Just about had enough with this site!

7 Sep 2007

Quote by flower411
Pentium 4, , 1 gig of RAM, XP SP2

Size isnt everything ;-)
As always Mallock, you are quite right.. it's what you do with it that counts!
:giggle: :giggle:
Yeah ... the machine i`m using now came from a boot fair lol

It`s got a thingy that sits on the desk with letters and numbers on it and a big television type thingy and a ...ooo you know ... the mousey thing lol

And it`s got a blue light on the front and it hums !!
when ya press the on button a red light comes on too lol

It connects me to ebay and swinging heaven....people tell me it can do other stuff too !!!!! Wow !! the wonders of modern science lol

Nicked from the local politzie station and hums the dixon of dock green theme?
:giggle:

8 Sep 2007

Quote by swcpl2005
I haven`t had any real problems since beta stopped rearing its ugly head every five minutes !!!
I`m sure everybody will tell me it was just a coincidence
But let`s see what happens when they try bringing it in again.
Personally I like the way the chatrooms work, I like the layout and i like the features. None of it is particularly confusing and, honestly, it works most of the time.
As soon as beta chat is switched on the whole place will fall apart... !!!
Go on prove me wrong

Beta chat was temporarily up and running earlier today but it's now lost the "beta" tag.
If what we saw is really the taste of things to come then it's going to annoy a lot more people than it pleases. Very little progress has been made on improving the user interface which may well appeal to an 18 year old reared on a diet of eye candy and an attention span that is measured with a stopwatch but for those with a bit more experience (or actually qualified in human factors and man/machine interfaces) it falls well short of what could be developed.
We were really hoping that SH were listening to feedback from the beta testing but some major points have been missed and the opportunity to develop a chat room worthy of such a good site has now been lost.
HI,
Could you run through some of the things with the look/style/feel that you don't like. Please ignore any features that were not working as i'll come to that in a minute.
The user interface was re-designed to reflect the current chatrooms look a lot more, very simple, clean and minimalistic approach. The layout has been optimised to fit as much on the page as possible - we have to take into consideration the users on the tiny 800x600 resolution - it just about fits perfectly, and if you have a higher resolution, will expand to any size you wish, still maximising the space avaliable.
I would be interested to know what issues you still see with the interface - as far as i was aware we listened to all the feedback previously and have come up with a in interface based on the feedback we received. I won't delude myself and expect it to please everyone, but i'm always open to suggestions, and want constructive criticisms from whoever can offer it - i want the new chatroom to be a success as much as you do.
As far as losing the 'beta' tag and the issues seen yesterday. You can test and test again in the development environment, but it will always happen, issues will be found when opening it out to the public. The beta tag was removed because as far as i was concerned, the application had been tested enough, i was happy with its performance during testing (no issues were seen that was seen yesterday), and i was happy for it to go live.
The bugs seen were minor issues that will require a small amount of time to fix, they were very superficial.
Its important to remember the primary goal of this new chat is to address reliability and performance issues - its to address the problems users have with the current chat, as mentioned in the first post - problems changing rooms/servers for instance.
When we took over the site the chatroom had very little use, the chatroom we implemented was for little use - now we regularly see 1000-2000 users a night on the servers, this is why we have had to 'bodge' together 3 separate chat servers to split the users out - its less than ideal. It gets very complicated when you talk about user numbers in triple figures, the majority streaming and publishing video, chatting and flipping rooms/servers.
As far as the original point of this thread goes, i think people need to look at it at another angle - many sites of this size will just be left alone, taking money, no further development or improvements, no resources spent on taking it to better levels - just reap as much money as possible while you can.
Luckily we're not like that and continually want to develop and improve the site and the community. Hence the copious amounts of work gone into this new chatroom - yes it has issues but it will get there.
The fact i'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon replying to a thread while not even being paid sums it up - its because we care, not because of money.

8 Sep 2007

I cannot see the other test chatroom, but I know it is there as Mal is in there, any ideas.
I have cleared the cookie etc
xx

8 Sep 2007

Thanks Elliot, I'm sure many others see it that way too

8 Sep 2007

Quote by Elliot
Blah blah blah
The fact i'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon replying to a thread while not even being paid sums it up - its because we care, not because of money.

:scared: Yam talking that funny talk again aint ya??
Hope you are well hun kiss

GnV I know what the problem is wiv ya puter.... It aint supposed to hum it's supposed to sing rolleyes

Kick it and I bet ya it will start singing :thumbup:
:giggle: bolt

8 Sep 2007

Quote by Sarah
I cannot see the other test chatroom, but I know it is there as Mal is in there, any ideas.

Sarah, Mal and the other Mods can still see the chatroom, as can the OPs. That is purely incase anything else needs testing or admin wish to ask one of us if something is working :thumbup:

8 Sep 2007

Quote by Elliot
The fact i'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon replying to a thread while not even being paid sums it up - its because we care, not because of money.

Now you know how it feels rotflmao

Hi Elliot

9 Sep 2007

Quote by Dawnie
I cannot see the other test chatroom, but I know it is there as Mal is in there, any ideas.

