A little suggestion...

[Jinzouningen17]

Okay, this isnt a suggestion for the forums, but more of a suggestion for the Otaku community...

Maybe(if its possible), you could get a Direct Connect Hub(incase you dont know what Direct Connect is, go to [url]http://www.neo-modus.com[/url] to find out). This way not only will we have a chat room(if you wanna use it), but we can share files with each other(such as movies{mainly anime stuff, but whatever vids people have on their comps}, songs, and so forth.). And no, Direct Connect does not have spyware. You just share what you wanna share. I mean, just a little suggestion.

[James]

[color=royalblue]Even if it is possible to have such a feature on OtakuBoards, there is no way you're going to see us use it.

Have you checked our old rules lately? You'll find that we don't support the provision of URLs for illegal materials. Clearly, a direct connect environment would allow for easy sharing for everything from ROMs to any other copyrighted materials.

So, the answer would have to be no...in accordance with our rules. [/color]

[Phantom]

Well, for a chatroom we wouldnt really need that anyway.

I was thinking about getting our own IRC server...but if not that, at least one of them free ones that operate over an IRC server....we could have it independant from TheOtaku chatroom, (which for some reason isnt all that good....ide think), make it MEMBERS only, thus you would need to be an OB member to use it, and share a common Operation/Moderation that we would have here on the boards. IT WOULD be a great idea, and Im not sure if James will try opening his eyes to this idea...sure we have a chatroom already but it reeks and it reeeks bad, and it would definately help our community...giving it not only the message board'y feeling, but the life instant open disccussion side of it, moderated, and privatised...Hmm? I guess we would have to get more support on the issue, and I dont think too many members of the staff, hell not even too many members would rally together to support the idea...We need a big member, someone well respected and well known to start the supporting thread, otherwise it will be overlooked and receive not all that much attention. (going by the way most places work....its just somthing noticable.. not bad, just obvious).

Also, sharing stuff, we can do in our own time... honestly, if we were to share movies and such...we could use the PM system to facilitate any private endevours... trust me, lol pirating movies and music is somthign these boards stand highly against...thnx for coming out though :)
Heh,thats my 2 cents.

[James]

[color=royalblue]Truth be told, I'm not happy with theOtaku.com's current chatroom.

If we could create a chatroom where ONLY OB members can get in, then that's possible. But how on earth could that be done? I don't know any way of doing it.

At least that way, people would NEED to become OB members before chatting...which would in turn encourage more OB membership.[/color]

[Phantom]

If we had a non-irc chatroom it might just work...IFFF

the only link to the chatroom was placed inside the userCP Or somthing....It would work but how would you guys go about arranging that.. Im not familiar with the whole of how vB works, but with Iconboard, you can do ANYTHING, just take the user cp menus (shift would love to do this project) , and edit the hard code that is in html and basically change the user cp scheme to include the chatroom that is non-irc .... or it could give a link to an irc chatroom..

The key issue is that someone will probably leak...and than some outsider will have the key and the name of the private channel...and the list goes on.

I dont think it wuold be a big prob... but it will be one that will most likely happen considering the messed up folk that circulate the net lookin for trouble. Anyway...

That is when MODERATION can really work...You would need a really keen set of mods who can pick out the ones who arent really members... eh...

Even if there werent all MEMBERS that found their way past the private channel and the channel key/password.... do you think that they would really HURT the place....and if they DID we would have moderators kick/bann them just as fast as they start trouble...

Just one idea...but if we got some of the really smart members to voice their opions and ideas... something good can happen here... cuz i know that I personally am not the smartest guy but with some effort we can prolly as a (hate to say it and act all pirky) TEAM, we can probably figure somthing out...heck...a FLASH chatroom would work...run right off the OB server...acessed via the CPanel, with a hidden link...so u cant truely tell where u are connecting unless ure an avid watcher of ALL your network traffic...and not many are.. bleh...so many options..

[Mnemolth]

Well, if you really want real-time chat, IRC is good. Cos, in IRC you can also share files and such, but that would just be private between people and not solicited or asked for in publicly in the channel. IRC also has litany of controls that makes things easier for mods. Of course, nothing is 100% gauranteed but you can do a lot worse.

How to get a chat going? Well the easiest way to do it would be to use the services of IRC networks already available. Then simply create a channel, in Dalnet, Efnet or where ever (I suggest Dalnet due to extensive services available).

How to keep pesky newbies from bothering people? There are a dozen ways to solve this problem. One way would be to grant 'voices' to members who have achieved a certain level of posting (or just became a member of OtakuBoards, but then you [i]may[/i] have people signing up and then going straight to the chat to cause havoc, and you'd end up with the same problems). People without voices can't 'speak'. They can join the channel, and see everything, but they can't talk to the channel.

Another way would be even more simple. You create a special thread/forum on this Board accessible only to people with a certain level of posting. On this thread you give instructions about how to get on to IRC, as well as a 'key'. This is like a password. Everyone entering the channel has to know this 'key' or else they can't get in. Of course people can still pass this 'key' around, but hopefully people who can get into the channel are mature enough not to do this.

