Live Chat?..
Our new server gives us the option of running a java or html based realtime chat server.
I’ll look into it.
Hmmm…
check out phpHeaven’s phpMyChat script » phpMyChat
[Edit] That Conference Room applet from webmaster.com is tempting…
Not to say that they shouldn’t put one on this site, but as an option, since I’m not sure how much bandwidth they’re allowed, and since we overloaded the old server on a number of occasions last year, might I suggest just putting an interface to the Tigerbolt chat? The Java interface for it is awesome, and for those of you who just really don’t like Java, there’s always direct IRC access using mIRC or something similar:
Server: irc.webmaster.com
Channel: #firstrobotics
Page Link: http://www.rit.edu/~us1stwww/chatindex.html
(I think that’s the right link, it’s been a while since I’ve used it)
In my experience, HTML chats are too slow for general use, but I wouldn’t mind beta testing a JAVA chat 
Well, what I was going to post yesterday was:
I think that Chief Delphi really needs chat. It doesn’t have to be anything special, just something those of us who have a lot of time and a lot of words can use to get quick response. Chief Delphi is already associated with being one of the major MAJOR lines of communication between teams and throughout FIRST as a whole, and to add a chat would not only be keeping up with the Chief’s image as the main source of team-to-team info, it would help the rest of us out here as well. Since we are already here most of the time anyway, it would be great for us to be able to easily access a chat that is already centered around a medium we understand.
I firmly believe that Chief should establish a chat. You will even further your status as a FIRST-web powerhouse.
-Erin
i think chat would be a great idea-
but have specific times and agenda to be chatted about-
instead of just random chats (big noise to signal ratio)
just my two cents
wow- last year no post from me
and now a flurry whats up with that
dahl
Erin, I was gonna post something about this too. A chat server would be really awesome if you add one to ChiefDelphi.com. A schedule of chats would also be cool since we could talk about different topics at certain time.
Jeff Wong
While I’m not against having a chat here, the question still sticks in my mind, “does it have to be an entirely new one?” I remember when Lora first set up the Tigerbolt Chat room(the one that I mentioned in an earlier post.) There were several teams who put a way to get to that common chat on their own team’s web site. My feeling is that, rather than competing with that chat room(the most popular of any that teams have set up right now, as far as I know,) why not just put a way to get to there on this site? It’s as easy as adding a page with a java applet on it. Not only does that provide easy use for the people who visit mainly(if not only) this page, but also keeps those who are used to using the existing system from having to learn an entirely new one, in addition to helping to develop that “collaborative one-stop FIRST information site” that people were talking about a while back.
Just my thoughts…take them for what you will…
Nate and others-
Nothing against Tigerbolt, I think that is a really great chat room. But it doesn’t cover what Andrew Dahl, Jeff and I were really talking about. I enjoy Tigerbolt Chat just to go and be silly with other FIRST people since it’s too hard to talk to all of them through different IM’s. I think that ChiefDelphi has the power, influence and experience to host a chat that is designed to be on a more professional level with set topics at certain times. Kindof a way to get immediate response to questions (as in: if you see the names of people at the bottom of the forum index and there is someone there you reeeally want to talk to about something, send them a private message to join a chat to talk about a topic, that way you can include others and wont have to communicate directly through tons of posts or private messaging). Also, it is better marketing…people aren’t going to want to have to come here to get redirected. It confuses people. People are afraid to have to click too much- as the webmaster for my team, you should have seen the complaints I got about the splash page and all of the flash menus. People just want it simple and uncomplicated. Isn’t that what Dean has been trying to do with FIRST’s game for the past couple years?
I love Tigerbolt chat, it should definitely stay the same, but I think that Chief needs a chat on their own format to be used about stuff in their forums.
Always open for discussion,
~Erin~
I’ve been thinking about this a lot and I agree that the tigerbolt chat isn’t the best solution, though it is better than a lot of things.
Ideally, it would be great to have a FIRST irc server hosted by chiefdelphi or some other team or even someplace not associated with a team (ie firstrobotics.net etc).
From there, we could have a chit-chat room, which is what the tigerbolt chat has become, a general room for discussing robots and asking questions, and a room for scheduled chats for those that like that.
With a dedicated IRC server, each team could also set up their own chat room to do team business and such. Assuming that their is an appropriate chanserv, the rooms could be password protected.
Because it is IRC, those people who are familier with mirc or another client can use that. In addition, there are many JAVA clients that can be easily set up to access the rooms. Any team would be able to add a JAVA client to their webpage, but they would still be accessing the central server.
What do you guys think? is this manageable?
Interesting comments, and I have to say I think I agree with most of them. I’m the webmaster of the Tigerbolt page…and simply put the chat up to fill the void left by the Rambot’s chat the season before. I had no idea it would be as popular as it became in only a few weeks.
I think I have to say I agree with Joe’s thoughts the most. The idea of a FIRST IRC server…not just one tiny room buried on the irc.webmaster.com server is what we are going to need. Maybe not now, but there is certainly a want for some form of live chat. It’s the next step to these forums…and although I’d hate to see my page lose traffic by switching Tigerbolt from the main “chat page” I also think that a more centralized location would be better for all. Even if it was simply another applet here that lead to the same room as Nate suggested.
It’s definately something to think about at the least.
~ lora
Tigerbolt - T73 Webmaster
I’m looking into getting a dedicated internet connection(cable) most likely sometime around January…knowing that some teams(Rambots for one) ran their entire web site off a cable modem connection, I might be able to set up an IRC server…more information to come…
Time to go research IRC servers…
Webmaster Inc. offers software for setting up your own IRC server. Its at http://www.conferenceroom.com/products/productshome.cgi, but its a little expensive ($495 for the lowest version!) I downloaded their 30-day trial software a while ago and I was actually able to set up a server on my DSL. Maybe if some team(s) are willing to cough up the money someone could purchase it and set up a server. Personally, I think it would be really cool for Chief Delphi to have their own IRC server where teams could register private channels. They could have different discussion rooms like they do on these forums and stuff. Also the chat rooms can be moderated easily and there are plenty of administration bots out there to help moderate without an actual person there moderating (3 forms of moderate in the same sentence… ha).
Anyway, I think that IRC is the way to go with chat, nothing else is really comparable. The only disadvantage is it’s a little more complicated for the newer chatters but once you get used to it, you realize how powerful it is.