New chat feature

TuDiabetes Website
#1

Hi all,

Those of you who use our home page chat feature have noticed a dramatic change that occurred earlier this week. New chat! It looks and operates very differently from the one we had previously.

We elected to try a different chat plugin because many of our frequent chatters expressed dissatisfaction with the one we were using. After checking out some different options and asking some of our community members who use chat often what platforms or features they would like to use instead, we decided to go with a plugin by CometChat. It’s much more adaptable and advanced than our previous chat feature, and at the moment still requires some configuration.

This new chat feature addresses several of the biggest complaints we heard about the old one:

  1. it’s faster
  2. it allows for private conversations
  3. the language filter is less conservative

So that’s great!! However it’s not fully set up yet, so you guys are not yet seeing some of these features. So at the moment I have a list of things to work on, and here’s what’s on it:

  1. font is too small FIXED
  2. private messaging is not enabled FIXED
  3. most of us look like monsters instead of our TuDiabetes avatars
  4. language filter is not turned on FIXED
  5. you can’t scroll up to see past conversation
  6. private chatting for multiple members is not enabled FIXED

Please let me know what else you think needs to be changed, and I’ll do my best to get this working to everyone’s liking!

Thanks for your patience, everyone!! Happy chatting :wink:

4 Likes
#2

Em,

A few members had mentioned that changing the font color makes reading the conversations easier on the eyes. 0.02

Sarah :four_leaf_clover:

2 Likes
#3

For me, scrolling up in the conversation DOES work (using the wheel on the mouse) - just that there is no scroll bar until I start scrolling.

Thanks for the update, Emily (and crew)!

2 Likes
#4

I see that this new chat has potential, It would be nice though if the sound could be muted.

3 Likes
#5

Yes it would!! That IS an option with CometChat, but has not yet been enabled in our version (which is sort of a beta version, and will be upgraded soon).

1 Like
#6

I generally find chat confusing–too hard to tell who’s talking to whom, responding to which comment when and so on. So I wasn’t one of those dismayed by the plugin when the new site first rolled out: I didn’t much care for the old one either! But some of those {potential] improvements on the new plugin sound useful enough that I might be more inclined to give it a try once it’s all stabilized.

3 Likes
#7

Thanks, @DrBB. I thought I was the only one. I sometimes check in and read along as best I can, because I know and enjoy the companionship elsewhere of many of the regular chatters. But I am much too slow and too wordy and to insistent on editing my typos to keep up while participating. I wonder if we could advocate for “Slow Chat”—sort of like the whole “Slow Food” movement!..Blessings!..Judith

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#8

We are evidently spiritual siblings you and I. Grammar obsessives unite!

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#9

Oh my yes, @DrBB–but look at that—I screwed up “too” and I still find editing here awkward when I can manage to do it at all. My dad is rolling over in his grave. He always said, everybody needs an editor. He also said that you can’t bludgeon people into believing! There’s a life lesson I wish some of our extreme politicos and others would learn! Hah!..See—there I go with a free-association aside. I can’t do that in Chat Fastlane, either!..

2 Likes
#10

I’m able to log into TuD but, I can’t always log into Chat. Even though I don’t use Chat much I like logging onto it for the videos.

1 Like
#11

dear emily
blue looks easier to read than black
at least to me
thanks for everything

1 Like
#12

@Sportster, What are you seeing when you can’t log into chat? If you’re logged into TuDiabetes you should not have to log in again/separately to the chat room. If you can send me a screen shot that might help us figure out the issue you’re having.

Thanks!

#13

8/8 UPDATE:

  1. font has been enlarged, and space added before new comments
  2. private chatting is now functioning
  3. language filter is working, and has been populated with our favorite obscenities :wink:
4 Likes
#14

LOL, @EmilyC. I’m am very glad to know that the next time I try and fail to keep up with the Mad Chatters in their interesting chats, I can insert my favorite obscenities—YaSureYaBetcha!

3 Likes
#15

@EmilyC, I just logged in and to my surprise for the first time I didn’t have any problems! Have a great day!

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#16

As a native Minnesotan whose maternal family came over from Norway in the 19-teens, and who actually did have a great uncle who was a Norwegian bachelor farmer, I can vigorously endorse this sentiment. Heckofadeal, yah.

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#17

I think this community is great in so many ways. But one of the coolest features is the ability to either chat in real time, OR get to know members in the forums. I enjoy chatting because I’ve made some wonderful lifelong friends. But the more important feature of real time chat is when someone comes in and needs immediate help. Just last week we had a new member whose diagnosis was less than 24 hours old. She was given basically a brush off by her prescribing doctor and was running a bg in the 400’s. A small handful of us gave her a crash course on the side effects of running that high. She continued to feel just horrible(of course) and we gave her the push she needed to get to the ER. A few days later she came back into chat saying she had been admitted, was trained on injections and was looking forward to going home soon.

Chat may seem too fast and rushed for many. But for those precious moments that someone desperately needs help, it’s the best thing out there.

Sarah :four_leaf_clover:

5 Likes
#18

Great story on the usefulness of chat–thanks! Particularly b/c I’m not one of those who uses it very much, that’s a nice eye-opener.

1 Like
#19

@curlysarah…Bless you for the reminder. A year or two ago, I “accidentally” came across a suicidal member during my usual brief glance-in-passing at Ye Olde Chatroom. Big clue–she posted her personal # in this public place. I called her, Emily, Manny, Marie, anybody I could think of–first to get that # off our public areas. And several of us were in touch with her—etc. Might never have known.

You make an excellent point, Sarah, and I feel encouraged to do my daily /nightly (so important for the wee hours) pass-----Thank you…

2 Likes
#20

YaSureYaBetcha, @DrBB–no wonder we synch-up on various threads—My great gramma was Sami and my Mom Swedish----Great Gramma Ingasteena married a Swede in transit in the bowels of a freighter from Sweden, and diehard “Scandahoovians” that they were, they managed to end up in a place very much like the Tundra that they came from—Minnesota! Garrison Keillor has done some great “riffs” on the subject!..

I also wrote a story about it for the one-man show I wrote for a colleague. The show was called “Mythmaker”; the story called, “Dark Ships” and it integrated all the horrible experiences that our ancestors had getting here from “there”—wherever “there” was…Blessings on those in need and those who are able to help, even a little…Judith

1 Like