New Chat Server

[Boggy1 45]

A brand new chat server is up.

It is a huge leap from the old chat.

Some issues...

The custom colour/bold/italics on text seems to randomly vanish, and doesn't work if you talk to someone directly (by clicking on their text box name).

There is no more custom colouring of names. For me, this is a huge problem, because I have synethesia.  (look it up). I used to heavily rely on the colour combinations of users to tell me who they are. I can't anymore.

Clones are out, which is a good thing, but it means you can't be in two rooms at once, which is a bad thing.

Alot of people are saying they can't get into the chat due to missing plugins.

Alot of people are reporting that the new chat is causing a huge hang on their computer, one person I know was kicked from the internet due to it. Myself, my RAM usage has doubled almost due to the new chat.

[mjig_dudy 11]

I'll copy what i put in the 'we're back' thread:

When i click the 'Live chat' button it loads for a bit, then comes up with a blank beige screen saying "Authentication failed."

any ideas?

[ilikehotdogsalot 308]

chat works fine for me, i have simcity 4 running with chat running, and everything is working fine. the bold/colored names things is a minor thing for me.

hope all the bugs get fixed, they're always expected with something new, thanks for all the work gone into making this feature for us, dirk

[frogface 352]

Originally posted by: mjig_dudy I'll copy what i put in the 'we're back' thread:

When i click the 'Live chat' button it loads for a bit, then comes up with a blank beige screen saying "Authentication failed."

any ideas?quote>

I get the same too :S some missing plugin? 

[LivingInThePast 364]

Is that the significance of the asterik?

[Simfan34 11]

I get "Authentication failed." as well.

[___idiotbox 0]

New chat =

I'm sure some of your bugs will get fixed, just be patient you know.. it is brand new and all

Thanks Dirk, I really appreciate it!

-Ellie

[patriots_1228 51]

im getting Authentification failed too.

edit: now the thing on the side that shows whose in chat is gone and the live chat button has an *

when i click it nothing happens.

[Dirktator 2,320]

Those of you who are getting Authentication Failed, should try again, I have fixed a small bug so it should let you in now.

As for issues with custom colours in the names, you can turn on Avatars in the chat panel and that should help you see who's saying what. The trade off is that it takes up a bit more room.

I do hope you feel this is an improvement from the previous chat, server-wise, it is a huge leap, especially in server performance, options and integration.

Let me know if there are any real problems, further cosmetic changes will always come a little later

[ILL Tonkso 1,237]

Cosmetically, some of the members including myself are finding it hard on the eyes. Hard to explain but it seams to hurt my eyes when i read it :s

[patriots_1228 51]

I'll take avatars over custom colors anyday.

I'd try again but now when i click "Live Chat" nothing pops up. I'll try going to simtropolis/chat/ or whatever it is.

edit: now i get "This nickname is already use"

and it shows me in chat but im not. could you kick me or somthing?

[Camaron 1]

I have taken a good look at it - although I am not very active around here now I could not resist. I heard Real Chat had upgraded and I expected this site to join in eventually; Real Chat don't seem to be low on their prices though! I managed to get in first time. I like the avatars and the general improved integration into the forum. Only a few messages could be shown on the screen at once though - so the chat moved very fast for me.

[beebs 129]

Originally posted by: patriots_1228 I'll take avatars over custom colors anyday.

I'd try again but now when i click "Live Chat" nothing pops up. I'll try going to simtropolis/chat/ or whatever it is.

edit: now i get "This nickname is already use"

 

and it shows me in chat but im not. could you kick me or somthing?quote>

Despite what the side thing says, you're not listed in chat right now... see if you can get in now. This might be something that dirk'll have to tinker with..

Nevermind, you made it!

[The Almighty Cheese Grater 0]

the chat's moving fast because people can't hush their mouth, all they do is talk talk talk

[Firebird 40]

This new chat is just awesome! Thanks Dirk!

---

I only have two complaints.

My first complaint are the smilies. They're sadly not as good as the MSN ones used in the last chat.

My second complaint is that it seems that confused04 can post his entire Aquatic Biology Paper in the chat room......

[Cleaner475 150]

Yay! It works for me now! Great job although it dopes look like a giant shoutbox

[mjig_dudy 11]

Well I, for one, Don't like the new chat. After finally download a load java junk i finally got it to work, and frankly, was very disappointed.

Firstly, it is far to bulky and each line of text takes up about 3 times the space it did on the old chat. This makes it almost impossible to follow the chat, when it is busy, as it moves far to fast.

Secondally, it seriously slows up my computer. It is almost impossible for me to do anything else while running the chat. This means i will never use it, as i only go chat when i am doing something else anyway.

Thirdly, the cosmetics of the new chat are pretty crappy compared to that of the old one. The smiles available are horrendous and the lack of colour for the names is also annoying, because it means i need to turn avatars on so i can easily see who it is speaking, which again increases the size of each messages, making the reading more annoying.

Fourthly, it is very buggy. I sometimes get situations where i can no longer post messages, the colours and blod/italics and such seem to randomly turn themselves off and it is often slow generally when clicking a name as to write a message to that person, meaning i will select the wrong person.

The thing is, I wouldn't mind so much if it hadn't been for the fact that the old chat was far better. When i think that dirk was paid shed loads of money for this new chat, only to make it worse than it was, i think of the saying "If it ain't Broke don't fix it'.

I, for one, would prefer top see a return to the old chat system.

[BarbulaM1 38]

I think the new chat looks great. And if it helps with server performance I am all for it, however one cosmetic issue for me is the spacing between lines of text makes it difficult to read, and no more orange+red combo for my name . Additionally on the computer I will be using for the next month or so I am getting severe lag between posts, it doesn't seem to be server lag just my computer lagging a lot and it makes it real hard to chat much. However it does look great, and if it is better for the server I am all for it! Just need one problem fixed "This nickname or IP address is banned."

Fixed

[Elaclairee 0]

Once the avatars are disabled and you stare at it for 20 minutes it grows on you, its definitely an improvement. I'm awaiting the return of the old smilies, or something of equal or greater value. I'm glad the Java aspect is gone, and the timestamps are a great help. However, it appears to be excessively taxing to many people. Where Firefox usually sits at about 12,000-20,000 on my processes list, its now at about 75,000, and my idle ram usage has gone from 300mb to just over 500mb. I for one don't mind since I have power to spare, but I find it concerning since a simple chat window shouldn't be THAT much of a strain, especially one as simple looking as this.

By the way, tested it with IE too, same resource hike.

Overall though, I prefer this one much more, great job.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

chat works just fine for me with firefox.

[Duke87 1,070]

Just a heads up, don't repeatedly click the I am available/away button out of boredom.

Apparently the server automatically bans you for that...

[Boggy1 45]

Okay this is odd, now I'm getting an Authentification Failed error when I try to enter...any reason why?