[Forums] Chat System

Started by WAS, March 31, 2021, 02:44:28 PM

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WAS

We're all a bit chatty when we do coincidently end up online at the same time with some topics. With a lot of upfront info being put out, and sometimes follow-up secondary double posts.

Wouldn't it be cool if we had one of those SMF Chat plugins? We could talk about the semantics and nuances of things casually without congesting topics that do have some really informative information. And things we do come about with in chats always can then be added to the topics more constructively.

However... I don't advise this until we figure out the spam issue with groups, or some other system like captcha. But I really think this would help the community. Both in just chatting with other experienced users, and in keeping the topics constructive and informative and to the point. Also it's 2021 and anything to make a forum more inviting and worth-while to people may be a good idea. Like I saw this one I was thinking of demoing cause it looks cool in general: https://www.arrowchat.com/smf-chat/ It looks pretty clean, though it's really small on my 4k monitor. I'm not sure if that's theme related or by design.

crisb

Quote from: WAS on March 31, 2021, 02:44:28 PMWe're all a bit chatty when we do coincidently end up online at the same time with some topics. With a lot of upfront info being put out, and sometimes follow-up secondary double posts.

Wouldn't it be cool if we had one of those SMF Chat plugins? We could talk about the semantics and nuances of things casually without congesting topics that do have some really informative information. And things we do come about with in chats always can then be added to the topics more constructively.

However... I don't advise this until we figure out the spam issue with groups, or some other system like captcha. But I really think this would help the community. Both in just chatting with other experienced users, and in keeping the topics constructive and informative and to the point. Also it's 2021 and anything to make a forum more inviting and worth-while to people may be a good idea. Like I saw this one I was thinking of demoing cause it looks cool in general: https://www.arrowchat.com/smf-chat/ It looks pretty clean, though it's really small on my 4k monitor. I'm not sure if that's theme related or by design.
Yes, we're wondering this ourselves.. or something like Discourse ?

WAS

Discourse would be cool too, I actually liked that whole concept of Discourse when it came out, but it's not implemented in as many places as I thought (over like other chat plugins). I actually had forgotten about it.

I'd suggest a Discord, but the way it's centralized on their platform makes it kinda separate, and I kinda find it an annoyance when websites forward you there. Needing software or going to a whole new website is meh.

Dune

Why bother, it's only a few of us. And the threads may prove interesting for others some day.

WAS

#4
Quote from: Dune on April 01, 2021, 02:38:58 AMWhy bother, it's only a few of us. And the threads may prove interesting for others some day.
Hardly. Going through topics to reference information is a serious hassle, especially sith the search engine picking up any reference. Topics get wildy off topic with discussion haha

Can't help but feel you just don't like social stuff like FB and the like of the modern era. :p no offense.

If people are online and you are replying to a topic and then after have other bits, you could easily get their attention in a chat system visible to all and keep the topics with the crucial information. This forum is sooo full of the same questions asked over and over cause of a bad search engine and the answers often hidden in brackets of text that sometimes are irrelevant to the point.

Dune

You may be right. I've been here since 2009 or so, and read about every post, but for the occasional visitor it's indeed hard to catch up. And searching won't find stuff easily, I totally agree to that; it's too much threads nowadays.

Okay, I hate FB, but I'm willing to give a TG chat function a go if needed ;)

WAS

PS totally to blame for off-topic discussion, and follow-up posts or edits. And the forums been so relaxed it is easy for most of us, and no worries, but been noticing when new users need help they seem so overwhelmed on where to look, or have a "horror story" from trying the search lol

Im just trying to think of how to help Planetside organize and also help people get the information they need while simultaneously making the place inviting as a website in the 2020s. 