Sarah, Mal and the other Mods can still see the chatroom, as can the OPs. That is purely incase anything else needs testing or admin wish to ask one of us if something is working :thumbup:
Ahh well redface

I am offically naughty now!! :giggle:

9 Sep 2007

Quote by willing2try_4
now call me weird butttt i can't get enough of this site at the moment sure we all have little probs now and again but have found it's no worse than any other and a lot better in most respects
mrs w xx

weird butttt!
rotflmao

9 Sep 2007

Quote by Wetkitty
Why do the rooms continually keep crashing?
Why when you look at the time someone was last online, it's always wrong?
Why are the distances always wrong?
Why does nobody with any clout ever answer the people on these boards?
You're happy enough to take people's money yet seem incapable of providing the service you claim to offer.

Hi there, i was just about to say everything you just did then i found your post and thought instead of repeating you i would agree with you. My screen keeps crashing and goes translusent and its driving me NUTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whew feel better for that. Merlleena lol

9 Sep 2007

Quote by Elliot
Could you run through some of the things with the look/style/feel that you don't like.

I'm happy to provide feedback although I can only base this on brief access. Once it's available again I'll provide more.
Having whispers in a separate fixed tab at the top of the screen I find frustrating to use. I'm used to having the flexibility to have multiple windows open on screen that I can position them to suit me. Taking onboard other users' comments about this, how about offering the windows as docked by default with the option to un-dock them if required? I think this would satisfy most users.
All users have a photos icon on their username in the list, whether or not they have pictures on their profile. Couldn't this only show when photos are available?
The emoticons are now on a clickable popup in the chatroom window - good; however the choice is a lot less than the old chatroom - not so good.
Key AUP and chatroom T&C items still don't appear as static text in the window border (as far as I can remember) rather than appearing in text that scrolls off the window when typing. Suggest they are moved so they are always prominent. No excuse for badly behaved users then.
Overall, my requirements for any chat programme are pretty straightforward. It should be easy to use and well laid out (with as few superfluous "bells and whistles" as possible), it should be resiliant (down-time being an exception rather than an expected regular occurrence) and flexible to allow for different operating systems, browers and user capabilities.
I have one question for you which I mentioned earlier in this thread - why did you decide upon building a new chatroom from scratch (from a programming viewpoint) rather than using any of the perfectly good, stable and well supported programmes already on the market? I think we're all aware that a great deal of effort goes into supporting this site behind the scenes, but I wonder whether some of it is due to having to correct things that could otherwise have been made easier in the first place for all concerned.

Quote by Elliot
As far as the original point of this thread goes, i think people need to look at it at another angle - many sites of this size will just be left alone, taking money, no further development or improvements, no resources spent on taking it to better levels - just reap as much money as possible while you can.

Sounds like you've had experience of some poorly managed sites and these are the ones I tend to avoid. I have had a lot of positive experiences elsewhere, on sites where the admins make the effort to consult their users and do a lot of testing. And they are of a comparable size and usage pattern to this site. Happy to provide further specific details by PM if you want.
Hope this is useful, whether or not my suggestions are taken onboard. I'm keen to provide specific and evidential feedback rather than just saying I like/dislike things. wink

9 Sep 2007

Quote by bbw_lover
now call me weird butttt i can't get enough of this site at the moment sure we all have little probs now and again but have found it's no worse than any other and a lot better in most respects
mrs w xx

weird butttt!
rotflmao

oi watch it you or you'll get a smackbottom

9 Sep 2007

Quote by bbw_lover
now call me weird butttt i can't get enough of this site at the moment sure we all have little probs now and again but have found it's no worse than any other and a lot better in most respects
mrs w xx

weird butttt!
rotflmao

oi you i resemble that remark! now bend over smackbottom

9 Sep 2007

Quote by bbw_lover
now call me weird butttt i can't get enough of this site at the moment sure we all have little probs now and again but have found it's no worse than any other and a lot better in most respects
mrs w xx

weird butttt!
rotflmao

oi you i resemble that remark! now bend over smackbottom

9 Sep 2007

Quote by willing2try_4
now call me weird butttt i can't get enough of this site at the moment sure we all have little probs now and again but have found it's no worse than any other and a lot better in most respects
mrs w xx

weird butttt!
rotflmao

oi you i resemble that remark! now bend over smackbottom

Promises! Promises!
wink

11 Sep 2007

i'm a non paying member (boo) and i think the site has changed dramatically over the last few years. Personally i've never had an issue with the chat rooms, maybe im just lucky and the next time I log on my computer will explode just for the whole egg in the face cliche.
I think that its hard to develop a website without some users having bugs here and there. Especially with xp and vista both being out there it impossible to have a perfect system. I think fair play to these guys n girls.

12 Sep 2007

Quote by thekentlad
i'm a non paying member (boo) and i think the site has changed dramatically over the last few years. Personally i've never had an issue with the chat rooms, maybe im just lucky and the next time I log on my computer will explode just for the whole egg in the face cliche.
I think that its hard to develop a website without some users having bugs here and there. Especially with xp and vista both being out there it impossible to have a perfect system. I think fair play to these guys n girls.

With XP and Vista most people would be happy with something that just worked! Being perfect comes later (?)
JOKE
Q: How do you make Windows better?
A: Get a Mac!
rotflmao