Lordebola Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 As an avid IRC user and as a low tier member of the staff there, I am pleased that it can be used as a live social hub outside of the game for discussion and question answering when people need help. I feel this experience could be enhanced if the IRC was moved on to it's own separate page. The problem with how the embedded client works right now is that if people want to go on the forums, they pretty much have to exit out of IRC. If for example a person brings up an issue on IRC that could only be resolved via the forums, then it results in the user constantly going back and forth between the IRC and the forums, and it gets worse if the user is unfamiliar with the forums and requires assistance on that front. On a couple of occasions, I have seen users bounce back and forth about 10 times, resulting in a clutter of the chat, which can disrupt the chat experience for other users who have to witness all of it. The second issue is that sometimes when someone needs help and they're directed to the forums, they don't actually know where the forums are. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but the Forum button on the main website doesn't actually take you to the more user-friendly forum. While it does give you the option of accessing the forums through the main page, for people who don't know how to use the forums or for those who need to get to a specific sub-forum, it is not a viable option to go through the main page. This then results in the back and forth bouncing that I mentioned in my first point. So the proposed solution that I offer is that we give the IRC it's own separate page that could open in a New Tab, or something to that effect. This would reduce the amount of chat reconnects that occur due to user confusion. I also personally believe that the IRC should be separate from the Forums, and that the user friendly forums is the page that comes up when you click the Forum button on the main website. I get that the current main forum page has some nice features, i.e. sidebars, a clock, a calendar. But many of these features are unnecessary in my opinion and the page looks very disorganized. In addition, we should add another tab on the main website that is labeled "Live Chat" which would open a New Tab to the IRC channel. This would give more advertisement (albeit, small) to IRC so that users can get there more easily and again, reduce the forum/IRC bouncing. TL;DR: IRC should be separate from the forums and should be opened in a New Tab, and it should be linked on the main website. If there any questions, perhaps because I worded something confusingly or because I need to flesh out the details in a more precise manner, then I am free to answer them. I will reply to the comments and then edit them into this post if I feel they are important enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wargreymon Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Support > live chat be killed by cuteness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordebola Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 Support > live chat In what context are you referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wargreymon Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 TL;DR: IRC should be separate from the forums and should be opened in a New Tab, and it should be linked on the main website. Support > live chat There's the link https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.bitsjoint.net/pro be killed by cuteness Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordebola Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 TL;DR: IRC should be separate from the forums and should be opened in a New Tab, and it should be linked on the main website. Support > live chat There's the link https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.bitsjoint.net/pro I prefer for the IRC to still be separate from the forum. On top of that, I highly doubt people use the Support dropdown menu. Most if not all users use the embedded chat that's on the main forum page, which again results in the forum/IRC bouncing. You could attribute this to user ignorance and brush it off, but I still feel that the chat should be separated from the forums and advertised on the main website. Since the link already exists, it shouldn't be much of an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Posted August 29, 2015 Share Posted August 29, 2015 Irc was always on several places; Most of the links from home I made to force open in new tab to prevent users from jumping out of IRC. However, some links can't be changed such as UCP related links because it would mess with other things when you are not on the home page. As long as there are those that remember what was, there will always be those that are unable to accept what can be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordebola Posted August 29, 2015 Author Share Posted August 29, 2015 Irc was always on several places; Bouncing is still a common issue, as most people still probably use the embedded client. And I still believe they should be separated as they are two different social mediums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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