Please read below, and more posts down the thread for updates as and when they happen.
We plan to have the new chatroom out of 'beta' and in full use within the next week. I thought it best we start an FAQ as I see the same questions coming up when unsuspecting users join the new chat without realising.
So, FAQ's below. If you have other questions regarding the chat, drop me a PM, and i'll add them to this list.
Q: Where are the 3 chat servers in the new chat?
A: The new chat transparently balances itself across many servers behind the scenes, as a user you don't need to worry about this. Therefore, the chat will be one big chatroom with everyone in it.
Q: What's happening to the old chatroom?
A: The old chatroom will remain until the end of the month, after which it will be removed.
Q: Why change it?
A: The current chatroom has many flaws, both in front and behind the scenes. The new chatroom brings many advantages over the old one, such as reliability, scalability and manageability. However the most important one is development speed - with the new chatroom we can quickly and easily fix bugs, add features, meaning the new chat is only going to get better and better. One of the most popular new features is the increased video camera quality.
Q: Where is the old chat?!?
A: It's where it has always been. Click the big 'Enter Chatroom' button, you might need to scroll down a bit if you can't see it.
Q: Are there any changes to the T&C's or AUP with this new Chatroom?
A: No, these remain exactly the same.
Q: I'm an Extra's Member, Why is there no 'Extras Lounge'?
A: The extras lounge can now be found inside the 'Room List' in the chatroom itself, not on the main chatroom page.
Q: Is there going to be an i-phone or android app for chat?
A: The new chat does already work on both iPhone and Android phones. You can even view cameras on the Android (as it supports Flash, which is required to view the video). We will be working on a specific phone layout for the chat, which will work much better on small touch screens and be easier to use. You should see this in a few months.
Q: I have an Apple Mac, will I be able to view cams in the new room?
A: The new chat will fully work across a variety of platforms, including Mac OSX.
Q: How do I find an Op with no Home of the Chatrrom Ops now?
A: OPs can usually be found in any of the busy lobby rooms. In future versions of the chat we will have a 'report abuse' and 'page an op' feature.
Update,
The 'Invalid Call Back Request' / 'Blank Screen' bug has been fixed. Apologies to users who was seeing this. If you still are seeing this bug, please place a new support request in the Help Centre letting us know.
We've upgraded the servers behind the scenes which should hopefully stabilise the chat during peak times.
We're still investigation disconnection issues.
Thanks.
I've seen quite a few posts regarding the lack of testing on the chat, the reason we don't have 3 servers, and the old saying if its not broke don't fix it. Rather than reply to the countless posts and pm's i've had individually, i'll put this here so everyone can see.
Lack of testing:
The new chat has been one of the most rigorously tested features on the site. We've been testing it behind the scenes for the last 6 months, and its been available as a beta on the site for over a month. In the office we've spent many hours performing simulated load tests to test the stability, and we we're hoping that by putting it on the site as beta, a few more people would use it, sadly I don't think we ever saw it get over around 40 users while in beta, meaning a decent scale real world test just wasn't happening. Further more we've tested it on another site. We have had teething issues with this one in the last 24 hours which I openly admit too, however I would hope everyone has a little more patience to wait for one day while we fix any issues that arrise.
Put 3 servers in, it worked with 3!
The chat actually runs on around 6 servers behind the scenes now. The difference is the user list automatically combines these rooms into one list – just because you don't see 3 servers, doesn't mean they don't exist.
If it ain't broke don't fix it!
A wise friend once told me, if everyone had that mentality, we'd still be sitting in caves with our sticks eating dinosaurs. The truth is the old chatroom was very 'broke', it was unmanageable, unmaintainable, and unimprovable. I've got no doubt we've delivered one of the best chat applications on the internet today, and we will continue to improve on it in the months and years to come.
We believe we've fixed most of the disconnection issues, however it still may be affecting a number of users, which we're investigating further.
Meanwhile, we have place the old chat more visible on the chatroom page on the button to the left, so you can still gain easy access to the old chatrooms.
We've made a significant change to hopefully cut down / stop the disconnection issue. If you're still having frequent disconnections after you read this, please do let me know via PM.
Thanks,
Elliot
There were speed issues in the chat last night, we're hoping to have this resolved today so tonight it should run perfectly.
Slow loading cameras are now also fixed, any user experiencing slow cameras after reading this please do drop me a PM.
The Desktop Chat is currently unavailable, it will be back once we've sorted most of the connection issues.
Thanks
Elliot
Apologies for the downtime that update took a little longer than expected. The chat is now back and fully working.
Thanks,
Elliot
The old chatroom has been moved to a single server as the usage is now minimal.
The desktop version has been re-enabled, some users may find the desktop version faster and more reliable, so we definitely recommend checking it out! Please don't forget when installing to choose not to install the desktop icon if you don't wish to have it, you can still launch the desktop version from the site using the button on the chatroom homepage.
Internet Explorer 9 support is now added!
We know there are intermittent / reliability issues with the cams, we are hoping to have this fixed today, or at the latest tomorrow. Apologies for the issues in the meanwhile.
We're pleased to say the camera reliability issues have been resolved. The video service has been up and running with 100% uptime and no issues since Friday.
We've fixed the slow starting time with the cameras, cameras should now start within a couple of seconds.
A couple of new features have gone live today:
If you use inline whispers, each whisper now has an icon so you can easily see it in the chat.
A new whisper option to 'allow or deny' whispers. You can activate this setting in your settings panel by setting Whisper Privacy to 'Authorised'. When setting this, if a user sends you a whisper you can choose to Allow or Deny the whisper. The users you allow or deny are remembered until you close the chat.
