Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Admin on May 09, 2009, 07:08:00 PM

Title: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 09, 2009, 07:08:00 PM
I'm test trialing a new forum chat. Look up for this icon and click it:

(http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/Themes/modified/images/english/chat.gif)

The chat is mainly meant for off-topic chat, and stuff unrelated to debugging robots. Remember, it won't be saved or moderated! I won't answer robot questions in chat!

A few quick rules:

1) forum is better for debugging robot problems as it's searchable for other people
2) no spam
3) don't offend people


Since this is a trial, I will see how people like it. If you have opinions or suggestions on how to change it, let me know here!
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 09, 2009, 07:17:50 PM
im having trouble logging in? do we have to create a new account somewhere?
it wont let me log in with my current sor forum password... or main site password...?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 09, 2009, 07:28:28 PM
Ok try again, I changed some permissions.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 09, 2009, 07:31:40 PM
boo yeah! James is in!
and to new people in chat:
NOTE: when you type any character in the chat that is not a letter or number it will come up with a / next to it...
just to stop a million questions about it...
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 09, 2009, 11:01:56 PM
For those who have tested the chat, I've made a bunch of changes:

nicknames banned
channels limited
when logging in, you see the last 35 posts (I can increase this if anyone wants)
font color is now persistant
the characters / and ' no longer cause problems
I granted moderator status to several people (if you use the chat a *lot*, ask me for mod status)
     - note to self, see lib/config.php

change to come soon:
guests (not logged in) will be able to view chat
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 09, 2009, 11:24:54 PM
change to come soon:
guests (not logged in) will be able to view chat
will they be able to post too?
nicknames banned
does this mean that you can only use your forum name?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 09, 2009, 11:28:10 PM
Quote
will they be able to post too?
no, spammer control . . .

Quote
does this mean that you can only use your forum name?
yea, no more (Admin) fakes!

Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 09, 2009, 11:34:26 PM
Quote
will they be able to post too?
no, spammer control . . .

Quote
does this mean that you can only use your forum name?
yea, no more (Admin) fakes!
haha, can remember a few...
is there any way to put a cap on how many posts even users can post/time frame? eg max of one post every two seconds?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 10, 2009, 12:21:38 AM
Way ahead of you, 20 posts per minute. I can reduce it if a problem comes up in the future.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 10, 2009, 12:49:55 AM
great, i really think this is going to be popular on the forum!
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: cooldog on May 10, 2009, 02:08:22 AM
i agree with SmAsH it is well deighned and easy to use.

should catch on quickly
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 10, 2009, 12:53:14 PM
I've just made the chatbot smart. Ask it questions like suggestions on robot books, which motor to use, the best programming language, servo problems, etc. Right now it has about 30 something answers programmed in.

In theory no one would ever had to answer a beginner question again, it'll all be automated! yaaaay! :P
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: dellagd on May 10, 2009, 03:42:04 PM
I'm lovin the chat feature
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 10, 2009, 04:48:10 PM
The chat system now logs everything, and has a fully searchable database:

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/chat/?view=logs (http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/chat/?view=logs)
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 11, 2009, 12:30:10 AM
hehe, this'll be interesting...
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 11, 2009, 05:00:29 PM
You can now ask the chatbot where to find robot parts, and *some* questions about common $50 Robot and Axon problems.

Over time it'll get smarter.

And remember to use normal english in full sentences, as if you were talking to a real person. ;D
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 12, 2009, 12:31:57 AM
does it know where to buy cheeseburgers yet?
you so have to put that one in there!
i love how the robot yells at you if you spell please wrong ;D
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: awally88 on May 12, 2009, 05:06:21 AM
Admin,

I was playing with the chat before, I like the idea of having an inbuilt calculator to if you type "calc 2 * 3" or "calc sin(20)" having it spit out the answer
Also if you did something like number conversion ie binary <-> hex <-> decimal