For some off topicness... There are people I routinely talk to who haven't even signed up for a forum before, and that blows my socks off. To me its like "what!?" Then I remember when I was a kid building websites in 1999, these people were being born, and are now 22. Lol

Dune

When a few of the users would be chatting about a certain issue, and it won't be posted, nobody can find the information therein anyway. So, for the few threads that get longer due to discussions, I don't know if it's really worth setting up a chat function. That was my point. The forum isn't very active, to say the least.
I don't know where (new) users get their basic knowledge from, is it the wiki, or FB? Or the few scattered tutorials? Not many questions being asked here. Maybe users have no questions :P Once in a (long) while someone pops up with a question, with a small follow up sometimes, and then they dissappear from the forum again. It's not like it used to be, users contributing by posting some new work or ideas.  But that as an aside.

WAS

There's been quite the influx of users in thr last year, actually. And that's not something to be used to or enable. Clearly we, and PS should want it active. And and I always post new information i come across separately or in conversation. Can't speak for others. But circles back around to trying to organize things better and such.

KlausK

#9
My thoughts, if you don`t mind...

Why not bring the search function to a "relevant level" in the first place?

Why not get someone/sometwo-or-three plow through the forum threads and extract the needed and useful information scattered here?
Planetside sees this forum as part of a official Help-function, if I am not misunderstanding?
Provide me with a complete download of this forum and I`ll start right away.
I hate to think because of missed opportunity and unwillingness this wealth of information will be lost.

Remember the new "Function Nodes in Practice" area? What a missed opportunity in how it is set up.
To be honest I gave up understanding what and what not I was/am allowed/supposed to ask/post there...
Did it fill up with info and "Function Nodes in Practice" examples? I don`t know.
I lost interest because it was not nurtered by the initiators.

Make the Wiki a more relevant place to go to and fill it with tutorials - the info is in the forum
(scattered, yes, but this happens naturally without moderation and some work on the part of the forum owner)
Someone has to boil it down.

Since the VFX videos are up, the place here will be even less frequented with new life.
New users get there questions answered in the videos, long time users know all of that already (more or less).

Most of the new users who occasionally pop up here are used to facebook and other formats I presume - not to a forum.
Of course they leave again soon after they took a look...it`s much slower in here and the layout of a forum software
is likely not fit for a smartphone, I guess.

So, I wonder why open up another layer of information with a chatroom where the information will be hidden and scattered like it is here?
You have the facebook stuff for that already. Or does it not work that way?

A lot of questions asked by new users point in the direction of game engines.
Does Planetside react to that here or in the Wiki? Nope.
Are you long standing experts using TG in Game Engines? Nope (at least not that I noticed).
Why would they stay here? There`s nothing here for those people.

The post is already unbearably long for you, I think. So I write down my last words for now:

I personally think/fear that this chat would be more of an expert chat where non-experts won`t be participating.
Often the topics which were created over the last few month are so above non-expert-hobbyist-occasional-user-knowledge-level
that they were not really interesting for the before mentioned group - like me. Way above my head.
I could not even imagine how to participate in such a chat. So, this would not be for me.

In short, if the forum does not get streamlined, cut-down to useful and relevant info, split into old and new -
then rather take the whole user interaction to Social Media and have it focused there.

CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)

KlausK

#10
TADA ::) 700 posts!

???...amIhangingaroundhereforthatlongalready....??? :o
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)


WAS

#12
According to the TOS all posts are owned by their authors and unless its infractions there isn't anything allowing PS to alter their posts or extract information to reiterate elsewhere. They would need permission from all those users, or do a new TOS and wait for everyone to login and agree, which most users are long gone.

Contrary to your last claim, complex topics is how I got into TG and learned. There was pretty much no resources BUT creating topics and asking. And that's literally the point here. Instead of 32,000 posts of the same questions they could just ask for where the info is informally and hopefully get direct help or referenced threads/wikis etc.

It's like Discord for unreal when I was tinkering around. I immediately got direct help and links to the forums for everything i needed quickly rather than waiting for my topic on the forums to have been replied to, just to get a link to another forum thread or docu I missed. Discord is an app though so people get notifications on their phones and desktops.

KlausK

@Was: you may be right for sure.
We`ll find out what is going to happen, which way this is going sooner or later.
CHeers, Klaus
/ ASUS WS Mainboard / Dual XEON E5-2640v3 / 64GB RAM / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 TI / Win7 Ultimate . . . still (||-:-||)
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