Chat vanished

[Stalephreak]

I would like to hear the community thoughts on this topic since there seems to be interest.

Since there's no game yet.
Chat is practically the only reason I'm still here, but of course it can be just me :v

Nah, that's why I'm here.  To chat with a fistful of people that I'd like to not lose touch with who likely wouldn't be able to join my gaming group for one reason or another.

[Unstoppable]

It is true that chat is harder to monitor 24/7 around the holidays, this is only natural. Removing it permanently is a good option if you have something better to replace it with (in this case the LoE game). However, without a replacement for chat people have lost a huge incentive to come to the LoE site. I often find myself going through the LoE main site to get to the chatbox and checking for new news on my way. While this will not personally be a problem, others might find themselves stopping by less frequently. Also, while 24/7 safeguarding of the chat is a good idea, I have witnessed on multiple occasions that the community self polices itself. Multiple times it has been the people in chat that tell themselves and others to abstain from talking about a particular activity. Though to be fair, and knowing that chances are chat won't return at all, I did witness once a half-hour conversation on ebola take place.

[waaaaaaah]

I can understand your position. I still would miss chatting with everyone though

[Stalephreak]

I've had a bit of time to think about this, and is it too much of a leap to interpret this as the final curtain for any real hopes for this game?  No chat?  Just a forum?  No gameplay?  It seems odd.  I understand wanting to be able to  spend time with family.  I really do get it, and I also understand that you're volunteers. 

[Kelvin]

RIP chatbox
(ah dunno) - 23/11/2014

[Night Pony]

The chat absence will not affect me in any way, shape or form. It was amusing distraction when I was bored but that was it.

[Metal_Beat]

Me: Chat, can I go on you? Chat: Sure! Me: Have a hotdog and let me type here. Chat: Nope. *RIP Chat*

[Gamepad]

If chat goes I`ll probably be gone all the time except for when the game is up. Chat and the people who go on the chat are the only thing really here for me.

I think it will kill off the user base for the forum, as if people aren`t hanging around in the chat they probably won`t have a reason to look around the site, and will find other sites to talk to people on.

[MrEmu]

Log on to check PMs and get this...wow... :'(
Well, I'll be blunt, if you take it off you'll basically confirm my ''never coming back''.
Of course it's not about me...but many others will be dissapointed with the absence of a live chat.

I would just get more mods that have the time, I'd have been more then welcome to do so before but, eh...lost interest to me.

[Invultrois]

The main reason i'm still here is because of the chat.
And probably the reason most people is still here as well.

Although I do recall there's an LoE skype for players somewhere, that's an alternative.
(but here's hoping the chat will be back.)
 

[Little Star]

Ehh. Don't really mind that the chatbox is gone. Doesn't matter much because it was going to be removed eventually. And the constant moderation must have been draining.  Imo, the chatbox isn't what's keeping the attention on LoE. It's just the constant excitement for the game, not knowing when it'll be released and not knowing if something major is gonna happen. Surprises. Aaah, surprises.

And the fact that I've made so many amazing friends from LoE is another reason why it doesn't matter much. I have those ties outside of talking to people on the chatbox. Plus, all the cons that LoE goes to. I loved the panel I watched at BronyCon. That was wonderful.

In conclusion, I don't think anyone should lose interest in the forums just because the chatbox is gone. Stay in touch with all the ponies you made friends with! Even if you just send a little "boop" every once in a while. It helps, seriously.

Bye bye, Chatty Box!

[Ryo_D_Disk]

Well then I have quite enjoyed reading your thoughts on the disappearance of the chatbox, and do note the LoE team end of the day is human. As was said before the chatbox had issues it was the largest cause for site bugs and moderation.

However as said also this is partial research to see how the site will function without it for a while. So my suggestion to you all rather than quoting lines such as "This will kill the site", "everyone abandon ship" and "RIP Chat" I would like to see some good reasons as to why the chatbox should stay, including and considering some of the Cons to the chatbox

An even and constructive comment will affect decisions far more than complaining (and no im not getting at anyone as I said at the beginning there are some good points being made I just feel the comments are a tad one sided)

So to summarise write down your full thoughts on the chatbox, what was good about it, what was bad, why did it affect your forum experience those types of things and I look forward to looking at your comments later

Ryo D Disk

[LunarDusk]

Hmm, some leaving just because the chatbox is gone...I don't know what to say about that seeing how its not like the other threads are not taken down as well.

[Unstoppable]

Asynchronous and synchronous communication are two different ways to communicate. The chatbox and livestream (when it is live) are the two different LoE related ways that you could synchronously communicate. Without the chatbox, the only source of synchronous communication is the livestream (every saturday). The experience of the LoE community has now shifted because of the removal of the chatbox. This change does not effect everyone. It effects the community as a whole. The negatives of the chatbox could all be found on the server side of things. The server and human resources required to maintain it and manage the bugs was extensive to say the least. The disappearance of the chatbox means that moderators can go spend the holidays home without having to worry about managing the chatbox. However, after the holidays end moderators will have very little to moderate. All other current resources don't take up that many moderation considering that you have so many moderators. In effect, your putting 16 moderators on standby until the game comes out. The moderators might or might not mind that they are on standby until the game comes out. We'll find out soon enough.

[Night Pony]

I like how most people jump on the "no chatbox - no site" wagon and don't realize that the chat was just a feature of the forum. The forum was here long before the chat and I doubt it's going anywhere. We had IRC before and it was removed, we had a chat and it's removed. The only ones affected are the ones that remained for the chat, not for the forum.

