A New Toolbar - Site Chat

As many of you have noticed there is a new toolbar at the bottom of your browser window. This toolbar is the new site chat interface.

The buttons from left to right:
Chatrooms - This is a public (SilentCountry.com members only) chatroom. Anyone logged in can join and chat with whoever else is in the room. You can invite online members into the room and even create your own room (though you should probably just stick to the main room for now).

I highly recommend you use the popout tab as this puts the chat in a new window/tab and you can continue to navigate the site.


Announcements - These are announcements that I may send into chats about changes being made or something you should take note of.

Themes - These are chat themes. Default and Dark. I would stick to default for now. I will be trying to teak the dark theme and add others later. These are independent of the site themes.



Over on the right hand side of the tool bar you have other options.

Who's Online - This shows you members on the site that are online. If they are available for chat, you can send a direct message to them. This is private chat window and is not an open room.

Chat Options - here you can take yourself offline and unavailable for chat if you like. You can disable popup notifications and sounds as well. This should remember your settings from each visit but this may default back - will be checking into that.

Close Toolbar - this just hides the toolbar at the bottom. Not sure why you would want to though.



This chat looks and feels a lot like Facebook but it is NOT connected to facebook nor has any connection with Facebook. Some are concerned about their privacy in regards to Facebook so rest assured this is internal to this site only.



I have always been hesitant about including chats on forums as it can take away from the forum. If useful information is being shared in chats and left off the forum then its lost. But I am going to keep an open mind here and see how this goes.


Lastly, the same rules of conduct apply to the chat. For now, if behavior that would get you banned from the site shows up in the chat then it will still get you banned from the site :-) No other way to put it. I have been very very happy with how exceptional everyone has been on the site so far. I would hope that this is no different in the chat room.


So with all that... Enjoy everyone. I hope this new addition makes it easier and more productive for everyone on the site sharing information.

thanks
Alex

Hey, that's cool! I tried to chat in the doom room, but couldn't figure that out. W/keep trying. Lookin' goood, Alex.

Ok 24 hours later and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised.
I was considering have a few rooms that were subject related (tin/news/chilling out) but I think we will wait until the usage is higher. No sense making it harder to connect with people. These things always start out slow.

Glad to see it seems to be getting some real productive value for everyone.

Working well? Remember when using the chatroom side, that the popout chat allows you to stay in the chatroom while you surf the site. Seems to be the big thing most people miss.

Glad it's working out.

Trying to figure that out....

when you go into the chatroom one of the top tabs is a popout chat.
It opens a new window where you can go in the room. At that point the window wont be upset when you surf the site in the main window.

Simple.

Works for me, the problem is... once I enter, I find it hard to leave. Too much to read. So just to stop myself becoming 'corded' ;) I might try to avoid it unless I have something really, really, really important to say ;)

Well, I am happy to say the chat seems to be doing well. My initial fears that everyone would stuck in the chat and postings on the site would suffer seem to have been wrong. :-)

I hope it is working out well for those that are using it. I will be working on some new layouts soon. Been kind of behind the 8ball with client deadlines lately. Never dull :-)

I'm not much of a chat person, myself. I tend to choose my words too slowly and carefully, to avoid ambiguity and misunderstandings...pretty obsessive about it, actually...and by the time I get ready to post, the conversation has gone on to a million other things. That's one of the reasons why I don't chat/text/IM...I'm always up for e-mail and talking on the phone though (evenings and weekends...Verizon customer)...which seems to be the things most people DON'T want to do...

I'll pop in there from time to time, but it's a difficult fit for me.

I'm phone phobic, so this chat thing is great for me. I keep telling everyone it's a good thing it's almost winter. I don't have the press of so many chores anymore and I can spend a little more time on it.

The chat option looks great Alex. I feel it the main benefit will be to help people become closer. Forum topics are one thing but sometimes just shooting the breeze is fun also.