New chat format?

Questions about new site functionality or use
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silkyundiesman
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Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:23 am

New chat format?

Post by silkyundiesman »

What's up with this new chat format? I'm not liking this at all and wish you would put the old format back into place. I hope others voice their opinions about this so you have some honest feedback from other users.
insatiable
Site Admin
Posts: 33
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:11 pm

Re: New chat format?

Post by insatiable »

I have to agree with the new chat feature... this looks like some sort of plug-in, and it is not user friendly at all. I'll type out my feedback, because as I use this I have a number of questions. The Contacts section seems to have a list of people who are in the Groups I have entered, not a list of the people I am friends with (unless I am misunderstanding and it is showing everyone who is currently online). Finding the option to leave the group was not intuitive, but once found and clicked, I cannot tell what that option did. It still shows as a group I have "joined."

The format of the chat window itself is also not well suited for a group chat... You cannot see who is in the exact group you are chatting in, and the smaller window is not conducive to multiple people chatting at once. I can find a list of everyone who has ever "Joined" the group, but don't see a way to limit it to those who are currently online/engaging in the chat. The performance seems on par with the older version as far as speed to open/view the lounge.

I don't want to sound like a jerk who is hating on the work that has been done, but the previous version was much more user friendly; even if it had an older looking UI (the performance thus far seems very similar). Not sure if this was done, but I would suggest a roll-out like this that effects a major selling point of the site go through a controlled beta, open to a small focus group of trusted users in a stage/qa version to flush out these types of questions/issues.
alicat
Site Admin
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 8:15 am

Re: New chat format?

Post by alicat »

i totally agree its terrible, i have a list of contacts who i have never spoken to and all i get is pms off random guys with the good old "hi" followed by "how are you" much preferred it when you had to be friends with some one to chat, and its very clunky to use on mobiles and tablets.
ltj888
Site Admin
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 12:58 am

Re: New chat format?

Post by ltj888 »

I do not like this format at all. If it continues I won't be visiting the site very often. I agree that it isn't user friendly and there doesn't seem to be a way to have group chat. Its a pretty drastic change to make without offering any explanation.
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kaddie
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Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:09 am

Re: New chat format?

Post by kaddie »

It's awful. It's unusable. I can't even see my contacts, the ones listed aren't even in my friends list.
"4486 Participants" What does that even mean? There's no list of who is even in the group chats.

I come here 75% fo the chat, only 25% for the stories. This new chat is ruining the main reason I come here and write my stories and share my experiences
englandjack
Site Admin
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:03 pm

Re: New chat format?

Post by englandjack »

I have to agree, I come here mainly to chat but find this new format almost unusable, I wont be visiting here very often sadly
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billie
member
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:44 pm

Re: New chat format?

Post by billie »

Hi,
Agreed. New chat sucks. We had to upgrade due to various technical issues that were happening behind the scenes. Believe it or not, this is a newer version of the other one you are used to. However, I hate it too.
The main problem is that we couldn't keep the old one in place while working on the new one. Any webmaster will tell you that you never ever launch something that is still under development. But it wasn't an option for us. I won't bore you with details.
Second, we were stupid and started before the holidays. That one is totally on me.
I am working on a new option now. As in right now, as I type this. :)
Please have a bit of patience while we get it up to par.
englandjack
Site Admin
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 12:03 pm

Re: New chat format?

Post by englandjack »

Thanks for the reply Billie, i'll be patient :) Good luck! :)
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benrob411
Site Admin
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2016 3:52 am

Re: New chat format?

Post by benrob411 »

Is there any chance we could still include all friends in the contacts tab and not just online friends? I like to be able to recieve messages after someone goes offline and go back and look at old conversations..
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billie
member
Posts: 122
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2013 7:44 pm

Re: New chat format?

Post by billie »

Hi!
I'll look at the friends settings and see what magic I can do.

Still working on this.....
Happy New Year!
xoxo
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