Requirements in the new chat.

[Elson Tan]

Thanks to Evan for letting some of the early birds to get the beta test version of the new chat for Ning networks.

 

There are a lot of complains from members :

1.the network chat is too small, TOO SMALL

2.the member list must be longer (higher height)

3.able to switch on/off pop out sound

4.Some smileys are removed which disappointed some smileys-addict

5.Private messages tab can't go away

(for example someone private message me , if i close it and then go to another page , it's still not closed).

6.it's too facebook-like. i suggest Ning make it more Ning-like by releasing a version like the old flash chat for home page (which means it dosent appear as a bar on home , it's a box on the home page)

7.Problem in pasting links in chat , the last word of the link is not highlighted as link.

 

But i would love to say Wonderful Job , the feature i like the most is admins can delete chat messages which we can stop spam using that.

 

That's all ,

have a wonderful day ,

Elson.

[Eric Suesz]

Thanks for the great feedback. I do notice, though, that you say your members had a lot of complaints. Your members (who are not members of Creators) were here on Creators using the chat during the half hour or so that we turned it on? ;)

We may turn it on a bit tomorrow, too. We're doing a lot of testing.

One thing to note is that some of the things you mention (sounds, pop out) aren't in the version we showed today, but they will be when it's released. 

[Elson Tan]

Thanks Eric.

[Cornelius Nduna]

This beta looks great!

My upstart network, www.zimdotcom.com hopes to use chat to allow members to interview public figures as a way to give members easy access public figures. My country Zimbabwe has very limited media space and economic plus political problems have scattered the population all over the world.  Bang comes this chat and we can all chat. 

For me, ability to moderate will be key.

Thanks Ning

[Eric Suesz]

Oh, I'm such a dummy. I see you are in the private beta, Elson. Oops. My apologies!

[AMZ]

i understand everything you are staying it's still in beta so i didn't really expect everything i wanted for Christmas in it. 

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

@ Elson

1.  My members are loving the smaller size.  We're a writing site and that huge chat window of the past covered too much content, even when popped out.

2. Again if you made the member list bigger, it would cover too much content.  The scroll bar is fine with us.  We just need to fix the little bug that partially hides the last person on the list.

3. I haven't played with the pop out sound. I'll look at that.

4. Haven't looked at smilies either.

5. You minimize the PM and then click the "x" in the right hand corner of it.  Two steps when it should really only be one.

6. My members LIKE that it's FB-like.  They're familiar with how to use the FB one, so this one is easier. 

7. Haven't tried pasting in links.  Will get to that today.

 

Our issues with it:

1. Some members (me included) are having problems with their messages sending in Google Chrome which is a very stable and reliable browser.

2. On page refreshes or page navigation, the "Connecting..." prompt never goes away.  I have to keep refreshing and clicking on it to show the member list (or go to an older page that I have opened)

3. The font color of member's names is too light to be seen against the white background.

4. You can only talk in PM to two people. When you open a 3rd PM, the first one in line (closest to the main chat room) automatically shuts down.  Couldn't we have 3 PMs going at once before?

The good news is that a Safari user said last night that it worked perfectly.

[Eric Suesz]

Great feedback, as always. We haven't turned on sounds yet. I don't think we have removed any smilies. I t think it is the same set. The technical issues should get ironed out shortly (e.g., Chrome, "Connecting...", not working on Main Page sometimes). We may change that font color/saturation. I think you are right about it being too light. The thing about the number of PM chats you can have going is that you can have as many as your browser window will accommodate. 

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

Well, then Google chrome will only accommodate main chat and two private chat windows.  Overall a positive response from my members who used it last night.  They realize that it's in it's preliminary stages.  

Oh, one major addition to complaints.  This came in to me this morning from a member:

The new chatbox slows down the load time for IE9. (IE9 has a pop-up that asks to stop trouble some scripts, so thats not too inconvenient) But I did notice that if you open the chat box on IE9 that the text inside the chatroom actually expands and scrolls outside the designated box...which is odd.An educated guess based on limited knowledge of web coding tells me theres an unclosed set of code in the html formula, or maybe the measurements in the coding are off...

[Elson Tan]

Great suggestions Diane.

 

[AMZ]

so far it isn't a module on home page, but it's still in beta i would just wait when it's in beta we already know theres going to be problems so i'll say wait for ning to take care of everything else. 

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

Elson is correct with number 7.  The links aren't pasting in correctly and when clicked you get "Page Not Found".  The last word in the address is not hyperlinked.  

[Writer Chick {Diane}]

I'm going to disable the new chat for now.  We've played with it for awhile, but it's proving to be too stubborn for Google Chrome (which a lot of my members use.)  It simply refuses to connect in Chrome.  Members are getting aggravated.  

But, I can't wait for the polished version to come out!  Members seem to like the sleek look of it.  It's just a little too buggy at the moment.  You can't beta test something that won't even connect...