FF6 Hacking
The future of the shoutbox - Printable Version

+- FF6 Hacking (https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Discussion Forums (https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/forum-5.html)
+--- Forum: Vector, Imperial Capital (https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/forum-58.html)
+---- Forum: Site Discussion (https://www.ff6hacking.com/forums/forum-62.html)
+---- Thread: The future of the shoutbox (/thread-3193.html)

Pages: 1 2


The future of the shoutbox - madsiur - 04-09-2016

I want to discuss the possibility of having the Discord App as a replacement of the shoutbox. Before you read further, I'll probably consider your comment not really useful and same for you poll vote if you never bothered to actually download the Discord App or at least try the online Discord chat. I'm heavily biased toward Discord, since it has many features and is actively developed.

However I'd like inputs from the community. There's no reason to make the shoutbox disappear if nobody will use the chat. The thing is while Discord being superior, we can't keep both the shoutbox and the chat because nobody tries the chat because the shoutbox has always been there. If everyone had tried both and had to chose one for the future, I'm sure the chat would be the winner.

We could do a trial period where the shoutbox disappear (a week, a month) and we use the chat. If then a majority think we should go back to the shoutbox, then we'll close the chat and go back to 2009.

The Discord app can be minimized like Skype and started at the Phone/PC startup without entering credentials.


Here's the pro and cons of both solutions in my opinion:

Shoutbox

Pros:
  • Natively integrated to the forum
  • Edit/Delete/report shouts
  • MyBB Code support (though limited)
  • Forum emoji support
Cons:
  • Can be lost with future upgrades
  • Use server resources
  • Won't be upgraded or maintained (unless replaced in MyBB 2.0 implementation)
  • Bug: Private shouts become public when edited
  • Bug: Shoutbox history display private shouts as "empty lines" that are still counted as being there.
  • Bug: Shoutbox is blank when a private conversation occured.
  • Public (everyone on internet see it)

Discord

Pros:
  • On invite only (can publicly share invite link)
  • Independent of the forum (can be used during maintenance or if server is down)
  • Mobile Friendly
  • Multiple Channels
  • Private chat available (one-on-one)
  • User groups/titles available
  • Multiples emoji (see here)
  • Voice chat available
  • Notifications
  • Basic markdown (see here)
  • Image uploading
  • Minimal CPU usage
  • URL description / preview
  • Text-to-Speech option
  • Browser support or desktop App
  • Edit/Delete messages
  • Minimal work for Madsiur
Cons:
  • No custom emoji
  • No custom markdown
  • Dependency toward Discord



RE: The future of the shoutbox - Tenkarider - 04-09-2016

i'd place "Minimal work for Madsiur" among cons  Tongue Kappa!

So in that period what would happen? a big empty space instead of shoutbox and discord in another window?


RE: The future of the shoutbox - Lockirby2 - 04-09-2016

Voted for Discord. Funnily enough, a similar thing to this trial happened on ID by mistake. The site went down for a while and people ended up using the Discord chat instead of ID chat for that time. When the site came back up nobody wanted to use the ID chat anymore. Tongue


RE: The future of the shoutbox - madsiur - 04-09-2016

(04-09-2016, 07:10 PM)Tenkarider Wrote: So in that period what would happen? a big empty space instead of shoutbox and discord in another window?

I'd move the screenshots on top of left menu (most likely right below the first menu with welcome message) or move all the left panel (with quote, menu, last posts, etc..) to the right. Either solution leave no space in the middle.

How you use Discord is up to you. There's the browser solution (web page) or mobile / Desktop app. I prefer the app, I have it always open and not even bother login and see notifications at bottom right of my desktop. I lurk in once in a while to see new messages on ID and FF6 hacking servers. It's a bit like Skype though much nicer.


RE: The future of the shoutbox - Tenkarider - 04-09-2016

@Lockirby2: quite convenient to be "just" a coincidence that incident on ID  Tongue

Well, i guess Discord deserves a trial period at least.


