New Chat Room

[Paul_UK]

As discussed in the Chat Room Abuse (http://emptyclosets.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1907) thread, I have now set up a new chat room using FlashChat.

The Chat Room link at the top of the page will take you to a page giving some important information. PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE REGISTERING.

Hopefully it should all work OK. If you have any problems, tell us in this thread.

Enjoy! :)

[Paul_UK]

If you have the old chat room in your bookmarks or favourites, please remove it and set a new bookmark/favourite for http://emptyclosets.net/chat.htm

[Steam Giant]

the "new user registration" link leads to a page that says "Profiles are only supported for defaultCMS and statelessCMS"

is this normal?

[Paul_UK]

No, I changed something and managed to break it! I'm trying to fix it now.....

[Paul_UK]

It should be working OK again now. I changed a configuration file but accidentally uploaded the default one rather than my modified one. :bang:

This happened while I was trying to install a chat logging add-on (which is now installed and working too).

Steam Giant - if you created a login you'll need to do it again as it was incomplete in the database (so I deleted it).

[Steam Giant]

Thanks, I'll get right on that! ^^

[Paul_UK]

Good to see you in there briefly, SG! There are three of us in there currently and there were four a little while ago. It seems to be working OK.

[jayden]

me and kimi were in the new chat room last night i think me and kimi were the first one to use it maybe??? i had it a bit hard to under stand how to register but did it it is very good paul you have done a good job(!) :)

[Paul_UK]

Yes, you and Kimi had the first conversation in there!

[Kimi]

Yes, you and Kimi had the first conversation in there!

All right(!!)

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

[Steam Giant]

A couple of things. First, we had a bunch of people in the chatroom the other day. I can't recall if it was 7 or 9, but it was crowded ^^ and that was fun.

Also, yesterday some people, including me were kicked out a few times, usually around the same time. Why might that have happened?

[Paul_UK]

I can only think of one reason that everyone would be kicked out, which would happen once a day. That is when MySQL is stopped momentarily while the database is backed up. I think that happens at about 2am UK time.

It was also set to allow no more than 10 people per room, which would include the main room. If there were more people trying to get in, I guess this could cause some to be kicked out? I have just increased the limit to 20 people. I am increasing things like this gradually as I don't want it to affect other sites on the server (especially the two eCommerce sites that pay for it).

[paul7836]

hmm. I doubt it was a mysql backup, as it was happening quite frequently to me at least. Then again I was using the chat room in a windows 2k Virtual machine. (so the internet could have been dropping out)

[Paul_UK]

It seemed unlikely to me too. If it was that, it would happen just once a day.

If it happens again try a traceroute to www.emptyclosets.net to see if there is network issues affecting the connection to the server.

[paul7836]

good idea, ill try that next time it drops. What it would do is put me back to the login screen, and after i login again all is well.

[Steam Giant]

for me, I was kicked off at around...oh man, was it around 2 PM? or maybe later? The chatroom would be silent, I'd say something and it wouldn't show up, and after a bit it would put me back onto the login screen. I'd log back in, but it'd kick me off pretty quickly after that. I'd have to log back in 2 to 3 times before it decided to like me again. Then, it happened again around...midnight? These are east coast times, BTW...

Oh, and when I was kicked off around the afternoon, there were much fewer people in the room...maybe 5 or 6 at most

[Paul_UK]

Traceroutes would certainly help show if it's a network issue, and would give me some info for the hosting company. If you can convert the times to GMT that would help too (if not give the time there and the difference from GMT).

[Steam Giant]

I don't know of the specific times, but a keyword search for "kicked off" or "kicked out" in the log file would find it ^^ I announced it every time it happened. As far as my estimated times converted to GMT, let's say something like 1500 and 000

[Steam Giant]

Paul7836 is in the chatroom now, and just got back from being kicked out

[Miaplacidus]

There is a little bug - when one clicks on the "Enter the chat room" link on the information page, it opens a new tab, or a new window in older versions of Micro$oft Internet Explorer...

[Paul_UK]

It is supposed to do that, so that the information page is still available. In due course this will contain more rules for using the chat, so I would rather it remained available when you are using the chat room.

[Paul_UK]

One bug I noticed when using it is that occasionally when you are in a private conversation, odd bits of the private conversation appear in the main chat room. It's a bit unfortunate as, it could be something you don't want others to see. So be careful what you say, just in case..... ;)

Also I will remind everyone that the moderators can and do check the chat room transcripts, which includes the private chats. We don't read it all through (we don't have the time to go through that lot), but we do skim through every day, looking for anything unusual. The transcripts are retained indefinitely (I will back them up and each month).

Another point is that the chat room is for EC members only. If you see someone in that you do not recognise, especially if you are uncomfortable about anything they are saying, please let one of us know so we can eject and ban them.

[Miaplacidus]

Something very odd happens to me, too - when I switch desktops on Linux (nice cube effect, you know...) by pressing CTRL+ALT+an arrow key, the typing field and user list collapse and I have to re-activate them - and they sometimes don't behave well after that.

Oh well... it is way better than Blab, so I can ignore that.

[Kimi]

How do I edit my profile that is on there? I mean I don't want my email address and my full name showing there.

[Paul_UK]

When you are in the chat room, click on your name and choose Profile. You should be able to edit it from there, then click the Save button.

If not, PM me and I will change it. I have removed your full name and email address, Kimi.

When signing up in the chat room you only need to enter your choice of username and password - the rest is optional.

Hopefully we will be able to link it into the forum database in due course, which will get rid of the separate registration for the chat room. That would make things much neater.

[Kimi]

Thank you so much for your quick responce, Paul(*hug*)

And thank you so much for your kindness and work:thumbsup: