Shoutbox = Shitbox

That's why I just use the shoutbox when I really need it..There are some immature people in this forum that sometimes forcing their opinion, trolling, or try to start a flame war. I think there will be no effective solution for this problem..And even the mods can't handle this. My solution is just ignore that immature people

Ignoring the problem won't solve it.
That's why I say just change to a different chatbox or improve this shoutbox with moderation capabilities(I don't know if it does.)

It does have moderation abilities, you can delete the entry but I don't think it erases it from everyones screen tbh. The only thing we can do now is warn/ban people for being rude. Other than that nothing else can be done right now, the suggestions are good and bad and everything will have a flaw. Until mkerix thinks its right that's all were gonna be able to do.

I was thinking of a warning function on profiles/shoutbox, but it will just get abused and well used by Flamex.
Its pretty much a waiting game, and see what mKeRix haves in mind.

Terran Ghost wrote:

Neat looking chatboxes are pretty much ones for JTV/TwitchTV. Although, they aren't really chatboxes. Just LIVE chats that people can still chat on.
Theres also xat chatboxes that I remember awhile back when Shadowleggy was around.

This is pretty much what we're discussing now Rachey, unless someone with php knowledge can improve the shoutbox we have now.

I'm capable of coding in PHP, but using our software means way more than that. Without having to script 3rd party control centers that hook in the database externally, you'd need to combine PHP, AJAX, Smarty and SQL to extend the shoutbox in that way. Another bad thing about doing that would be the massively increased serverload. We can delete messages and warn people easily, but it doesn't pop up on screens that already received the message, simply due to the fact that our MySQL database stores all messages in one table, which gets bigger and bigger over time. Now, sending the request to load the last 20 messages new every 5 seconds would end up in some design flaws and the MySQL servers breaking down more easily.
The shoutbox is more or less the best tool you can use for sites like this one, because of one reason: the simplicity. You type a message, and it arrives. You don't need to connect to an IRC server and type in commands, it just works. Most of our visitors are rather young, so this forum needs to be easy to use, our visitors need to get the basics of this easily instead of having to learn for days until they can finally figure out how to even post something.
We know this problem however, and it's like that in every more or less popular live chat, just look around. The best way would probably just not answering and messaging a mod with a quote.

I understand for the simplicity, and know MySQL is annoying. But without having to go deeper into other languages, can't you add the ability to time out members from using the shoutbox? Just curious as a PAWN programmer.

I don't get the huge fuss over this. If the shout box bothers so many oh so much then just stick to Skype or the sort, eh?
Kids are kids(yes, I'm a kid too), newer bros are newer bros, immature as they may be.
I'm not saying there should be no discipline- and I shouldn't be partaking into this conversation as much since I haven't been active at all lately- but from what's been said I don't think a thing will be done. (Barely read through your posts.)
But anyhow, not meaning to be one-sided; I've seen that most of the newer bros -have- certainly been far more rude, immature, take it as you may, but they're here for the same reason as you. And if not? Then whatever you mods/admins can do, do it.
And as for anyone actually reading this: hi. I like your face.

Just another quick thought, everyone seems to agree that it's mainly new people ruining the shoutbox? Is there not a way to make the shoutbox off limits unless you've been part of the site for a certain amount of time? I think some of these shoutbox users need to EARN their right to use it.

Rach, it have been said before. Still i would think its a good idea.
But it feels like we are taking away stuff from the new users even more.
I would say 12h or 30 Activity Points.

I wholeheartedly agree with that idea, and I have before. You shouldn't be able to come on here, make an account, and then immediately abuse the shoutbox by spamming on it.
I think they should post a few active things on the forums first and try to get some idea of how this works, then the limitation could be removed after a certain time.

I'm not trying to be a dictatorship here, but it's always been a good idea.
I mean, how come you can't immediately PM more than a certain number of words,
yet you can spam "f**k you and your mom too" in the shoutbox all night long as soon as you sign up?

I've ignored the shoutbox here, recently.
If sticking to Skype is what we have to do to avoid it, i'm fine with it.
I have no problem with NEW users on the forums,
I just can't stand getting on the shoutbox to say hello
and seeing some guy spam his terrible youtube channel
8,000 times.

I generally say the same sort of thing when a thread like this comes up, or someone mentions something about how the 'forum has gone down hill'. This is what happens when you have THIS many people together in a small area. Forums aren't very big spaces, there isn't very much elbow space. So when a forum gets popular, especially when it gets popular suddenly things tend to go down hill fast.
There's nothing you can do about it. Nothing at all. You can add mods, add rules etc, in the end people are people. You get a lot of people together, especially on the internet, shit is going to go down. Fan forums are generally the worst for this. Mostly because the people who join are usually the 'passionate' ones to start with. So they tend to get over excited easier.
All this is showing up in the shoutbox more, mostly because A) it's easier to post and get attention instantly there and B) it's harder to moderate. With the forum, someone makes a stupid post, the mods get rid of it, you don't see it and it's really hard to get a good idea of how bad it is because of that. With the shoutbox because it's instant and so fast paced with everyone reading and responding, things get passed on more and are noticed more. It's easier to notice the stupid.
If the mods try to do more then they are doing, chances are people are going to start pointing fingers about abuse of power etc. It's a really sensitive situation from what I see. No one likes being the one being warned, and rarely do people think they deserve it. I'm the same way, we all are. It's just the way we are as human beings nothing wrong with that. Still it makes it a real catch 22 for them.
Switching to another chat client probably won't work. I doubt a slightly different interface will make them realize 'Oh I'm annoying people. Maybe I should stop.' Stranger things have happened though.
About the censor, please don't. They'll use chat speak, and I really can't handle the eye rape.
The only thing I can see working is maybe the post count, though that would probably lead to forum spamming. You might be okay with rep count, but with the new rep system people are a little sparse with the reps.
....And yes that was my rant/ramble on this matter

