fire up my client.

Thank you for thinking of ways to improve the user experience, empower us to exceed challenges and leverage browsing time to maximize information throughput :jester:


:cheers:

You could always head over to my new forums that im 'beta testing'. Im trying to see if the idea works and will be used before buying a domain and real hosting package.

Its a forum about game development, and the aspects that are involved. The goal is to discuss and archive anything potentiall useful to the developer, or anyone else involved in game dev.

Its at http://intheory.ath.cx


If you have any suggestions for different types of forums (tech forums, etc), let me know. I want to start up something that is rare, and may turn into a hit one day. A niche forum, if you will ;)

Thanks

IRC...man, I used to do that a lot. Back when I was mudding 20 hours a day, on two muds at a time and chatting on dalnet.

I really don't know why I stopped. Just lost interest, I think. I do remember that I hated the early java IRC clients, and web based IRC. My memory is that they were dog slow. Then again, I didn't have a cable modem in those days.

Were I bored, I might drop by. Been meaning to. Guess I don't feel like I have much to contribute, and RL tends to eat me.

I'll second the thanks to Dyryyth for always adding stuff and tweaking the site. It is a pleasant place to hang out, in more ways than one. Which is why I ended up here. Kept running across references to Free-DC threads on the Ars TSF forum, and eventually just moved over.

/me smacks head on desk

Sorry, Dyyryath. I keep misspelling your name. It's a rough nick on a dyslexic, although, come to think of it, I should be careful about throwing rocks in glass houses. Unless we have any Klingon speakers here, anyway.