What's new

Suggestions for Chat (To Ron) (1 Viewer)

CamiloCamacho

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Oct 18, 2000
Messages
122
We have heard about the first meetings where the DVD Forum talks about a new Blu-Ray HD-DVD format.

Well, all the sites say it's in development, and i don´t know if it's possible, but a chat with them will be awesome, and i´m certainly sure that HTF has a lot of members and ideas that will be useful to the DVD Forum and the HD-DVD specs.
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
If someone could send me contact information

this may be considered.

The only problem is that we have sort of

stopped our LIVE CHATS due to IRC security issues.
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
No on-line chats for now.

There are many reasons why we have

decided to stop these chats. I'd hate

to have to type the reasons yet another

time, so let's see how far I get....

* The IRC is unsecure. We cannot fully

keep troublemakers out.

* Because of the way the IRC works, members

were bothering guests by "whispering" to

them when we asked them not to do so.

* No matter how many times we would tell

people that the "YO" procedure and the way

we pick the finalists to ask questions

varies from computer to computer, our membership

was getting very rude often accusing us of

not recognizing their "YO"s or going out of

turn.

* Members calling out questions outside of

turns.

* Members bothering Parker and I with private

messages while we are trying to Moderate the chat.

* The day after the chat, posts showing up

that attack the studios for not beding more

revealing in what they said, despite the fact

they kindly gave up their valuable time to

attend the chat.

In general, just a total amount of rudeness

from individuals who just wander in the chat

room and disrespect a uniformed procedure we

have set up for the chat.

We have studio people who take risks in

attending these chats. To have members

whispering to them, being rude, and just

disrupting the entire procedure has gotten

to the point that we don't feel comfortable

doing these chats.

We have looked into chat software that would

allow us more control, but on top of it being

very expensive software, it also has the

potential of putting tremendous strain on

our server.

Look, this is the wild and free internet.

You expect that you surf amongst immature

people that have nothing better than to disrupt

something we worked very hard to put together.
 

JasenP

Screenwriter
Joined
Dec 21, 1999
Messages
1,284
Location
Kalamazoo, MI
Real Name
Jasen
Ron,
Maybe you could set up a pre-locked thread and e-mail our questions to you, Parker, or the other Mods. You could then relay this info to the chat guest and they could reply via e-mail and it could be posted in that thread.
It sounds like a royal pain, I know, but I really do enjoy the chats.
Or....
We could submit questions to you and you could present them to the guest "interview style" You could then post the replies in a thread.
I'm trying... :)
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
Jasen.

I know you are trying and I appreciate it.

Submitting questions and doing interviews

is what all the other sites do. LIVE CHATS

is what we did best.

Right now this whole indudtry is so

turned upside down with studios releasing

P&S titles that it will become very difficult

to get anyone aboard for a chat who doesn't

want to avoid getting lynched.
 

Steve Enemark

Second Unit
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
482
Perhaps the chat could be held in some "secret" IRC channel, and only trusted HTF members are told where, minutes before the chat begins?
 

Bjorn Olav Nyberg

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 12, 1999
Messages
945
Or perhaps two chat rooms could be used. One for members, in which yo's and questions are asked, another room for visitors. The moderator would have to copy and paste questions into the visitor's room, then copy and paste answers into the member room.

I understand it would be more overhead still involved with chats, and come to think of it, the visitors login names may not be possible to keep secret, unless it is possible to keep the "online list" hidden for a room? (I'm not really knowledgeable about IRC, so I'm guessing here) so messages directly to studio visitors may not be possible to avoid anyway...

But at least it would keep the room for the visitors clean, and it would enable the moderators to revies questions somewhat for rudeness, also I imagine a chat transcript may be easier to create based on the comments in the visitors room.

It won't make the job easier I guess, but maybe it will protect studio visitors better?
 

