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oj

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Posts posted by oj

  1. So I was thinking more about things, mostly about the lack of faith post, and my opinion about it now isn't as extreme as when it was first posted. I realize now that I was only really bashing them instead of contributing to ways to help anything. In the time I'm writing this reply, I think I'm more calm and relaxed than I have been in a long time. Please let me hear any opinions you have on this, as well as yours on the initial post.

     

    13 hours ago, Sydno said:

    Meanwhile, bugs and improvements are suggested; they may be on the admin to-do list but we have no idea of what's in it. Users don't necessarily need to be told about everything but more communication will be a huge step forward in my opinion.

     

    @Admin has mentioned his to-do list a few times. And I was thinking that one way to decrease the "lack of faith" would be to make this list public, like in the form of a forum post.

    If we were able to keep track of what direction they plan to take things, and the progress they were making on such things, I feel that the "lack of faith" could be a little bit minimized and instead their feelings could be pointed in a more positive direction.

     

    I know things like this sort of exist already, but threads and posts from others can only provide so much information, and they're so spread out, not everybody is aware of progress being made.

    If there was something where all this could be contained in one place, maintained by the admins, I feel like it could raise the hopes of the people.

    I don't think it would require that much work, it would just be something that allows us (and them) to keep track of what they plan to do and their progress on such things.


    It wouldn't need to contain everything, like @Sydno said, as the sensitive information would obviously (probably) be removed, but maybe just the general gist of the direction they wish to take things would be nice.

    I just feel like an official source of updates on what is planned/has been done would be something that could benefit the community morale (in terms of items brought up in this thread and in others).

     

    I'm not sure if I forgot to say anything, as I my first reply I typed up got erased and I wasn't able to recover it, so I probably forgot some of my initial points, but I tried to bring up everything I had originally.

     

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    Anyhow, I'd now like to respond to @Flake's post.

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    they don't get paid, so on the most part don't do as much work as they should

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    1. Pay volunteers some money to encourage work. If they don't do this work, fire them. I'd say a lot of the current volunteers aren/t currently doing enough.

    I know this is a valid point, but the whole concept behind volunteers is that they do, as the name and wiki page suggests, volunteer work. "they volunteer their time to help xat."

    (From now on, when I say "volunteers" instead of "xat volunteers," I'm talking about those who do volunteer work in general)

    It's honestly hard to complain that xat volunteers are not doing enough work, and if you've ever done volunteer work (which I know many of you have) you know that it doesn't make you work harder if people complain that you, a volunteer, is not doing adequate work.

    In reality, I feel that the name "volunteers" (xat) represents what they do now, but yes, some may not do enough work, and I see no reason why volunteers (real or on xat) should not be removed from service if they are not being, to be blunt, useful.

    If they were to be paid (Like a salary, not just based off of doing tickets because volunteers get something for volunteering their time, anyway), I would say that the name should be changed or it could give people the wrong assumption. Because as of now, they are volunteering their time. They should not be forced to take a ton of time out of their day to respond to tickets (I know this may anger some of you), but volunteering for something should mean that you do take at least a little bit out of your day to do so.

    Many people have suggested it, and getting new volunteers is always beneficial. The more people, the better, as long as they are able to (reasonably) complete their duty and not are able to work efficiently. I'm not saying get an incredibly large number, as they would just probably end up getting in each others way.

     

    tl;dr - I feel that some people may have the wrong assumption about what volunteers are required to do (as they are volunteers), though if they do not do enough work, I see no reason they should not be removed.

     

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    Make the general aesthetic of the site better

    I also approve of the improvement of the site (not only in the aesthetic sense).

    I know recently (gosh how long ago was it even) the site design was updated to the current one, and it is indeed quite a bit better than the old one, though it is also getting outdated as time goes on.

    I know redesigning a site takes time, so it's not something that can be transformed instantly, but at least either 1) the admins think about it themselves, or 2) they allocate the job to somebody else.

     

    tl;dr - To the admins and others, Accept help

     

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    "add more useful features rather than adding more powers that unnecessary"

    "4. Stop making duplicated of already useless powers"

    "Do it every 2 weeks or so, take your time, and make the power useful and/or aesthetically pleasing"

    A lot of the current powers really are either 1) duplicates of old ones, with a few changes, or 2) rushed smilie powers.

    There hasn't been a function power for a very long time, and people are honestly getting sick of continuous smilie powers and would probably rather just not have a power every week.

