Personal computing discussed
Moderators: askfranklin, renee, emkubed, Captain Ned
dragmor wrote:TR has an IRC channel
Bensam123 wrote:A chatbox that automatically logs you into the IRC channel through a JAVA applet then? I've seen those done .
Bensam123 wrote:a JAVA applet then?
ludi wrote:That's one of the main reasons that I don't answer tech questions in PMs, but instead encourage folks to post in the forums.The drawback of a chatbox is that.. there is no archive of the discussion to inform or help people who come along later.
Bensam123 wrote:Speaking of which, the community could benefit from a number of other enhancements too... Like being able to see new threads that have been recently posted or highlight them on the default view for the forums. I just posted a really good deal in the hot deals forum, but I'm pretty sure no one checks it... but if there was a chatbox on the front page that said "Bensam123 just posted "OCZ Agility 3 240gb on Newegg for $199" there would probably be quite a few more people checking it out.
Bensam123 wrote:The hot forum threads section on the front page is in the centre column. I find it difficult to miss it. Don't know what you are saying it does not stand out. It certainly does for me (not to mention all the spammer threads if they sneaked in during the early morning window of most mods sleeping).It doesn't stand out though. The idea being it presents information to people that they didn't even know they wanted, but find helpful. You could go on IRC as others said and chat with TR too, but not many people will go out of their way to do that.
Bensam123 wrote:What is wrong with "chat like" threads in the Back Porch? It is not meant to be technical nor R&P.I think it will be used for chat like material that you would find normally in 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW' threads, discussion of news posts that don't really fit in with the comments, daily life attributes, and general social undertakings. It doesn't need to be strictly a Q&A...
As per what I originally said, it could be hidden by default and only turned on if you're logged in too. That fixes all the issues with people finding them ugly or not wanting to participate in them.
The Back Porch forum description wrote:IMO it is serving its stated purpose just fine.Hang out, sip some ice tea, and shoot the breeze with TR regulars.
Bensam123 wrote:And it sounds like you need to do a little researching wrt the forums here. As was noted earlier in the thread, the Hot Forum Threads link on the front page leads to this listing (and the top 5 items from that list appear on the front page), which will show you all the newly created and newly updated threads, no visiting of subforums required. If you want to see just new topics, or topics without replies, there are searches for those right at the top of the main forums page along with another link to the active topics. (And if you're logged in, above that is a link to get a list of just the topics you've already posted in).You don't see new forum threads when you're actually on the forums, unless you visit each individual sub forum.
And how visible are chats from hours or days ago, that might have something that I missed? We often have forum topics that continue to be useful for weeks or months or even years, since they answer questions that people continue to add or answers that folks continue to add to, but that's not always obvious when they're first created. Can I query a chat box for topics from months ago? Are those chats categorized so I can go look for them? Do they get indexed by search engines so people who are using Google or whatever to answer a question will find their way here?It's about increasing visability and inviting users to participate more in the community in general.
theadder wrote:What is the address of the current IRC room?
I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
Bensam123 wrote:Yuh... and you have to click links to do it or go back to the news page or keep more then one tab open... That doesn't help accessibility and visibility--
Captain Ned wrote:theadder wrote:What is the address of the current IRC room?
I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
irc.freenode.net
#techreport
theadder wrote:Captain Ned wrote:theadder wrote:What is the address of the current IRC room?
I haven't been able to find it anywhere.
irc.freenode.net
#techreport
In that case, I had found it.
Currently it is me and Steel and that's it.
I'll assume that the room just isn't active I think.
idchafee wrote:Internet Relay Chat seemed only moderately lame back in 1988.Captain Ned wrote:The TR IRC has been a tomb for quite some time.irc.freenode.net
#techreport