Forums → News and Feedback → We need a chat feature

AG actually had a chat feature in 2008

That was probably one of the worst chats ever invented - people could only speak with their rank and below making it more of an elitist thing that anything else.

it was removed due to people abusing the feature and admins being unable to improve it due to it being run through a different site.

Bold being the reason and italics being the excuse.

I can't fathom how one would 'abuse' a chatroom feature - talking too much?
It seems that's what they are there for.

Anyhow; conversing through profiles is way to slow, you might exchange about 5-10 messages a day - there should be a notification feature of some sort other than receiving an email since I presume the majority of AG's clientele aren't the sort that check their email frequently.

Also, to converse with someone via game - we'd have to play the same game and you know...people being people don't always have the exact same interests which is why Kongregate has a highly regarded chat system as people - who play different games can converse while playing their games.

And, finally - using an external source to chat generally leads to most of those people abandoning AG, if you do recollect CountingTime most of the regulars there are now inactive on AG.

Basically; not having a chatting feature leads to people migrating to other websites.

Basically; not having a chatting feature leads to people migrating to other websites.

I agree. also I mean it will cut down on spam "comments" because some comments mods don't like even if it friendly chat with your friends.
I believe a chat would be nice, and the "comments" could be for formal congrats or basically what we use ti for now minus the chatting.

I do think the forums and profile messenger both provide a sufficient "chatting" service

I'd disagree with that.

On the forums; we have to keep to the topic.
There once was a thread intended for the sole purpose of chatting but it got deleted, though it was probably the most active the forums had been in a while.

Through profiles; you can only engage in conversation with one other person at a time, I've never seen a three way conversation because it isn't feasible with the system in place.

if there was a live chat feature it would reduce the activity in the forums which I for one would be dissappointed as I rather enjoy it.

You don't know that for sure.

one only needs to look at the average chat box at gaming sites that do feature them (or most any other sites) to see that what goes on there is about 99.9% mindless banter

I have to agree, this feature really wouldn't bring much to the table other than a bunch of people acting like monkeys hyped up on Red Bull. Though even that can get out of hand, and there's even the occasional hothead who feels the need to make trouble out of nothing. But we'll get into that later.

That was probably one of the worst chats ever invented - people could only speak with their rank and below making it more of an elitist thing that anything else.

I'm glad you remember the chat feature from 2008 so well, but even if you're right about it having been elitist, that had nothing to do with why it was removed.

I can't fathom how one would 'abuse' a chatroom feature - talking too much?

Most of the abuse would have probably fallen under the category of flaming and censor circumvention, if there even was a censor in place. Either way, it isn't difficult to bypass your average internet censor, unless you disallow certain keyboard characters such as periods and commas that can fit easily between letters and allow colorful, otherwise censored words to show up with little ambiguity. Even then, you still have the spacebar, and if you have to resort to disabling a spacebar in order to keep your chat box clean, you might need to rethink whether the whole chat box idea is right for you.

A live chat on a site of this size would basically require 24/7 surveillance, and frankly, our moderators have a billion better things to do than make sure some hooligan kid doesn't start yelling and screaming in a colorful, all-caps dialect because Dawn of the Dragons won't load for him. Right now, people who make such complaints are confined to the forums, where they usually don't expect people to reply right away anyway, and even if they post 16 times in a row in their own thread, it's a bit annoying, but the thread can easily be ignored.

But if you put such whiners in a live environment with other users, where they expect instant gratification for some reason, things could play out much differently...

dotdrulz4lyf: omg wft dawn of the dragns wont load
dotdrulz4lyf: can someone plz help me??
dotdrulz4lyf: i know im not the only on here!!1
dotdrulz4lyf: why wont it load???1
dotdrulz4lyf: is someone gonna help me or are you all just a bunch of &*^%#*^$#%*(&^( ._.)5#%3??
dotdrulz4lyf: ok im gettin realy pizza'd off now... im 9 and im really mad now
dotdrulz4lyf: WHY THE FLIBBERTIGIBBET WON'T THIS CONFLABBED PIECE OF SHORTBREAD GAME WORK??
dotdrulz4lyf: ONE OF YOU LINT-LICKING HABBERDASHERS HELP ME!!!1!!2
lilwayneswagyolo1: Well, I do say. This certainly isn't the type of community I, an impressionable 13-year-old with a bright future, should be frequenting.
dubstepiscool420: I agree wholeheartedly, my fellow game enthusiast. I'm taking my business elsewhere, perhaps to a site with fewer shortsighted halfwits like this gentlemen. How about Newgrounds or Kongregate?
lilwayneswagyolo1: I am with you all the way, comrade! Onward!
dotdrulz4lyf: UGHHHH YOU GUYS ARE SUCH FANDAGOES!!!3
Ernie15: And this is why we don't have a chat feature.
dotdrulz4lyf: ummm dude your in the chat box..
Ernie15: You're 9. Go blow a bubble.

