Server log chat issues, do we need multiple non-game chats?

[institute]

I find the influx of MLPCCG people (bless their busy souls) has ended up flooding the server log main chat area with endless discussion. I have no problem with them using it because thats what its for, but I find other possible chat is subsumed by the constant flow. I'm sure others have thought the same thing about magic players at some point. Is there any possibility of implementing multiple chat rooms (for specific plugins perhaps) that do not require you to be part of a specific game but can allow separate community talk. Just an idea.

[Trevor]

I have considered allowing separate rooms, but I'm not sure it's a good idea at this point. With a bunch of different rooms, people can't communicate well across plugins, which is especially important when one person plays multiple plugins. Also, when there is just one chat channel, people can better ask questions about general topics, like how to do something in lackey. If I segregate chat, I think it would fragment the community.

It's nice to see new plugins get more popular and I want to encourage that.

[institute]

That makes sense, but I still feel the single chat is ultimately non-functional with a multi-plugin application and this will only get worse the more Lackey in general becomes more popular (which is what you as the developer and we as users want) with fans of different games.

[Trevor]

That makes sense, but I still feel the single chat is ultimately non-functional with a multi-plugin application and this will only get worse the more Lackey in general becomes more popular (which is what you as the developer and we as users want) with fans of different games.

I don't see what the problem is. You are always going to deem some chat irrelevant to you. This is true whether the person speaking is using your plugin or not. A lot of the chat in the server chat room is social in some way, and not necessarily plugin specific. In general, you don't really need to chat at all in the server chat. You can just make (or join) a game based on the description of that game. If you WANT to read the server chat and participate there, the more people there are, the better. It may come to a point where there is a constant stream of text that flows too fast for anyone to read. At that point, I would want to make rooms or find a better solution.

Rooms may seem like a solution, but don't forget all the drawbacks that come along with them too.

[B-Dogg]

Instead of multiple rooms, would it be possible to allow users to "block" chat from specific plugins?

[Trevor]

Instead of multiple rooms, would it be possible to allow users to "block" chat from specific plugins?

That's what I was talking about. What if a person using a different plugin asks "Anyone want to play X or Y game?" and you are looking for a game of Y? What if a person using a different plugin asks a general question or gives some general information, and you can't see it? Blocking is the same as a chat room as far as what it does to the community.

People WILL talk about stuff you don't care about, whether they are currently using your plugin or not. You just need to read from the server chat what you want and ignore the rest. At this point, I don't think segregating players is a good thing for the community.

[institute]

This will be my last comment on the subject, Trevor, but I suggest you try to participate in general chat with anyone when there is another endless ongoing discussion at the time. It is impossible. The result is the most voluble conversation washes everything else way. Again, I am not complaining about any specific conversation or topic (or plugin), it is just something I noticed of late and think it makes Lackeyccg less usable than it was. I thought you might like some feedback on it.

[Trevor]

This will be my last comment on the subject, Trevor, but I suggest you try to participate in general chat with anyone when there is another endless ongoing discussion at the time. It is impossible. The result is the most voluble conversation washes everything else way. Again, I am not complaining about any specific conversation or topic (or plugin), it is just something I noticed of late and think it makes Lackeyccg less usable than it was. I thought you might like some feedback on it.

Well what exactly do you think is the solution? Even if I made separate chat rooms for the plugins, still people with the same plugin as you could annoy you just as much as people using different plugins. Conversely, you wouldn't see cool chat of people who weren't using your plugin. So I think whatever change I make would have to be independent of plugins.

You can send people private messages, and I could make a separate tabbed window that just displayed private messages, but that would just be one person talking to you. And it would be annoying toggling back and forth.

I could let people make chat rooms about topics, but that could get out of hand quickly. What if 40 different people want to make their own rooms? What if the rooms they make are inappropriately titled/themed?  This would actually make conversations worse. People would be hopping in and out of rooms. By the time you say a reply, they have already hopped out. And still it would be annoying to toggle back and forth from one room to another.

If someone is being annoying, you can /ignore them.

I hear what you guys are saying, but I don't think anyone has presented me with any better solution than what is currently in place. Anyone have any ideas that would work?

[Alastair]

What if we were to expand the functionality of the player's profile? Allow the profile to list what plugins a player has installed. Client side, it can already see what plugins a player has installed, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to have that communicated to the server and in turn other clients. This should also be able to lead to a search functionality or a 'looking for game of "X"' type option somewhere down the road.

While this wouldn't solve the issue of the chat log being clogged with "irrelevant" discussions, it would make it easier to find players for the game you're interested in.

[institute]

Since you asked, how about instead of allowing different rooms for different plugins, Lackey allows the option to make chat from other plugins greyed out so chat from your plugin will be be more obvious and easy to follow. Not different colours of the same weight but simply a light grey. That might instill some clarity without doing anything too drastic.

[Picks-at-Flies]

Can I make a suggestion? Can we have an alternative "room B" or even a "Room C".  While I am sure that it won't be perfect, it does allow *events* to move to a different room. Also, people can reasonably ask that if there is a large chat going on that it is moved to one of these rooms.

Essentially I'm thinking that Room B would be opt-in, while the main chat is always on.

[Trevor]

What if we were to expand the functionality of the player's profile? Allow the profile to list what plugins a player has installed. Client side, it can already see what plugins a player has installed, so it shouldn't be too much trouble to have that communicated to the server and in turn other clients. This should also be able to lead to a search functionality or a 'looking for game of "X"' type option somewhere down the road.

While this wouldn't solve the issue of the chat log being clogged with "irrelevant" discussions, it would make it easier to find players for the game you're interested in.

Having a plugin installed doesn't necessarily mean you play it or want to play it.
I'm not sure if broadcasting what you have installed is worth the added complexity to the interface. I let people do a public note about themselves and I intended that to serve that purpose.

[Trevor]

Since you asked, how about instead of allowing different rooms for different plugins, Lackey allows the option to make chat from other plugins greyed out so chat from your plugin will be be more obvious and easy to follow. Not different colours of the same weight but simply a light grey. That might instill some clarity without doing anything too drastic.

I don't think greying out text would be an improvement. It's kind of the same effect as segregating players into plugin based chatrooms, and the same arguments against it apply.

I think one solution would be some sort of color coding of chat. For example, you could buddy people and make all chat they do in a more prominent "buddy" color. It would also be a visual reminder of what people you had previously played with and liked in case you forgot their names.

[Trevor]

Can I make a suggestion? Can we have an alternative "room B" or even a "Room C".  While I am sure that it won't be perfect, it does allow *events* to move to a different room. Also, people can reasonably ask that if there is a large chat going on that it is moved to one of these rooms.

Essentially I'm thinking that Room B would be opt-in, while the main chat is always on.

I think that would just encourage room hopping and the deleterious effect it has on conversations. I think allowing for overflow rooms, or alternate rooms has good points, but I don't think they good outweighs the bad.