I know that limiting the shoutbox to someone who has had a certain number of posts might lead to spamming the forums to get their postcount up.
But, it also might lead to people actually going to someone else's topic and providing a decent reply to it.
In a way, it could even show them how to be a valuable member of the boards by READING and REPLYING properly.

It goes both ways.

Instead, some people sign up here, then they spam the shoutbox every day,
but they never post on the forums or provide anything relevant to the topics at hand.
They just linger and infect the rest of the box with their annoyances.

You're right, it might be harder to moderate if we put a gate up on how many posts you should have,
but at least the forums are manageable by the mods as opposed to the instant spam box.

Blocking the shoutbox for new users would destroy the idea of people being able to come here at times to chat with Pewdie when he announces it. I know many people don't like when that happens, but it is traffic, and traffic is what this site lives from. We get over 10.000 unique visitors daily, it is impossible to control everything. This project is big, maybe even too big to be handled by a small team like ours, but bigger teams would make it worse. I already put a lot of time into this thing, and managing a big team of moderators would take away even more time that I could use for adding new things or real life stuff I have to care of.
However, here's my offer: As you probably know, some features are already limited when registering and get enabled by activity/time. We could simply give new users the limit of 20 or 30 seconds until they can post another message. That would help us to keep control, and keep possible spam away from you.

So limit their time to 20 seconds between shoutbox posts, and that would just be removed once they've spent a short time on the forums?
I would be okay with that.

I'm not going against how you've set the forums up,
I think it works how it is.
And I'm not worried about when pewdie comes to chat with fans,
that's bound to happen. Traffic will always increase around that time.

My concern was when you have a few people conversing like normal human beings,
and one new guy comes in spamming and talking to himself and can't calm down for two seconds.
So i guess your resolution would at least create a small buffer so they realize it's not okay
to just talk about smashing their heads into their computer screen and keep spamming,
"HELLO IS ANYONE HERE?" over and over again.

Which chat? The chatbox turns into a quote box. Noone really willing to talk normally , they just be like "BARRELZ/STEPHANO/PPPPEWDIEPIE/CHOPNESE" etc.

Anyway , is there no a plugin which allows a more advanced shoutbox while keeping like the same look?

Kneesocks wrote:

mKeRix wrote:

Blocking the shoutbox for new users would destroy the idea of people being able to come here at times to chat with Pewdie when he announces it.

Which chat? The chatbox turns into a quote box. Noone really willing to talk normally , they just be like "BARRELZ/STEPHANO/PPPPEWDIEPIE/CHOPNESE" etc.

Anyway , is there no a plugin which allows a more advanced shoutbox while keeping like the same look?

To be fair pewdie doesn't pay attention to those and actually answers real questions. So people will get the gist and acting rationally after a while.

Yeah the shoutbox is not used for chatting anymore. Just quotes and roleplay it seems.

Well, there is a roleplay section and someone would tell them most likely.
The Mods/Flamex/Chris/Me or someone that knows the rules to an extent.

I can understand why adding more moderators can make things harder, but once new mods are added and they get the hang of everything, they should really be able to deal with things themselves, taking pressure off the admins and such. In my experiences of operating forums, I know there were ways to create moderators for certain sections of the site. So it seems possible to create a specific group for "shoutbox moderation".

As far as the profanity filter goes, it does seem a bit unfair to those who use light profanity, in a joking way. Like I admit, I myself use light profanity. I'll say things like (censoring for sake of the thread, seeing as everyone else has done so) "od*mn", "ah sh*t" or "well f*ck", as a funny response to something said. And to say that "we have young users on the site" in response to someone who does use light profanity is a tad bit silly, seeing as those young users hear it and see in anyway in a lot of PewDie's videos. But yes, those who use excessive profanity in an actual profane way definitely deserve a warning and then a ban.

As for the "shitstorms" some may seem like shitstorms but are simply debates about something. If it is between two people then yes, should definitely be taken to PM. But when multiple people are involved, that option no longer exists. So you are stuck with (depending on severity of the issue): give the parties involved a warning/ban, try to bring an end to the debate, or worst comes to worst, just wait for it to die out. It is in human nature to want to speak out to something we don't agree with. Some people can control it, others have more trouble. But unless it is a straight out war-like argument there should be some leeway.

Don't hate me for mah opinions .-.

Well, PHP Code, software... Too much complicated for me but how many threads are talking about these Shoutbox problems ? So my idea is easier : Delete the shoutbox ! No Shoutbox, no problem !