Not to say that something of this magnitude would be a frequent occurrence, but you'd get your fair share of messes with a feature like this that is visible and accessible to anyone at any time.

Anyhow; conversing through profiles is way to slow, you might exchange about 5-10 messages a day

That depends on the people messaging each other, not the speed of the messenger itself. People have been known to exchange hundreds of messages in a day. It all just depends on how motivated both parties are to trade information.

there should be a notification feature of some sort other than receiving an email since I presume the majority of AG's clientele aren't the sort that check their email frequently.

I know right? Because clicking on your profile to check for updates is such a waste of time if you aren't guaranteed a new message from someone else 100% of the time.

Also, to converse with someone via game - we'd have to play the same game

You actually don't have to play the game at all, you just have to click on it. Certain games--Colony is one that comes to mind--have a chat box in the lobby, so all you have to do is click on the game and there's your AG chat feature right there. Two or more people can have a jolly fun time for as long as they want without having to worry about that dreadful 30 second rule that the messenger has so sinisterly brought upon us.

If you do recollect CountingTime most of the regulars there are now inactive on AG.

That's a pretty funny statement, considering that a large percentage of CountingTime regulars were actually some of the most active members of the community, and most of them were active on both sites at the same time. When you click the link I so graciously provided, take special note of their comment counts. Mostly 4-digit numbers. This suggests that even CT regulars were not shy about using the AG messenger when they had to, and you could even go as far as to infer that CT wasn't created simply because the messenger wasn't good enough.

So yes, what you say is true: many CT regulars are now no longer active in the community. But they didn't leave the community because it didn't have a chat box. They already had their own chat box. The ones who signed up after the AG chat was removed knew that there was no chat box onsite, and the ones who were here in the earlier half of 2008 remained in the community long after the chat was removed. None of them left simply because AG didn't have a chat feature. A few of them wanted a chat feature, so they solved the problem by creating their own, and it became a hub for community regulars.

Basically; not having a chatting feature leads to people migrating to other websites.

No, it doesn't. As we're all fully aware of by now, AG hasn't had a chat feature since 2008. We've had literally millions of people since then create AG accounts without their being any official chat feature, and there have been no documented cases of anyone leaving simply because of a lack of chat boxes.

This year alone, 366,079 registered players completed stage one of Kingdom Rush. 151,090 of those players stuck around long enough to defeat Vez'nan, and not one of them hesitated to do so just because the site they defeated him on lacked a chat feature.

also I mean it will cut down on spam "comments" because some comments mods don't like even if it friendly chat with your friends.

That could happen, but now that AP no longer exists, the few chat spammers who do still exist are much less of a problem, Every time they send a 3-word message to their friend, they don't benefit from it the same way that they did when the old point system existed, so it's really only a problem if the person whose profile the comment is on says it's a problem. It's still against the rules, and you can be reported and fined a hefty sum for it, but it just doesn't carry the same weight as it used to.

This would have been a great argument for a chat box a year ago.

if there was a live chat feature it would reduce the activity in the forums

It's possible that a reasonable amount of people would be less encouraged to post, but there are enough forum regulars here who prefer some form of discussion to mindless banter so that the decrease in activity, if one were to happen, would be very minor. If anything, it would weed out the people who attempt to use the forums as a chat box.

But that's still not enough of a reason to install a chat box onsite.

There once was a thread intended for the sole purpose of chatting but it got deleted, though it was probably the most active the forums had been in a while.

That was a hell of a thread, even if it was technically against the rules. Still, even on the most hectic of days, there was always some form of discussion going on, even if it was just between two or three people, and they jumped from subject to subject every three or four pages. It was really only about 50-60% mindless banter, but even that was enough to get the thread locked (nobody has confirmed why it was deleted).

And yet, I have to argue that, in today's community, a chat thread could easily flourish for as long as it wanted, as right now, as we speak, in the Tavern, we have not one, but two chat threads of practically identical content, and nobody seems to be batting an eye.

So then it raises the original question: do we really need a chat box?