New Site Feature: Instant Messenger

[twistsol]

Whenever you see a chat bubble on the site near someone's username, you can now open an instant message to that person. In most cases, clicking the username will bring up their name card that has the chat bubble as well. The member also needs to be online in order to respond, otherwise the message you send is treated as a private message.

The Chat bubble is shown the big red arrow in the image below.


It will then open a chat window to this member as shown below.


You can also add additional members by typing their user name in the list of usernames shown. Currently you can have up to five members in a chat at once. The system polls every 30 seconds so it isn't quite instant messaging.

If you don't see any of these chat bubbles anywhere, you may have it turned off in your privacy settings. You have the option to enable or disable this function. This is accomplished as follows:

From your user profile, navigate to user settings --> Account.

Activate or Deactivate private messaging and / or VB messenger by using the tick boxes shown below. Note that Private Messaging must be activated for VB messaging to function.

[Dedpedal]

That’s cool! I k8nda miss the open chat rooms of the old days. I was in a Mustang group and the bs went on 24/7, along with advice on problems.

[Jim Frye]

My account is set as shown in post #1, but I don't see the chat ballon next to my name. Obviously I've done something incorrect. Or won't I see my chat bubble, only others? As in, I can't chat with myself?

[twistsol]

… Or won't I see my chat bubble, only others? As in, I can't chat with myself?

that’s it. I can see the chat bubble next to your name, but not my own.

[LCHIEN]

Makes you wait 30 seconds before you can make another entry. I can think faster than that.

So far everyone I've tried to chat with is logged in but absent from the console.

This is all well and good but when can we have a real cut and paste image insertion instead of having to store the file in my computer and then upload it to the thread and then insert it into the post... seems so antiquated and awkward over cut and paste.

[twistsol]

Makes you wait 30 seconds before you can make another entry. I can think faster than that.

So far everyone I've tried to chat with is logged in but absent from the console.

This is all well and good but when can we have a real cut and paste image insertion instead of having to store the file in my computer and then upload it to the thread and then insert it into the post... seems so antiquated and awkward over cut and paste.

Cut and paste is coming in a future release. I don't know exactly when though.

I've been debating enabling the messaging function because it just doesn't seem quite ready for prime time yet. Because they built it on top of private messaging, it has a lot of the same configuration settings. The 30 second wait is a spam prevention measure to make it difficult for someone or a bot to PM everyone on the site.

[twistsol]

I also just checked the configuration and a user will show as online for an hour after their last activity. This was increased at some point because some of us spend a lot of time composing posts and would get disconnected before the post was complete.

[capncarl]

I just used the chat bubble with iPhone and couldn’t get back to the site, lt just stayed in chat

[twistsol]

On IOS in Safari, and I presume other browers as well, you need to use the browsers back button to get out of the messenger. I didn't test whether refreshes which occur every thirty seconds add a a page to the history or if it would only be a singe page refreshed multiple times.

[capncarl]

Sorry, no back button there… I looked, Not my first rodeo either.

[leehljp]

moved to the correct thread/topic!

[capncarl]

This is not a complaint

Any idea what the procedure in adding photos after text has been entered? Sometimes the photos are inserted at the top of the page, forcing the text to the bottom, and I when 2 photos are added the text may be between the photos.

If the photos are to be inserted on the page, is there a procedure in doing so where the photos are inserted in a particular order?

I am using an IPad.

capncarl

[LCHIEN]

I think the same editor tools are used as with the thread post entry.

1. Upload the pictures
2. Place the cursor where you want the picture to go
3. click ( I use medium or small) to enter the selected size pic at the place where you last had the cursor.

I find that uploading and then not placing the cursor (skipping step 2) and then inserting the pic has unpredictable results where it lands!
Sort of a bug!

[capncarl]

When a comment is added to a post, it does not bring the thread back to the top on Recent Posts. Is it working correctly or is it another bug?
I say this because someone can comment on a post that is way down on the list and may never be seen by others.

[LCHIEN]

That is true. It would be nice if comments added to a post would bring the post back to the recent posts. However that make some issues such if the comment is added to a post that is not the last one, how does it get pointed to?

[twistsol]

Menu item for "Recent Posts" is strictly chronological by post date and does not take into account comments. This is intended to be used by someone who is not logged into the site to get a quick view of of what has been posted recently.

If you want to see anything new that has occurred, use the "New Posts" which does show comments, but only those that are unread by you. The "New Posts" option doesn't show up for users who haven't logged into the site because the read tracking is done on a user by user basis. The output listing also distinguishes between new topics, replies, and comments.

I've a looked to see if I can add the comments in to this screen, but that data type is not available in the search module used to build the "Recent Posts" screen.