Chat coming, and we want your feedback

[Evan]

Update: Please provide feedback on how popping out chat should work, asked here.

If you've looked at the Ning product roadmap recently, you've noticed that some Chat improvements are on the way. We've started to work on Chat, and wanted to share what we have in mind and get Network Creators an early chance to share their feedback.

The biggest changes we have planned are:

• Redesigning Chat in HTML and Javascript, instead of today's Flash-based chat. It will work on iPad, can be customized via CSS and will be translated in the language editor.
• Redesigning Chat into separate "panes," whereas today's chat a single "pane". New private conversations appear as tabs within the Chat pane, instead of appearing as new panes.

Here is today's Flash-based chat:

And here's what Chat might look like (click on the image to see it bigger):

So, unlike today's chat, this new Chat format would mean that:

• When someone starts a 1:1 conversation, the chat would instantly pop up (and pop open), so it would be very hard to miss.
• You can talk in 1:1 conversations and in the main chat room at the same time (not possible without changing tabs today)

There's a lot to process in looking at this new design, and there have been a ton of discussions on Creators about Chat. We want your feedback, though, about the overall design and functionality.

A few of big questions have come up that we want to pose to you:

• Do you think this new overall design works better than today's tabbed chat?
• Would you be disappointed if this redesigned chat just existed in your network's footer, not in a module or full page as it does today?
• Are you satisfied with the general size of the main chat window? Do you think you'd still need to pop it out in case the discussion becomes so active you need more screen real estate?
• How important is being able to pop out the main chat room, or 1:1 conversations?
• How do you feel about the sounds in chat? So long as users can turn sounds off, should a sound be played every time a new message is posted? Even when chat is minimized?

We'd love your feedback on these issues, as we start to develop chat. Down the road, we'll get into more specific feature additions, but for now, I'd like to keep this discussion focused on the big design/behavior issues I've raised above.

Thanks!

[Illya]

Evan, I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Helen Williams]

Can't find the parachat comment that was made by someone now, but just wondering if anyone has actually successfully embedded a third party chat client into ning, where exactly did you put it and how did it work? Cheers!

[TimG]

From my standpoint, since Chat could not possibly get any worse, then I am FOR any improvements Ning elects to make.  Literally none of my site's members use Chat, nor are they aware of it whenever someone tries to initiate a chat with them.  The inability to Save... a chat rendered our single test-run community conversation a dud.
So, I look forward to Chat 2.0!

[soaringeagle]

if none of your memberes use it then either u have very frew active members or something else is wrong  our chats not busy 24/7  but often it is very bushy  there is a problem with ppl not being able to easily find the chat some dont find it for iover a year..but it is still a popular feature thart is used every single day

improvments are awesome and yes i agree a must but i totaly disagree that its useless as is

if its not being used then theres something wrong  on your site thats preventing its use..low activity from members or very few members most likely

icve been on networks with very low activity and only 1 or 2 ppl signed into chat  at any given momment

but when there were only 3-5 the chat would get used

 

for the chat to be used regularly tho u do need an average of 15-20 on around the clock

 

[TimG]

You are correct... our site, despite boasting over 530 members, has extremely low activity (it's just a neighborhood forum).  Rarely are more than 2 members ever online at the same time.  But when we tried (several years back) to promote Chat - for fun and information - it fizzled super-fast.
Likely a testament to our members' general lack of technological expertise.  I'm hoping the "tech threshold" gets lowered for Chat 2.0, enough that casual users might pick up on it.
Of course, in the meantime, Facebook and Twitter have come along, garnering the lion's share of face time.  Probably nothing my network does will ever compete with those platforms.

[soaringeagle]

actualy dozens of my members deleted their facxebooks cause ghey like my site better

but being a niche site ya wont get millions and millions of members like fb or twiter (i dunno why anyone uses twitter what a pain in the ass to have to count charachters and limmit thougfhts to just a few words its no wonder its mostly used to update th world on what you had for lunch)

 

yea with 530 members and only 1 or 2 on at a time any chats useless its not the technology thats a failure its the activity level

after all the technology is typing

hi im here whats up

hi not much im bored

thats not very technical so theres no way that the lack of tech knowledge was a factor

and a easier to use chats not gonna help if the members arent active enough to use it

 

suggestion your a neighbourhood focused group

post in event s neighbourhood meetsings in chat

hold scheduled chats on neighbourhood improvement projects

organise community gardening projects etc neighbourhood cleanups block parties

use the chat to make your site...and neighbourhood more active

 

[Benjamin Andrews]

I like this. its a lot more like facebook. will you still be able to embed the chat in a box on the page also if you choose? that works well for group chat sessions or for users to interact with an embedded ustream show.

[Rajaji]

I want a chat page where anyone can join in without logging in. Non-members should also be allowed to chat to increase activity on the network. 

[Shadow]

your asking for trouble with this idea..goodluck with it..you may get more then you bargained for with all the trolls on the net ..i wouldnt want this on my site....but you would want ban capabilities for all that came on it..

Shadow

[soaringeagle]

i want that too guests need a way to get advice quickly without having to join

some use oour contact us page but often forget to add an email to respond to

 

[Kenneth Paulsen]

when will it be realesed?

[Eric Suesz]

Hey, folks. We've tried to answer these questions a number of times in this discussion. 

• It will be released when it is finished, which could be a few more weeks.
• We aren't currently focusing on taking a list of feature requests right now. 

I can't wait till we are ready to release it, and we'll definitely shout it loud and clear when it's done.