RE: The future of the shoutbox - madsiur - 04-09-2016

(04-09-2016, 09:12 PM)Tenkarider Wrote: @Lockirby2: quite convenient to be "just" a coincidence that incident on ID  Tongue

I don't think ID admins would go as far a taking down the server for a week in order to push the Discord chat XD


RE: The future of the shoutbox - Gi Nattak - 04-09-2016

If there was a choice of leaving the Shoutbox and having a Chat link like it currently is, I'd vote for that. I realize the Dischord chat is much better in every way but I'm sure some folks would rather just do a shout for somethings, instead of signing into and opening another window for a live-chat. So just to have both options available, I'd say why not. I do like reading and doing a shout sometimes more than a live chat. I would however love if we could have the Discord window/chat take the place of the Shoutbox there on the main page, but since this is not a possibility...


RE: The future of the shoutbox - Tenkarider - 04-09-2016

That thing would be the ideal for sure.


RE: The future of the shoutbox - madsiur - 04-09-2016

(04-09-2016, 09:24 PM)Gi Nattak Wrote: I realize the Dischord chat is much better in every way but I'm sure some folks would rather just do a shout for somethings, instead of signing into and opening another window for a live-chat. So just to have both options available, I'd say why not. I do like reading and doing a shout sometimes more than a live chat.

But the chat is a shoutbox... I see no difference except it is in another window than the forum window. I'd like to know the difference between a chat when you can peek in and "shout" your YT discovery of the moment and a shoutbox where discussions take place because I don't see any. It's not because you have the app open / set to idle that you necessarily need to have an active discussion. Also you don't need to sign-in into Discord except the first time you use it.

I see your point of having a secondary window for shouts/chat can be bothering but the advantage of the chat surpass that small disadvantage IMO. Frankly there's no point of having both the chat and the shoutbox because most (not all) people did not even bothered opening the chat once or twice and tried to participate. This is exclusively because of the shoutbox I think. I see your point as having a Discord link and keeping the status quo as a way to be able to exclusively use the shoutbox which in this case removing the chat altogether would be a better option for you and maybe others.

Edit: A Discord shoutbox should be possible once Discord release their API. However I dunno how credentials would be handled, if you'd need to login every new browser session or if it would be part of cookies. Right now Discord app remember the credentials.


RE: The future of the shoutbox - Tenkarider - 04-09-2016

The reason why i like shoutbox might not match with Gi Nattak's reason, anyway i like it due to the way i use it:
1) when i enter FF6hacking.com the first thing i read is shoutbox;
2) then i read updates to threads or new ones, starting from the less recent;
3) then to exit from that thread i return on my page, check if shoutbox has new shouts. if i read all threads then i go to 4) else i return to 2)
4) i read PMs and eventually answer them;
5) i return on main page and check if there are new shouts or updates to threads. if that's the case then 1) else i go to 6)
6) quit ff6hacking.com.

aside the fact that it's an algorythm  Laugh well, the point is not that i participate or read shoutbox because i want to do it as main purpose... i do it because i indirectly see it each time i access the main page between an action and another one.
The point is not even of keep it as desktop application if i don't want to access the chat just for the chat itself... the only reason why i communicated with skype after a year or two was because an update of Outlook added an automatic login side window to skype, so while i was reading my email i was even able to see if there was any post in skype: if Outlook didn't add that feature, probably skype would stayed close for another year.
Yeah, the point is i don't even want to open/close it as separate window, no matter how much fast the login/logout is it... when i close all stuff and i go back to hack/study/anything else that requires my concentration, having a window that tells me immediately that there's a new post/shout would hinder my activity.
Obiously there's no point in having that app if you don't even use it, at the same time it's not efficient opening 2 windows when you could have both the 2 things in the same page... pro and cons heavily depends on the personal point of view of each person.

Said that i'm looking forward to see that API being released.