New Chat Feature

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Permalink Reply by iDom on February 27, 2009 at 2:52am

Please find below a little video explaining the new features savagely implemented by Ning :P. For those having display problems with the chat and/or photo/video/music players, please make sure you have the latest version of Flash installed on your computer.

In order to grab the latest version, please visit: http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/

Also, in order to benefit the pull-out option for the music and video players as well as for chat's, please make sure NO pop-up blocker in your browser is on.



Find more videos like this on Ning Network Creators

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Permalink Reply by Ben on February 27, 2009 at 10:35am

What the hell is Ning thinking?! I can't even enter the chat and my computer is up-to-date.

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Permalink Reply by DeusEx on February 27, 2009 at 12:23pm

Ugh....this new chat sucks!

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Permalink Reply by LeavingSOE on February 27, 2009 at 1:23pm

Response from The Ning Team:

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Hi there! I saw your comment on the Ning blog, and I wanted to reach out directly.

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To the Ning Team,

I’m very disappointed in the replacement of the chat feature. Most new users joined my network because they observed our chat and decided to create accounts based on the chat conversations. Chat is the biggest draw for our network.

It also has eliminated the possibility of copying the chat log for future reference.

Finally, my community is complaining because the new chat requires Flash.

Please consider allowing the network creator to choose between the old chat feature and the new one.

Thanks,
LeavingSOE (saviorsofsaviorsofearth network creator)
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In yesterday evening's release, your social network's chat feature was overhauled and redesigned, with a new look and more features, such as audible notifications of new chats and the ability to pop chat out into its own window. While you cannot revert your network's chat feature to the old style, we're very interested in hearing any feedback you have about the new chat feature, so we can continue to improve it. It does require Flash 9, which is one version behind the current Flash 10. We hope it's a minimal inconvenience for any members that have to upgrade, as it allows us to utilize many more features than Flash 8 (think sound notifications, etc).

As for not being able to copy and paste, I've filed that as a bug. Hopefully we can improve that soon! If you have any other thoughts, let me know!

Cheers,
Evan

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Permalink Reply by LeavingSOE on February 27, 2009 at 1:25pm

Please post your suggestions and I'll pass them along.

Also, if anyone has a suggestion for an embeddable JS (non-Flash) chat, please link me.

LeavingSOE said:

Response from The Ning Team:

---

Hi there! I saw your comment on the Ning blog, and I wanted to reach out directly. -----
To the Ning Team,

I’m very disappointed in the replacement of the chat feature. Most new users joined my network because they observed our chat and decided to create accounts based on the chat conversations. Chat is the biggest draw for our network.

It also has eliminated the possibility of copying the chat log for future reference.

Finally, my community is complaining because the new chat requires Flash.

Please consider allowing the network creator to choose between the old chat feature and the new one.

Thanks,
LeavingSOE (saviorsofsaviorsofearth network creator)
-----


In yesterday evening's release, your social network's chat feature was overhauled and redesigned, with a new look and more features, such as audible notifications of new chats and the ability to pop chat out into its own window. While you cannot revert your network's chat feature to the old style, we're very interested in hearing any feedback you have about the new chat feature, so we can continue to improve it. It does require Flash 9, which is one version behind the current Flash 10. We hope it's a minimal inconvenience for any members that have to upgrade, as it allows us to utilize many more features than Flash 8 (think sound notifications, etc).

As for not being able to copy and paste, I've filed that as a bug. Hopefully we can improve that soon! If you have any other thoughts, let me know!

Cheers,
Evan

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Permalink Reply by LeavingSOE on February 27, 2009 at 2:21pm

My latest reply

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Thank you for your reply, Evan. Regarding Flash, it was not an issue with the version rather the fact that some of our members block Flash. Our members are unimpressed with the sound feature gained by switching to Flash and prefer the JavaScript version of Chat.
Here are my additional suggestions for improvement.

Fix the hyperlink issues: URLs that are pasted into the chat are not clickable. Additionally, they are not completely visible because they exceed the width of the chat window. So users can neither click nor copy/paste nor manually type the URL pasted into chat.

Restore actions: Users are missing the "/" command (for example, "/me") to generate an action. It made for a much more vibrant chat experience.

Improve emoticons: Users are disappointed with the new emoticons. There are much fewer and they do not look as nice as the previous emoticons. (See :P for an example of an emoticon that looked better before the upgrade.) Users are especially missing the Kiss, Thumbs Up, and Zipped Lips emoticons.

Allow chat voyeurism: For visibility's sake, I would prefer if users could watch the chat without participating. Allow the chat to be brought up and a user can toggle their online status on/off as they please. This was a very beneficial feature of the previous chat for the sake of drawing members to the community, as I mentioned in my original email. I value the chat voyeurs because they eventually are inspired to sign in and jump into the conversation.

Fix intermittent avatar defect: I noticed the avatars are getting jumbled. I'm looking into my Flash version to see if that could be the cause, but I'm using Firefox 3 with the Shockwave Flash 9.0 r124 plug-in.

Improve the connectivity and performance: The connectivity is very spotty right now. I'm assuming that's something that is already being worked on. Our users keep getting signed out of chat, and the lag is noticeable. (Up to 1 minute from the time you type your text until the text appears in the chat window.)

Thanks again for your attention!

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Permalink Reply by PrincessHeart on February 28, 2009 at 2:13am

sounds like less features to me XD

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Permalink Reply by LeavingSOE on February 28, 2009 at 4:33pm

It looks like Ning Chat is evolving. I received a very nice message from the Ning Team's Evan.

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Hi LeavingSOE!
First of all, I just wanted to thank your feedback. It's really terrific and helpful, and hopefully we can turn a lot of your suggestions into reality in short order. Let me dive in.

To kick things off, obviously anyone who blocks Flash wouldn't be able to participate in Chat, watch videos, play music -- or really do a lot of Flash actions around the Internet. Market research seems to indicate the numbers of people blocking Chat are very minimal, but we definitely encourage anyone who wants to participate in Chat, etc. not to block Chat. The Flash version, as you can see, doesn't just mean audio notifications, but a whole slew of other features (pop out, etc.) and is actually constructed in a different way that will be more stable and scalable than the JS version of Chat.

On the other issues you mentioned:
- Links not actually being linked is a bug we'll fix shortly.
- I wasn't aware of the "/me" feature in the old Chat! I've filed that, and hopefully we can get that back.
- We'll be adding more and better emoticons in the coming weeks/months
- I've filed a suggestion that Chat still be viewable when not signed in/online.
- There was an avatars issues that should now be fixed. If you still see anything, please take a screnshot and let me know!
- We're constantly working on connectivity and performance. If you notice any more issues, please let me know. It should NOT take a minute for your message to appear in Chat.

Thanks again for all your terrific feedback!

Cheers,
Evan

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