Instant Chat Initiation

[Zeeblo]

Hello,

IMHO, you guys should code some sort of instant chat initiation so that members could initiate instant chat sessions with any members. Once the member initiates a chat on another member of the forum, an instant messaging chat popup window comes up and they can begin chatting.

This is very useful in many forums as sometimes some people IGNORE pm's and posts from other users so the only way i see possible to contact them is through this type of instant messaging thing. :D

I believe it's a great idea and it would be very useful for lots of people.. especially forums where people sell and buy things where communication between the buyer and seller are vital

If this idea has already been posted, i'm sorry :(

If it hasn't, please tell me what you think about my idea :rolleyes:

[Onimua]

This would probably be better as a mod rather than an actual out-of-the-box feature. vbulletin.org would be best for this.

Instant chats requires more resources from the forum, and would definetly become a problem for large sites. Not to mention how much control one could have over the features, using it for spam, etc.

If you want instant-chat, that's what ICQ, AIM, MSN, etc. are for. Just stick your username for your respective messenger service. :)

[Zeeblo]

yeah but what if they are also ignoring you on the ICQ, AIM, MSN, etc. :D

Thanks for your suggestion! I'll try posting on vB.org

[Biker]

yeah but what if they are also ignoring you on the ICQ, AIM, MSN, etc. :

Then I guess you don't talk to 'em. I NEVER list my messenger IDs on the board.

[Wayne Luke]

yeah but what if they are also ignoring you on the ICQ, AIM, MSN, etc. :D

If this is the case, chances are they will ignore you using other methods as well.

[ImportPassion.com]

Check this out

http://www.webauthor.com/products/chatxm.htm

You should be able to integrate that no problem. Just have to convert the ColdFusion to PHP

[Grover]

Hello,

IMHO, you guys should code some sort of instant chat initiation so that members could initiate instant chat sessions with any members. Once the member initiates a chat on another member of the forum, an instant messaging chat popup window comes up and they can begin chatting.

...please tell me what you think about my idea :rolleyes:

Well... I think it's a very usefull idea. In my younger years ;) I enthusiastically suggested this idea (a chat function) several times, but more recently I wasn't so sure anymore. Because I agreed with the feedback that there are already sophisticated IM-clients like Microsoft MSN/Live Messenger out there and vBulletin supports these.

But the past few days I am using a site that provides it's users with an instant chat-function. It's not a chat-room where people gather together, but a one-on-one private chat-function, which is accesible through the postbit/profile. Just like you are suggesting. It becomes possible to privatetly chat with another forummember through the forum instead of having to use an external IM client. A member can initiate/invite another member for a chat and this second member has to accept/approve this invitation to be able to speak to eachother. It all works very well.

So I have changed my mind : I think an integrated private chat-function can actually attract more people to my site. I think there are benefits to an integrated chat compared to using external IM clients. You could for example provide this chat-functionality to only paying members and I think that this will generate interest for our paid subscriptions.

[ThorstenA]

Well... I think it's a very usefull idea. In my younger years ;) I enthusiastically suggested this idea (a chat function) several times, but more recently I wasn't so sure anymore. Because I agreed with the feedback that there are already sophisticated IM-clients like Microsoft MSN/Live Messenger out there and vBulletin supports these.

But the past few days I am using a site that provides it's users with an instant chat-function. It's not a chat-room where people gather together, but a one-on-one private chat-function, which is accesible through the postbit/profile. Just like you are suggesting. It becomes possible to privatetly chat with another forummember through the forum instead of having to use an external IM client. A member can initiate/invite another member for a chat and this second member has to accept/approve this invitation to be able to speak to eachother. It all works very well.

So I have changed my mind : I think an integrated private chat-function can actually attract more people to my site. I think there are benefits to an integrated chat compared to using external IM clients. You could for example provide this chat-functionality to only paying members and I think that this will generate interest for our paid subscriptions.

So we could have private message turned into automatic search for answers within every three seconds. Then we would have an automatic face-to-face chat integrated into vbulletin without changing so much in user experience.

[Grover]

So we could have private message turned into automatic search for answers within every three seconds. Then we would have an automatic face-to-face chat integrated into vbulletin without changing so much in user experience.

I guess this is called sarcasm? ;)

[ThorstenA]

I guess this is called sarcasm? ;)

No, really not.

I do like to have changes in vbulletin but this changes should be as small as possible so that current users do not have to learn too much.

With a small AJAX plugin that would check for replies for the private message, we would have a small chat integrated in vbulletin private message system. I have suggested an AJAX check-for-new-replies plugin for showthread around a year before.

[Grover]

No, really not.

Ah, then my apologies for misunderstanding you. :)


I do like to have changes in vbulletin but this changes should be as small as possible so that current users do not have to learn too much.
On the site (non-Vbulletin) that I am on it's just a matter of pressing a button called [chat] on a user's profile and that's it. An invitation is send and when the other side accepts, you are presented with a simple yet functional/effective chatwindow and you can communicate live via this private chat. It's nothing new ofcourse, but I just changed my mind about the usefullness of functionality like this for my own site.


With a small AJAX plugin that would check for replies for the private message, we would have a small chat integrated in vbulletin private message system. I have suggested an AJAX check-for-new-replies plugin for showthread around a year before.

I would prefer a separate solution to the current private messages system I think.

[Ascor]

You can us this:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104609&highlight=vbpager
Work very good, member love it, an is separate from private message :)

[ThorstenA]

You can us this:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104609&highlight=vbpager
Work very good, member love it, an is separate from private message :)

I would like to have this product (vbpager) integrated in private message system.

[Alteran Ancient]

Nah. I agree with Onimua. These kind of things are good as a mod, but just aren't gonna happen as a default feature. PMs are enough. If you're that desperate, then go and downlaod Windows Live Messenger. If someone doesn't wanna talk to you, then that's just rotten luck.

If you're still desperate, got vbPager.

[Grover]

Digged this up from 3 years ago. In fact, instant chat functionality has been requested many times before and I just want to share a new experience with you all:

I am a member of the very succesfull and biggest Social Network in the Netherlands: www.hyves.nl (http://www.hyves.nl)

Guess what? Hyves recently offers it's million members.... an instant chat function! You can have a 1-on-1 chat with a fellow member that's on your friends list and it looks like this:



I don't have a clue how they do it (I am not a programmer), but they did it! If only vB could offer this : I believe a lot of vB powered websites wil really benefit from such an userfriendly instant 1-on-1 chat function. Brilliant this.

With the new SN makeover of vBulletin I think there really can be done more with the whole 'Friends'-aspect of it. Chatting 1-on-1 with those friends on your vB board is one of them.

[nxvc]

Great idea ! :)

[beishe8]

You can us this:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104609&highlight=vbpager
Work very good, member love it, an is separate from private message :)

Not recommended because:
Last Update: 06 Mar 2006

This modification currently contains a vulnerability. You are hereby advised to uninstall this modification until such time that the author provides a fix.

- vBulletin.org Staff

[Grover]

Digged this up from 3 years ago. In fact, instant chat functionality has been requested many times before and I just want to share a new experience with you all:

I am a member of the very succesfull and biggest Social Network in the Netherlands: www.hyves.nl (http://www.hyves.nl)

Guess what? Hyves recently offers it's million members.... an instant chat function! You can have a 1-on-1 chat with a fellow member that's on your friends list and it looks like this:


Hyves (biggest and extremely popular Social Network in the Netherlands) recently improved their functionality.

Here I have some more screenshots of what I think is a fantastic way of letting people communicate with eachother:

The moment you logon to Hyves, you will see a statusbar at the bottom of your screen (more or less comparable to the notification box in the upperright corner of vBulletin). Here you see an indication of which Friends are online (Vrienden (3 Nu online):




You can click on that notification and then this box pops up:




There you see an overview (with their Avatar) of all your Friends who are online on this very moment. Naturally you can click on those names aswell. If you want to chat 1-on-1 with one of your Friends it's as simple as clicking on their name... there you go:




Brilliant. You can immediately see which Friends are online and 1-on-1 chat is 1 mouseclick away. It is all integrated on 1 single platform. No need for external clients like MS Messenger and stuff like that. Clients like that have their place, obviously. But you can imagine what the benefits are if we can get an integrated 1-on-1 chat on our own vB powered platform!

I don't know what resources are needed to provide this kind of service (Hyves is powered by lots of servers, so if this will ever be possible in vBulletin is a questionmark. But I don't know if the amount of servers has anything to do with it... I am not a technical person), but I can tell you that it would do wonders for the interaction on my site if vBulletin would make this possible.

Jelsoft introduced 'Friends' in vB 3.7. IMHO the attached functionality should be taken much further inside vBulletin, there isn't a lot of usefull SN-functionality available at the moment within this Friends-concept is there? I think a 1-on-1 chat is a perfect example of what you can actually reach on a Social Networking site, which is -in the end- all about your Friends in the first place...

[3dsoft]

I am using an ajax chat addon. Without this addon my users wouldn't enjoy my site that much.

[GHOwner]

I used to have a chatbox-solution. But I've found that forums don't need it to be fulfilling. Depending on community response rates and activity, a forum can be better.

[Grover]

I used to have a chatbox-solution. But I've found that forums don't need it to be fulfilling. Depending on community response rates and activity, a forum can be better.

Don't know if you mean a chat for multiple users at the same time with a chat-box, but if that's the case : we are requesting a 1-on-1 chat here.

I don't have the need for a chatbox, because that will bring on a lot of issues : like moderating the groupdiscussions in it. I don't have the sources to do that. Instead, a 1-on-1 chat will do wonders for the interaction on my site. It's not a question of which is/can do better : a forum or a chat. A 1-on-1 chat is a perfect addition to the forum. Especially when you have Friends-functionality like vB does nowadays : it will really extend/improve the social networking aspect of the new 'socialized' vBulletin.

[smnoel]

Facebook has it... :P

Why not vbulletin?

[Grover]

Facebook has it... :P

Why not vbulletin?

Thanks, I didn't know. I don't use Facebook myself, but since you've pointed it out I had a look. It seems that Hyves got the 'inspiration' ;) from Facebook, because FB offers almost the exact same statusbar at the bottom of the screen:



This - a static status bar that is always visible at the bottom of the screen - really is the way to go IMHO. With Hyves, when you are logged into the site a little 'popup'-window scrolls up from behind the bottom of the screen in the bottom right corner when a Friend of yours logs onto the site. So you are immediately aware of the online pressence of your Friends as it should be. Compare this to vBulletin, where you have to go to the forum mainpage where you have to check the What's Going On / active users box to see who's online. You have to do this 'constantly' manually each time you need to find out the online status of your fellow-members... And it doesn't even show who are your actual friends in this active members list... (because with an '+' - sign vBulletin actually indicates all of the members who are Contacts of you and a Contact can be a Friend... or not.)

The only way to find out which one of your Friends are online... is to manually go to your profile...check out your [Friends]- Tab and check their online status. This isn't really the way to go, is it? Look at the bigger picture... imagine you have 5 pages of Friends in your profile. Do we really expect our endusers to browse through 5 pages of Friends to find out what their online-indicator says? Actually, it's not the only way, because ofcourse there's the Contacts Popup. But I can tell you that on my platform at least, most members are not aware of this Contacts Popup, hidden inside the Quick Links menu. Both the Active Users box (obviously) and the [Friends]-tab are more visible and therefor more accessible.

I think it's obvious why there needs to be a static statusbar combined with popups:

Exactly like those little 'popup' windows when you use MSN/Live Messenger and a Friend of you logs in. And exactly like all those other Windows applications that uses the bottom rightcorner to popup stuff... the enduser is used to this nowadays and I think both Facebook and Hyves are making good use of this. It really is very intuìtive and userfriendly to have such a static non/movable statusbar available on a site when your site serves as a Social Networking environment.

As the enduser you are just 1 single mouseclick away from direct interaction with your Friends. It's obvious what this contributes to the 'connecting people/social'-aspect of our sites. I really, really hope to see this in vBulletin 4.0

Don't know what recourses this would need, but this is one of the most used/poplular features on Hyves and really brings people together. And that is exactly the goal of my site.

[3dsoft]

This would be a cool feature for 1 on 1 chat.

[Grover]

In Hyves, you can also have multiple 1-on-1 chat windows open at the same time:



So it becomes possible to talk to different Friends at the same time. Some will find this handy, some will prefer to just concentrate on 1 conversation with 1 single Friend.

As long as it becomes possible to just have a 1-on-1 chat with a Friend on a vB platform I will be happy.

[ThorstenA]

See product LiveTopic on vbulletin.org

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=201228

[DragonlordP]

I don't think LiveTopic has much to do with what is being discussed here. On topic, I suggested this as well recently. So +1, and I hope the vb team had listened to the thread starter back in 2005 - the rise of facebook would have had a smaller impact on forums if they did. Better late than never though.