    I don't feel that there should really be a set time for power releases, but instead should be done when 1) a smilie maker is satisfied with it, or 2) the function is complete. A lot of powers are released with incomplete features simply because they were rushed. These features often remain unfixed as they continue to struggle to pump out more, or there is no admin intervention in terms of them updating the broken features.

    They don't necessarily need to be aesthetically pleasing, but to have some purpose, whether functional or representational of something going on at that time, something that relates to people, something that isn't a mindless recreation of an old idea.

     

    tl;dr - To smilie makers (and others, I guess), Rome wasn't built in a day, but it did burn in one. Take your time.

    (Admins, please allow smilie makers to take their time)

     

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    3. Make these useful features FREE instead of having to pay for them.

    I agree. To put it into comparison, if you have played RuneScape (Yes, I know. Please don't laugh at me) you know that the game seldom releases any F2P features, but is instead focused mainly on the P2P player base.

    Every time a feature is released or update, xat starts to look more like RuneScape (not literally).

    However, like RuneScape, there is the occasional F2P update which cannot be overlooked in this scenario.

    Making more features available for those who 1) do not wish to pay for days, 2) have run out of days without a way to get more, is not something foolish. People might say "oh, but days are easy to get, etc., etc." This doesn't apply to everybody. Just because you (if you are one who says this) have the resources or connections to acquire what you need (or want, in this case), does not mean that everybody does. This applies to mostly everything.

    The main thing I would wish to talk about is snakerace. Yes, games should not require the person to own the power to be play. If anything, keep them all the same, as group powers. If the chat has the power, everybody in that chat should be able to play.

    Though I also believe that P2P features should not be overlooked. Not everything should be available to the F2P people, or people would just stop paying.

    Also in reading this thread as a whole, again from RuneScape, "We pay, We say." At the end of the day, you don't make your company, the customers do.

    (I do think that the css limit for people without (me) should be increased, though. At least double it, or something. (4096 chars would be cool too)

     

    tl;dr - While F2P features are something that should not be overlooked, if there is no benefit for the P2P people, they will stop paying. (I know you weren't talking about every feature, or at least I hope you weren't, but still keep this in mind)

     

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    there are simply better platforms that aren't outdated that allow their users to do more things for free

    While this is true, not all of them provide the same user experience as xat does. Powers, which you mentioned, being one of them. 

    I realize now that your last paragraph pointed this out and do not wish to restate the same things you said. 

    My opinion is basically the same as Flake's:

    4 hours ago, Flake said:

    I also believe powers are playing a huge part at the moment because it's what makes xat stand out in comparison to other platforms, but obviously at the moment they aren't good. Number 4 on my list above would really help to both increase the quality and make the user's reaction towards these powers more optimistic. Understandably, the quality of powers has gone down considerably in comparison to before in terms of usefulness, which is due to a lack of ideas.

    However, I wish to make one change. I don't feel like there is a lack of ideas, as I have seen quite the plethora in the suggestions thread. It's just that none of them become a reality. They are brought up, discussed about, but ultimately the thread dies and they are forgotten about.

     

    You talked about a poll or vote, and I feel that there should be one which includes every suggestion thread.

    The most voted ones would appear at the top of the list, while the least voted ones would appear at the bottom. This would allow the admins to easily see the priority of that which users wish to see, as you can't necessarily get a good idea just from viewing a suggestion thread, as not everybody posts their opinion on such things.

     

    tl;dr (on the second half) - User opinions are incredibly important, and often unseen, and there should be a way to keep track of their views on things that have been suggested. A sort of "suggestion leader board" would be nice. (Similar to answers on the help section? Either in the form of a list or something, or one big thread (sounds scary, I know), people post suggestions, other people vote on them.)

     

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

     

    I don't think I've ever written this much in my life.

    In regards to me focusing mainly only on Flake's post, I did wish to respond to others as well (like Danns) but it got a bit long.

    Sorry if I forgot to finish elaborating on anything, it's been a long day and I now find myself getting sidetracked quite easily. I'm also not good at putting my thoughts into words, but I tried my best to make it understandable.

    I used RuneScape as an example because it was a big part of my childhood and to me, really represents the stage xat is going through at this time.

     

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    I don't expect you to read all of it, and I know most of you won't, which I why I included underlined tl;dr's which mostly summarize my opinion on the quoted portions.