[Stalephreak]

Pros of the chatbox (from a guy who's been in the service industry for about 15 years):
1.  It's the only active communication you guys really have with your player base.  Forums don't cut it.  Playerbase has to have some way to kill time. 
2.  No communication means that we will eventually stop visiting the website.  This isn't a chatbox killed the website bit.  What it does mean is that there's less reason for us to check as meaningful updates become few and far between.  Eventually, like an unused toy, it is forgotten.
3.  Chat allows a quick method for players to entertain other players while waiting on pins and needles for the next open server. (seriously, we're chomping at the bit here)

Both these items are a natural expression of progression.  Even live games have this issue.  They constantly have to deliver new content. 

Negatives of the chatbox:
1.  Mod time.
2.  Coding issues-though I don't really have sympathy on that front.  That's exactly what programmers are for, no?
   2a.  Yep, debugging is a pain, but once you really have it streamlined and working correctly, it "just works".

Closing:  While the chatbox was annoying from a development and moderation standpoint, it is currently about the only reason people come back (Literally in my case.  I came back specifically to chat with people like WindSong, Ging, MrEmu, etc.) day after day.  When a customer has little reason to look for news or updates, they stop paying attention, and they do go away.  I appreciate that the entire team is  doing this out of the goodness of their heart, and I know that this is draining.  Like Mr. Emu said, have ya'll actively asked for help?

[LemonDrop]

I think the issue is really the strictness of the rules around here. A self moderated irc chat by the community itself wouldn't require such huge amounts of moderation by the actual staff but the need to control everything related to this game (officially) is causing the issues. Irc is also better in a lot of ways than whatever crazy ajax system that was using (repeated post request and xml data output) and would allow not only better bandwidth usage (assuming its even hosted here) but also people to use their own clients and such rather than the crappy in browser one.

[Night Pony]

Cons:
- Needs 24/7 moderation which is impossible and rule braking is occurred. No easy way to report said rule breakers.
- Promotes short, quick responses (flooding) to keep with the topic and not be left behind.
- Keeps players that are not interested in the game/forum but only in real-time chatting.
- Restricted to only people on the chat page on the certain time.

Pros:
- Instant messaging people that are on the chat page.

The team made the forum to inform and keep the contact with the community. Everytime something new comes up, popular websites (EQD) post and the forum instantly fills with people. The forum also has an easy way to mod that provides proof to the rule breaking. That gives the mod team more free time and who doesn't like free time?
Plus the chat is the favourite place for new registered members to spam and ask some FAQs and Luna knows we can do without seeing "How can I play?" a dozen times a day.

People also can use messaging system that gives time to make a thought out message with everything you want to discuss with video, pictures and etc. Plus you're not limited to people that are online at your time and can get a message when the people are in a whole different time zone and hence not making you stay up so you can say a few things. Messages can be recored and you can easily bring up the past of the conversation.

[waaaaaaah]

You seem REALLY anti-chatbox

[Gamepad]

I`ll try to do what Ryo Said then.

The main reason I am here on the site originally is for the game, but then I realised that it isn't out and I have to wait, I searched around the forum a bit then found the chatbox. It was nice talking to actual people instead of the forum posts, getting instant responses and the feel of taking to an actual person. Soon after the chat was the only real reason I came here, it was where I heard the news, met new people and got to know them. (Also got my OC drawn a few times but hey. :p)

Cons:

• Resource Intensive for both the site itself and the staff.


• Can be misused - bullying, misuse of rules, ect.


• Can not be monitored 24/7 - Everypony knows that Corgepones don`t need to sleep.


• Buggy - Sometimes stops updating and requires refresh to make it work again, also double posts.

Pros.

• Allows users to communicate with each other instantly instead of constantly refreshing for a reply.


• Allows a more personal feel to the site, instead of staring at forum posts.


• It lets people make friends and possibly help them deal with their own issues, as the chat is generally helpful and kind except for a few odd evil people.


• While it will be removed during OSWs and when the game is finally realised, it is a key feature of the site and it has most likely left many users without means of contacting their friends on the site.

4-4
I want it to stay. Mostly because it is the only real reason I come on this site, I rarely ever browse the actual forums unless directed by someone else, in the chat.

If the problem is staff shortages, get more mods. This may be an easy one to fight against, but considering the staff already on the site I would say that the application methods are working well. It may take up some time in the short run but will prevent more users reporting users or posts if a mod has already seen it and dealt with it.

Being physically resource intensive in ways such as the site's usage, can be easily dealt with by outsourcing the chat to other places, for example Chatzy or DeviantArt, which using the DA group can create a chatroom for users, if they have an account, which could cause issues with Chatzy due to it not requiring a user to have an account. There are also many other free alternatives to chat.

Being buggy is generally just SMFpacks actually chat being not that good, which can be easily fixed by once again going to an alternate. Also, some chats allow auto-warns, kicks and bans to users who repeatedly break the rules or try to enter filtered words which will relieve some of the pressure on the staff who have to deal with this sort of behaviour.


So... Yeah, with chat gone I would spend little to no time on the actual forum only coming on a couple days a week to check any news, which may be reduced to zero depending on who I talk to on other sites or places.

I also notice below that it is said to be "Restricted" and that it keeps people that are not interested in the game. I could say something about friendship or Love and tolerate but, if it keeps people that are not interested they may become interested, slowly converting them to followers.

And for the restricted thing, personally I have only ever seen one other chat that shows previous messages, and this is a general flaw of I.M as a whole, it keeps moving removing old messages from view, but if someone comes in and talks about something from a few hours ago, it would be a real sidetrack to any conversations going on and may confuse people. It`s more of a keep people "in the now" type of thing.

Some users have also commented on saying that they are never coming back, this may be true, the chatbox for them may be the only real communication they have with real people or any friendly interaction. Removal of the chat = Removal of people.