How to get people there? Well its easy. Most people should use mIRC client to get on IRC. There are a half a dozen free popular clients out there. IRC can be a little intimdating though. So you may want to use some basic Java IRC client applet embedded on the web page to make life easier for them.

Heck, if you are technically inclined you can even install your own IRC server, then marry this Board's database to the client's allowed onto that server so that only members can log on. But this may be getting a little too technical.

For installing your own IRC server, you can check this out.

[url]http://www.networkmagazineindia.com/200109/workshop1.htm[/url]

Requires a about half an hour or so of work (if you're NOT planning to run your own IRC server, and most of this time would probably be dedicated to writing instructions to show members how to log onto IRC), but not that much technical proficiency. Only trouble is, if you don't install the Java applet (since many people may not have Java enabled in their browser; remember Java is NOT Javascript, two totally different things!), people would have to download so IRC client like mIRC, and then install and set it up, and at the end of the day, who will go through all that trouble?

So....yeah....it might not be worth the hassle. Good thing is people who eventually get to that channel really want to be there. Bad news is people may not be bothered.

[James]

[color=royalblue]Well, we already have an IRC chatroom. Even if we had a "private" room, there are two problems.

1) Non-Otaku members could chat.

2) Otaku members often use totally different names in chat -- thus making it impossible to identify anyone without asking.

What we need is something that is fully integrated into the vB. So if that can be done, I'd welcome it...but frankly we have more than a dozen more important things to do with the boards before that kind of thing happens.[/color]

[Mitch]

[color=red] You know what? I can't even go on the Chatroom we have now because my parental controls which my parents [i]forced[/i] onto my signonname block it. But, yes, I can see exactly what you mean, James. And I think it'd be better that way to.[/color]

[Juu]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i]
[B][color=royalblue]Truth be told, I'm not happy with theOtaku.com's current chatroom.[/color] [/B][/QUOTE]

[color=deeppink] [size=1]:bawl: You don't love us anymore!
lol, we ended up getting a new founder of the chat, sooo... we have new ops there. Right now, it's been going quite smooth, actually. ^_^'
There's always an op there, since we each have a certain time we come on. ^_^ It's actually improved alot in some points since we got a new founder and list of ops.[/color] [/size]

[James]

[color=#507AAC]Even so, there are really no proper Administrative controls over our chatroom. To the best of my knowledge, Adam doesn't directly choose the ops these days (though I could be wrong about that).

If the chat system was more adequately controlled, I'd probably support it more. Of course, there are benefits to it...but it's far from ideal in its current form.

If we could integrate it with the boards, that would be a perfect solution.[/color]

[Juu]

[color=deeppink] [size=1]True... Adam doesn't choose the ops anymore... Brittany got permission from Adam in getting the chatroom, from what she's told me. She chose all the ops, and if you want the whole list, I'd gladly put it up for you. ^_^[/color] [/size]

[Red]

[b]It's incredibly easy to moderate an IRC room with a good script, when people try to spam on IRC rooms I have my script boots them off, and getting things such as an L or Q bot can be customised for anti-flood controls and so forth.

A problem would be the non-OB members, but we could just give out the link to all current members via mass-PM or something like that..[/b]

[Shinobi]

This would be a great thing, with swaping of movies/MP3's and so on, it's it's just dang impossible. :(, good sugestion though.


::EDIT:: I just read Elite's Post....sounds intressting.

[Charles]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Elite [/i]
[B]
A problem would be the non-OB members, but we could just give out the link to all current members via mass-PM or something like that.. [/B][/QUOTE]

Yes, but when you're dealing with such a large number of people, I would bet my bottom dollar that the link would be passed around outside of the community. That'd be a heck of a hassle to go through for such a flawed result...

[Boba Fett]

[COLOR=green]If we require people to become OtakuBoards members before they chat, we will get people who sign up just to chat, and have many accounts that have never posted.

Just a thought...[/COLOR]

[Semjaza]

Well a few things...

The current Otaku chat works through some sort of IRC applet, which means the chat has to be hosted on some IRC server somewhere (or so I'd think lol). There has to be a way for normal IRC users and applet users to meet in the same room.

Honestly, from what I understand the current chatroom isn't that horribly busy, and I don't think an IRC chat room would result in that many more users, Especially considering that you have to download IRC or one of it's hacks to even get on, something a lot of people are too lazy to do lol. IRC isn't always exactly super user friendly (other than some basic options).

I really can't see any Otaku IRC chat having more than maybe 20 or 30 people. There are hardly ever more than that online on the boards at once.

So yeah, IRC sounds good to me and can be easily controlled. I've been in IRC rooms with 500+ users on at a time and it still goes pretty smoothly. Bots and bad users are easily removed with scripts like Elite said; even permanently removed.