    I don't really know why I replied at all, to be honest, as I don't have much to add to it, but I felt like it anyways. I know most of you will not consider my opinion as I don't believe I have any place to talk in this, and that is fine, I do not expect you to.

    I just hope you take the tl;dr's into account, because those are really what I wanted to talk about.

    • Award 3
  2. 55 minutes ago, Karl said:

    The fact is, people are willing to HELP find them, and are open to doing it for no reward at all. The fact is once they're found they're not fixed which is the problem. Unless you actually provide the actual fix, which isn't always as easy as it sounds, then they don't seem to actually do anything with the reports. 

    100% agree. People are willing to help, and they try. If it's not something the admins can copy paste, it's not usually something that they'll fix.

    It's easy to do those on the chat side, but when it becomes a website or server issue, it's a little harder. 

     

    If you look at https://web.archive.org/web/20081028020218/http://xatspace.com/Chris, the earliest copy of his xatspace on the web (that I found),

    Quote

     

    Things I like:

    • Good chat owners
    • People who give me tips and tell me whats going on
    • People who make xat a great place and don't ask for anything in return
    • Creative glitter effects eg #up#oo (hearts)#blood
    • Subscribers ;-)

     

     

    What happened to that? I'm sure they were active in the past, but well, there's tons of those people who try today, but they continue to get ignored or mocked. @Admin

     

    (Now I now I'm just bashing on Chris here, but that's because I've had little to no interaction with Darren)

     

    There's many lists like that doc, including @LaFleur's huge topic of bug fixes, etc.

    Admins know of it's existence, they've even pointed me towards it.

    Have they looked at it themselves? Probably not.

    The only reason most of those things get fixed are because people do it for them.

    The bug lists keep increasing in size, and there's no sign of them going down.

     

    People that are willing and able to help them (like you and countless others) can only do so much without being able to do it themselves.

    (For what I'm about to say, I don't know if anything like this exists that I am not aware of, so I am bringing it up)

    It's been brought up before, I don't know by who, to put xat on GitHub or something.

    Now, this is sort of a pro-con idea. If done, it's possible that "bad things" could be done with the content/information that is involved. 

    However by doing so, it opens the doors for not just xat community members, but countless others to participate in making xat a better place.

    Then, among other problems, there is the ultimate problem, admin involvement, which is really the major thing that's holding back tons of progress on this site.

    I'm not sure it should be open open-source, maybe just some select people, and in this case, those select people's recommendations would for once be beneficial. People in the bug fixing community know other people in the bug fixing community and they're serious about it. They won't just recommend friends to give them some feeling of importance.

     

    55 minutes ago, Karl said:

    If you bothered listening to your community in the past, this thread would never of needed to be created

     

    55 minutes ago, Karl said:

    a simple way to show that they really don't care about the people who use this site

    ^^ It's incredibly disgusting. I would honestly be ashamed of myself if me, the admin of a community, replied in a mocking manner to a thread that was created to outline and aid problems on MY SITE.

     

    As for the list you included in your edited reply, most of those (like every other bug on xat) are ones that have been around forever. 

    Most of those things require either admin involvement, or enough trust in somebody to get them to do it for them.

    Among other things, if anything is holding back this site, it's them not doing anything that is not a way to get them potential income. And even then, they're reluctant to fix anything that could result in more income anyways. But hey, maybe if they keep throwing out (no offense to smilie makers who do their best) useless smilie powers, people will spend more money on it right? How long has it been since there's been a functional power? On the powers list, the last one is x2d... which isn't even a new idea, just switching around an old one, which is 13 down, so 1/4 of a year. After that, it's around 60 powers (...? over a year) until the next one that I would consider a function, which is ranklock, if that counts (unless I missed something).

     

     

    • Award 1
  3. 1 hour ago, SJBB said:

    I don't mean to sound pushy or ungrateful but we actually haven't seen anything new added to the RUBY power. The different color pawn hats only helped the EVERYPOWER emerald pawn.

    I understand where you are coming from, but like he said, he wants SUGGESTIONS.

    They're not able to come up with everything by themselves, and that is why they asked US.

    And then again, he said "consider" things being added, so it's not definite. Just if they have time.

     

    Most of the posts in this thread have been about bugs, like the pawn color when offline, etc., though there are a few suggestions in the mix.

     

    Though I do understand you listed a few in your post and it makes sense for those to be potentially added. 

