litphoria

Show how many users are currently connected to a chat. Don't give their names until they actually say something, but if someone sees that there are people in a chat even if the chat is completely dead, they'll be more encouraged to speak up.

The problem with this is that some people idle in chat, even when not actively around.

The question is, does the cost outweigh the benefit? In this case, I don't think so.

The site shows what is important, the people who are connected to it and are posting. I am intentionally not showing people who are connected but not posting.

To be clear, this wouldn't be about showing every user who was connected, just give a number to how many connected users there are.

They'll idle in chat whether their avatar shows or not!

I agree with the feedback. Seeing an avatar present makes me more inclined to talk, whether they're idle or not - and maybe they won't be once I say something. Seeing something like "+ 3 lurking" could do the same.

That would show false positives, though. People may believe that there are more users active than there really are, and potentially feel disheartened when there is no response. How come there are X number of people here and no one replied?

Not really, because the number of Active users will always be the number of avatars you can see.

And besides, the alternative in that scenario is well no one is here so I guess I'll just visit another roleplay site.

To be clear, there is a number of numbers we can show:

• The number of profiles who have made a post in the last 100 posts ("involved")
• The number of profiles who have made a post in the last 100 posts and are actively connected ("active")
• The number of profile who are connected (would be "active" + "stalkers")

I'm not really interested in showing any of these numbers, though. I'd like for the site to support smaller, specific-interest channels without people simply skipping over it because it doesn't have x many users in it. Being "active" also matters very little on this site, since you can connect at any time and drop in to chat without missing a beat.

Sure, though the 24-hour expiration and 100 post limit means that chats will seem rather empty, which can make it hard for it to build momentum.

I'd like to point out something: I will idle in very active rooms like Main very frequently. The fact I haven't said anything in the past 100 messages doesn't mean I'm any less there than the people who have. If the site said there was 1 lurker there and it was me I'd be happy for it to say that. I'm there! I just haven't spoken recently.

Same goes for lurking in any room, just with an alt I haven't spoken in there with yet. Sure! Say someone is there. If anyone speaks up I'll switch to my alt.

The 24-hour expiration comes right from some chat people who hate the idea of "necroposting". You only see fresh content this way.

You say that, but Adult Main got active today all on its own, just by people posting and responding when they had the time to do so. And the main channel has had its days as well.

Yes, not saying it's impossible for a chat to get some momentum going. Just that the site should do more to encourage it.

Some people have indicated to me they would be less likely to enter a chat if they saw a bunch of old posts. We have to keep in mind chats here work differently, since the backlog is shared between all participants, without having to "idle" in the channel to get it.

Seems like a testable hypothesis. You can see if adding a lurker count makes chats more active, and you can see if having access to a bigger backlog does as well. If either one suddenly causes the chats to die off more than they are, nix them.

Personally I'd like a longer backlog. We have a KLK roleplay chat room going on (and a roleplay would not be an appropriate medium for our needs, chat expressly is as a gathering place) and stuff gets wiped out all too quickly from there. 48 hours, 72, whatever. Make it visually clear when stuff is more than 24 hours maybe?

I don't know what those people were saying about necro posts, since I've never seen that in feedback, but I think a room having evidence of life is more important than "ugh I hate it when someone replies to a post from yesterday and doesn't realize it was yesterday".

This necroposting stuff comes before chat was a thing on the site. Sometime at the tail-end of last year I talked to a bunch of people about what they liked about chats and what they wanted and took that into consideration when I was writing the chat system here.

I'm not married to the 24-hour expiration, since most of the people who said that weren't happy with the site chat anyway, though I'd push back on the more than 100 post raise until I get some time to improve chat systems to be more efficient.

Also, all chats are ordered by activity, so the closer to the top the more likely it has had activity recently.

Since the conversation has wandered a bit, made a new feedback here with my idea that would (hopefully) please everyone.

I will post something about the expiration later if nobody beats me to it.

I'd still like to be listed anonymously as a lurker in rooms I haven't posted in within the last 100 messages. An active roleplay or conversation between 3-4 people or half a day passing can boot me out of the backlog surprisingly fast even in the rooms where I'm active.

Feedback about expiration already exists

Thanks, I posted and will endorse that when I can.

This came up just now in a chat room, I'll anonymize the names to Newbie and Oldie

:19 PM · Newbie (ooc): I will say, wishin the rooms had an active user's list, that didn't require people to talk first xD

:19 PM · Oldie (ooc): Mhm. Other rooms get quiet pretty fast, unfortunately.

:19 PM · Oldie (ooc): I agree.

:20 PM · Newbie (ooc): It's hard to feel motivated to talk when I have no idea if anyone is around xD

:21 PM · Oldie (ooc): It's hard to keep a conversation going with yourself.

I tend to lurk quite a bit around here (which is also why I don't post more than I do). Names would be preferred, but simply having a lurker count would really help people like me who wander onto chats and then don't post because nothing's happening. Being in a "dead" chat feels awkward because I don't know if anyone else is there or if I'm just talking to myself.

The whole site will feel more active if I knew that there were other people in the same chats that I'm in. Right now, the only way I know other people are even in the same chat is if they post, and they might feel just as strange poking an inactive chat.

I have to stand by Squidgirl and Griz. Kinda makes the site feel empty. Which turns off newbies, and makes oldies leave. You need something to tell people that the chatroom is alive, and not just... Sitting there. Otherwise, this site might as well be Google Docs.

Avent, what's the rationale for exclusively showing users who are connected & who have talked, as opposed to e.g. everyone who's connected, or at least indicating the quantity of connected people?

Samus, I said earlier:

I'm not really interested in showing any of these numbers, though. I'd like for the site to support smaller, specific-interest channels without people simply skipping over it because it doesn't have x many users in it. Being "active" also matters very little on this site, since you can connect at any time and drop in to chat without missing a beat.

Everyone can talk about how this discourages people all they want, but it's not deniable how showing the user count encourages people to dog pile on popular rooms and leave the less popular ones in the dust. Especially if a room has a goose egg in it, then most people won't even click into the room, which is completely wrong-headed with how the site operates.

I don't know if this helps at all, but I currently don't join any of the channels other than the main channel and main adult channel because I don't believe any of the oher channels have a chance of activity.

Everyone can talk about how this discourages people all they want, but it's not deniable how showing the user count encourages people to dog pile on popular rooms and leave the less popular ones in the dust. Especially if a room has a goose egg in it, then most people won't even click into the room, which is completely wrong-headed with how the site operates.

That's all well and good, but currently all the rooms are dead.

Unpopular rooms are dead > all rooms are dead if you ask me.

Note: a user count listing active and giving the number of idlers is currently live on the testing server, so this will be coming soon!

It does not, however, list idlers by name. The only names shown are people who have chatted in the channel. This should keep it from ever being intimidating to join a channel no matter how large it is, and keep the focus on the users who are participating.

As worded, this is implemented now, yeah?

There could still be a discussion about whether idler's names should be shown, though I'm not personally interested in that.

Yeah, this is now implemented.

Current chat shows # of active (speaking) users, and # of idlers, and by summation the total number of people connected to the room at that moment.