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OMEC Shoutbox
Topic Started: Tue 27 Sep 2011 22:40:20 (124 Views)
Anthony
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Head of Dramatic Pointing

What's new, everyone?

I'll tell you! I've just enabled a shoutbox (chat feature, for those who don't know what a forum shoutbox is) which appears towards the very bottom of the main forum index page. This feature comes in response to my thread Spilled Beer & Pretzel Crumbs in the Plus Pub forum.

A few notes about the shoutbox:
  1. Guests can not see the shoutbox.
  2. OMEC Member (Basic) users can see, but not post in the shoutbox.
  3. OMEC Member (Plus) and higher level users can both see and post in the shoutbox.
  4. Because the shoutbox appears on the forums main page, please keep all conversation of a strict PG-13 or "cleaner" nature.

When someone else is online, but the lot of you don't feel like discussing a topic or sending individual PM's, feel free to use the shoutbox - plus others can join in, too! B-)
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Catherine
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[ *  *  *  * ]
Hey guys,
The Shoutbox is fairly simple to use, just type your message in the side and press the "Shout!" button.
This will enter your message into the conversation box to the left of where you wrote your message. It doesn't have a hugely long character limit, and there is a 10 second flood control time limit between messages.
It's a good way to just casually chat or contact another online person quickly whilst you are on the forums.
Only 10 messages are displayed at a time in the conversation box, so if you miss something there is an orange "Archive" underneath where you put your messages in. This will take you to the previous messages that aren't shown in the conversation box. The little orange (X) 's next to your messages are for you to delete your own messages if you need to.
Remember forum conduct rules etc still apply, so we just keep being our wonderful selves.
It's a pretty handy little feature, and I look forward to shouting with you all in time :)
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Anthony
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Head of Dramatic Pointing

Just a note regarding the (X) - message delete - feature:

As Cat pointed out already, you can only delete your own messages. While the ability is there for people to hold an unsavory discussion, for example, then simply delete the 'proof', please know that I hold each of you to a much higher standard than that. Please respect me and use the (X) feature honestly, fairly, and appropriately. I believe we can make the honor system work by having respect for eachother. Have fun, and happy chats! :D
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Anthony
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Head of Dramatic Pointing

Just a note regarding network latency:

It seems that some actions which should auto-refresh the Shoutbox, such as submitting a new "Shout" or deleting a shout, don't appear to take place immediately or at all (after waiting several seconds). From what I can tell, the actions are still being sent to the server under most circumstances and will appear after 30 seconds or so (the actions still may appear immediately to others, I haven't been able to test this). For instance:
  • Deleting a Message - When using the (X) to delete function on your own entries, it may appear as though nothing has happened. You refresh the page and even double-check the archive, and the message is still there. You press (X) again to delete the entry only to find your last two entries were deleted.
  • Sending a Message - After sending a new message within the Shoutbox, it seems to not appear. You refresh the page and double-check the archive, and the message still has not appeared. You resubmit the shout only to find that both the initial and the repeated shout are now posted.

This is a typical network latency (lag) issue and while the actions in the above-mentioned instances were still successfully sent to the server, there may be circumstances which cause the requests to fail. These issues have occured for members outside the US as well as for myself, so the lag is somewhere in the global DNS or perhaps on the Zetaboards side. If, after 30 to 45 seconds, the Shoutbox hasn't responded to a delete or "Shout!" command, then retry and wait another 30 to 45 seconds before trying again. :) There's no harm in the accidental multi-delete or double-post in the Shoutbox and the only reason for posting this is to ease server load. (While we have few members, we're sharing a server with all Zetaboards users on Server 1 (s1) and there's likely much more active boards on s1.)
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