    As far as I am aware, rubyflag has been worked on and should work in the future (If I understand correctly, don't quote me on this).

     

    While I may not share the same concerns about this that you do, as I'm not able to get it (not sure if you are, either), I do approve that extra things should be added and I feel that I am not wrong to say that some of these things are being worked on, even if it does not look like anything has been done about it.

     

  4. The only problem with adjusting it with GControl is that it doesn't apply to pc, which is REALLY INCONVENIENT.

    Like if I'm trying to send a message in pc, I end up having to wait 5 hours to re-send it because it was faster than they thought people should be able to send messages of that length..?

     

    Like if you set the gcontrol settings all the way up, it's fine on main, but not in pc.

     

    Like ..?

  5. 12 minutes ago, Endercrystal said:

    originally the power was going to be a group power for this reason so groups can have the option to turn it off or on

    Not actually the worst idea for this. Group power settings w/ gcontrol changing whatever.

     

    Though in my experience I haven't seen the concept really used often enough to require a group power, but to me it sounds like the best alternative if it's not a free feature.

  6. 4 minutes ago, LaFleur said:

    e.g.

    hello @user699 can you come to this chat, some guy is asking for you

    Isn't that what PC/PM is for?

     

    Edit: There's also the search feature if you really want to know where you're being talked about.

    Also, what about chats who have the options selected where they don't show up on search?

  7. 1 minute ago, Endercrystal said:

    can someone please make screenshots of how mention would work I am not a graphics designer

    The screenshots already provided give enough info.

    Only thing not shown that I think should be added is hyperlinking it to open the user's user dialog.

     

    They show the whole idea in its entirety.

     

    It should remain a feature.

  8. 4 minutes ago, Endercrystal said:

    the point of Mention is to get notified when someone mentions you regardless what chat you are in so you know who is talking about and you can join the conversation

    Same as what Daniel said, it should not be cross chat.

     

    If you are talked about at another chat you are not present in, you should not be notified.

    If you are talked about at a chat you are in, you should be.

     

    It's the same concept as other services have.

  9. 21 minutes ago, Admin said:

     

    can we have more screens showing how it would work ?

     

    sounds like any one can mention, need power to see mentions.

     

    snag is spam ...

    Free feature, not a power

    Only reason it would be a power is if it did send a sound

     

    Serves as a hyperlink to open user dialog

     

    Anyone can see them

     

    @Admin You should already have the code for it... from @Techy

  10. I'm not really sure that this is the right place to post this.

    The suggestion sub forum is more for smilie/power/function suggestions, not game recommendations (right?).

    Perhaps somebody could move this somewhere else?

     

    This is a fun game though, used to play it quite a bit.

    • Award 2
  11. 2 hours ago, Angelo said:

    Another chick themed power...?

     

    Oh come on guys! 

    still waiting on (chibi)...

    any day now...

    at least this one looks ok, the lips mouth thing looks like it's the size of jupiter though

    • Award 3
  12. 38 minutes ago, Jedi said:

    What's about a button to switch to Google or Bing API? (um)

    Good point. Save in flash vars or something, easy.

    People would be able to use whichever is their preference without complaint (haha users not complaining, good one).

    • Award 1
  13. 14 minutes ago, Christina said:

    I know from YEARS of personal experience that Bing is better and more accurate. (turkish, arabic, spanish,croatian, hungarian,greek, and serbian languages )

    However...I do not know that it would suit an applications needs or xats easier.

    I like the idea of the translator being replaced with bing if it can be done easily.  

    It can be done quite easily, and has by a couple of people as proof of concepts.

    It requires no changes to the app, only switching from the Google API to the Bing API on the request page, which those people could provide them with, if xat does not want to do it themselves, if this was decided to be a good idea.

  14. Despite what you two are saying, in my experience with translators,

    Bing translate has provided a more accurate translation for the phrase.

     

    I don't think Bing should be pushed out of the way just because Google is "more respected and used."

     

    From what I've tested in the past, Bing is able to handle grammar and sentence structure a little better than Google.

     

    Also, hovering over the words isn't going to help much on xat.

     

    And in respects to him saying "appropriate," he possibly could have just meant that the phrase is more suitable or accurate to what he put in,

    not necessarily inappropriate language, but that does appear to be what he is saying.

     

    This has been brought up a while ago, not on the forum, but on xat5 (by me), and I'm with him on this.

    • Award 2
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