Nigel McN

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
848
All of this refers to vanilla IRC:
The only way to stop people badgering the guest is for people not to know the nick of the Guest. However it is possible for the Guest to ignore incoming queries (automatically I mean), the minus side of that is that Ron/Parker would be ignored also. The other way to do with would be to make a secret chat room (invite only or key required) for the guest and Ron/Parker, then run #HTF like normal and then Ron/Parker could cut & paste the questions to the guest and then cut & paste the answers back to the audience, making sure not to include the guests secret nick: It is entirely possible to do without the audience knowing it is being done! You could merely start another session of mIRC (or client of your choice) login using a variation on the guests name, op or voice it like it was the guest and simply paste the answers to queries through that mirc session. A bit of work but doable. Or your guest could turn off private messages (so people can't whisper to them) and then use a secret channel to converse with Ron & Parker (if required).
You can't really do what you want to do, with the flick of a switch, with vanilla flavoured irc. what you really need is different software that has more control built into it, this would probably require running a server for it.
I have been looking at some various options, but so far all the ones I have found require money :/ ... but I'll keep looking.
if other people want to look around, here is a couple of google searches to get you started.
Link Removed
http://directory.google.com/Top/Comp...ers/Chat/?tc=1
 

Nigel McN

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
848
let me summarize that waffle a little.

you can use IRC with the guests assistance.

or resort to some other chat software if the channel operators want/need to do everything themselves.
 

David Lambert

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
11,377
As far as the cost of the chat software goes, Ron: is there any money left over from all the server donations?
As far as the strain it would put on the server: can you be specific? Is it a problem we can solve by throwing more money at the situation, for upgrades that would relieve the strain?
I'm sure there are some HTF members who would pay for the chats to live on. I'd certainly consider it.
As to the rudeness to the guests, that's something that can't be helped with dollars. Sigh. I guess this is a "you takes your chances" sort of thing, and if they have nothing to "defend", then they ought to be all right. Otherwise, they get free feedback/marketing info that they can use, so they ought to be open to even rude, negative comments. They might just have to develop thicker skins. :)
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
David,

I'll let Parker answer that question.

He can tell you what he told me and it

will sound better coming from the software

expert.

I'll see to it he replies here.
 

Parker Clack

Schizophrenic Man
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
12,228
Location
Kansas City, MO
Real Name
Parker
David:

All the chat software that I have looked at so far does not allow you to use mIRC with it. It is all server side using javascript on the web page.

What I am looking for is something similar to what we have but also allows you to moderate the chat in the sense of being able to keep people from whispering to our guest and yet for Ron and I and our guest to still be able to send private messages to each other. I want to also be able to access the chat with mIRC/Pirch as well as the web side.

So far I haven't been able to find such a program.

Parker
 

Nigel McN

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
848
in Mirc
File>Options>General>Lock>Disable>Private Chats
ticking that stops any private messages sent to you from getting through, you don't see anything when people try to 'whisper' to you.
your never really going to be able to do anything about rude people, or lag, both are built into the internet ;)
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
Nigel,

That's a good idea, but what about our

guests, most of whom do not use MIRC to

access our chats?

Our guests access via webside and there is

no protection on that end, either.
 

Parker Clack

Schizophrenic Man
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jun 30, 1997
Messages
12,228
Location
Kansas City, MO
Real Name
Parker
All the javascript programs that I have seen allow you to moderate the chat but like I said they are only available web side and not through mIRC.

So we either have a moderated javascript chat that is inaccessible through an IRC channel or we allow access from both of them and not being able to moderate them as we want.

That is the dilemma that I have run into.

Parker
 

Adam Tyner

Screenwriter
Joined
Sep 29, 2000
Messages
1,410
I believe this has already been suggested, but I'll give it a shot anyway.
What if Ron and Parker communicate with the speaker using an entirely different piece of software, copying and pasting questions and responses from one program to another? For example, Ron, Parker, and company could stay in a standard IRC chat room with the regular users and conduct business in the usual "YO" fashion. When a question is received, it can be copied and pasted into, say, an AOL Instant Messenger window and sent to the speaker on the other end. If the speaker doesn't have AOL Instant Messenger, he or she could always use AIM Express. Then, when a response is received, that could be pasted by Ron/Parker into the IRC chat room. Wash, rinse, repeat. :)
Would that work to your satisfaction? I'd really like to see the return of live chats, even if they were handled in an off-line fashion. Though other sites have discussions with studios on occasion, none that I've seen even come close to the overall depth and quality of the HTF chats...
 

Ronald Epstein

Founder
Owner
Moderator
Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jul 3, 1997
Messages
66,561
Real Name
Ronald Epstein
Adam,

That's a hell of a lot of work for us.

It is something that we will consider

though if we can't get suitable chat software.

Thanks for the suggestion
 

Nigel McN

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 23, 2000
Messages
848
ah well, I guess it never occured to me in all of that, that the guest wouldn't be using mirc(or some other normal IRC client) because the other problem with the current java setup you have (or at least last time I used it) was that you were only able to be in one chatroom at a time.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Forum statistics

Threads
356,815
Messages
5,123,819
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top