If you are helping someone in chat, it saves having to sort through a desk filled with crap to find a calculator!
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 12, 2009, 05:51:23 AM
hey admin, the image listed on the main page for the chat logo is help?
like, if you have a very slow internet, it comes up with "help" where it should be chat...
very minor but just thought id let you know :)
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: dellagd on May 12, 2009, 06:12:15 AM
also when using the google search thingy it adds "[color = teal]" and stuff like that
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 12, 2009, 09:28:02 AM
I was playing with the chat before, I like the idea of having an inbuilt calculator to if you type "calc 2 * 3" or "calc sin(20)" having it spit out the answer
Also if you did something like number conversion ie binary <-> hex <-> decimal
Several people have already suggested this . . . I'll do it perhaps tonight. I'll just have it do it using google, however.

also when using the google search thingy it adds "[color = teal]" and stuff like that
ok its been fixed (I'll update the code later today)

Quote
does it know where to buy cheeseburgers yet?
Ask it 'how do i make a cheeseburger', or heck the meaning of life . . .


Anyway, the most recent update allows chatbot to search google if it doesn't know the answer.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: dellagd on May 12, 2009, 01:52:47 PM
this is definalely the coolest chat program I've ever used. now that can be my homepage instead of google
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 12, 2009, 03:27:37 PM
how dare you banish google!
so admin, if i said "how do i eat cookies" and it didn't have an answer would it just do a google search for "how do i eat cookies"?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 12, 2009, 04:21:17 PM
how dare you banish google!
so admin, if i said "how do i eat cookies" and it didn't have an answer would it just do a google search for "how do i eat cookies"?
You should try it and find out ;)
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: offy on May 24, 2009, 10:04:35 PM
almost no one uses the chat. I don't know if people forgot about it or what. Also I think it should be IRC so I can use pidgin instead of my browser.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 25, 2009, 12:53:10 AM
yeah, i have noticed barely anyone in there lately :-\
why do you think this is?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: offy on May 25, 2009, 08:43:16 AM
The reasons I think

1) SoR has many users, and most of them just ask a question, get an answer and than never show up again
2) People don't like keeping that tab open in firefox, IE, Opera.
3) There really isn't a point for it. The site is used for help, not chat. No one comes to a help forum to talk to friends
4) I didn't notice the chat until I read around the forum. Many people probably don't even know about tha chat.
5) There is a time difference between all of us.

Also whenever I log into chat, it seems like the other person gets timed out. This could be a problem.

Code: [Select]
(10:43:28) ChatBot: offy logs into the Chat.
(10:43:32) ChatBot: Canabots has been logged out (Timeout).
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 25, 2009, 02:36:03 PM
i get that timeout thing too...
its really annoying... i just thought everyone was running from me ;D
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Razor Concepts on May 25, 2009, 03:35:34 PM
What happed to the "x users are in chat" thing? It's gone for me.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 25, 2009, 03:40:17 PM
up the top there used to just be a "3" representing he number of people in the chat...
no there is only two dots...?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on May 25, 2009, 05:39:33 PM
What happed to the "x users are in chat" thing? It's gone for me.
Its a bug that appeared during the latest forum upgrade . . . spent like 2 hours trying to figure it out, gave up, and decided to fix the other 20 bugs first. I'll look at it again soon.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on May 26, 2009, 12:46:48 AM
mines back...
up the top it says "1 user is in chat" ;D
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: dellagd on October 27, 2009, 04:25:03 PM
What time zone is this "friday night sor chat" thing in. went in on a friday night, 0 users in chat
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on October 27, 2009, 09:41:13 PM
What time zone is this "friday night sor chat" thing in. went in on a friday night, 0 users in chat
Good question . . . mostly you just need to hang around until other people join.

90% of users are in the US and Europe time zones, so I guess from 4pm to 11pm Eastern US timezone.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on October 27, 2009, 11:55:34 PM
For me its a sunday morning ;D
Anyway, on to my point. Recently i have seen near to no people in the chat, usually just the new guy in the forum :-\
Does anyone still use the chat at all?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Joker94 on October 28, 2009, 04:25:03 AM
i know, i think the thing is we look to see who is in the chat room and when we see no names we do not bother going in and waiting, i'll go in if i have time and or there is 1 or more people in there.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: rollingrobot on November 22, 2009, 08:56:43 PM
I have found a bug thats kinda annoying. You can never log out of the forums or the chat. All it does is reload the page. I am using Mozilla FireFox the newest version if that is any help. To leave the chat you have to close the tab/window. That is when people see "username had timeout." because they did not log out properly and the chat system just checks if that person still have a connection with it.

Any fix? By the way the ChatBot is really smart :P
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on November 22, 2009, 09:24:22 PM
Yea its a bug that I somehow added in and never bothered to fix because I'm always too busy with other stuff. I'll probably never end up fixing it lol :P

I'll probably make chatbot smarter in the coming months, when I hopefully have more time!
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 05, 2010, 08:00:36 PM
A new year and you still can't log out... :P
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on January 06, 2010, 12:06:30 AM
Well, just 8 months really. :P

Its low priority for me, I'll get on it one day . . . lol
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on January 06, 2010, 05:18:33 PM
Well, just 8 months really. :P

Its low priority for me, I'll get on it one day . . . lol
Not being able to log out other than just 'disappearing' all of a sudden seems like a pretty big deal to me.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on April 13, 2010, 02:28:41 AM
Sorry guys . . .

I tried really really hard to reintegrate chat, but it just doesn't work. Probably code version conflicts in the forum core files, I dunno . . .

I'll try again when I upgrade the forum to SMF v2.0 when it comes out . . . probably this summer.

That said, I did a really ugly code hack and got the AJAX chat to work fast as it should. I gave up trying to fix the php bug :-X
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Ro-Bot-X on April 16, 2010, 07:12:47 PM
So, it's Friday night, chat anyone?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: SmAsH on April 16, 2010, 07:22:32 PM
Where at? I've got nothing to do right now :P
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: propertyco on July 28, 2010, 04:06:59 PM
does SOR want an IRC? i can host it...
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: z.s.tar.gz on August 02, 2010, 01:05:38 PM
does SOR want an IRC? i can host it...
Already tried that. Solid uranium balloon.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on August 02, 2010, 01:23:47 PM
An update . . . SMF 2.0 hasn't come out yet. And I'd probably need 1-2 months after that to get it all working and rewriting the code.

So probably not till this winter the earliest I'd have it back up.

. . . well, actually its still working and usable, but its dysfunctional by my standards.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: voyager2 on August 28, 2010, 01:54:40 AM
The chat is pretty good!
How about the ability to play a game of chess with chatbot,
if really lucky and i learn JS i could do it...
That would be cool...

I hope not.
And a way of turning off chatbot's question answering would be nice...
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: ballroomdancer on March 23, 2011, 02:08:40 PM
I think it would be fun for the Chatbot to interact a little more. Like if someone says something like "hello, ChatBot" or "hey ChatBot", it will respond to you saying "hello, (name)". Same with "Goodbye ChatBot" or "bye ChatBot", it'll respond saying "Bye, (name)" or "Goodbye, (name)".
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on December 01, 2011, 05:27:29 AM
I know it's been forever, but I finally got the SoR Chat (http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/chat/index.php) working again. You can find the link in the top menu bar.

Our favorite Chatbot isn't 'thinking intelligently' yet, and the colors/theme is all ugly and not fixed, but hey I'm only one person here :P

I've given many of you 'old' members moderator access.

If anyone has any trouble with chat, let me know. It might have bugs . . .

ps - Chat is for social purposes. Forum is for robotics help.
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: voyager2 on December 01, 2011, 08:00:17 AM
Awesome the chat works!
Keep up the good work admin!

Also what does it mean if your name is blue??
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Soeren on December 01, 2011, 02:38:20 PM
Hi,

Nice to see it back!

How about adding either Swatch time or some other means of countering time zone differences?
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: Admin on December 01, 2011, 09:58:00 PM
voyager2, blue means you have moderator privaledges :P

(don't go too crazy with your power)
Title: Re: New Chat system on trial
Post by: RobotLover17 on June 27, 2013, 09:52:00 AM
Hi everybody! I'm a recently-discovered robot enthusiast! Could you hobbyists out there tell me which companies to purchase robotics from? I'm interested in researching!