The new chat feature

Some of you may have already noticed the new chat feature. For those who haven't there is now an "Open Chat Room", which is a bit like the General Discussion LambWatch forum, but for chat...

The reason why this room was added was to provide a means for people who just want to chat, to do just that! Which leaves me rather baffled as to why the new room seems to have been greeted with an air of resentment. There are no hard and set rules to say which room you should use, I leave that up to you! All I provide is a means for people, should they wish to do so, to be able to chat about anything and everything lambwatch, and also for people, should they wish to do so, to be able to chat about anything and everything! It's not a case of a correct and incorrect chat room.

You must understand that 95% of the visitors who visit this site do so because they like the peace and quiet of the webcam, the occasional bird, the odd sheep and every so often a hungry woodpecker. These people may choose to make a "shoutout" every now and then. They may choose to do so in the LambWatch chat room. It started out as a shoutbox facility back in 2008 and grew to a more comprehensive "chat" as a result of changing user patterns.

Some of these 95% may never return, but some do, and everybody is welcome and always will be. Those that do return sometimes make friends and enjoy the company of fellow LambWatchers and may wish to chat more in general with their friends. This is great, and I hope the site provides a good platform and set of tools to be part of the growing community. But we must remember that new visitors are coming every day, and some users just want to watch and enjoy and not say a word. These users may want to just make a quick message about , for example, what is that black and white bird on the feeder? They may be less inclined to enquire if they feel they cannot join in the conversation that is currently taking place. Put yourselves in the shoes of somebody who has just joined a village and visits the local pub for the first time... that is bound to be intimidating. The same phsycological processes apply in an  online community too.

Understanding user patterns allows me to make changes to make user experience even better and I feel this would be a good solution. Please bear in mind though that the site is visited by all kinds of people, for all kinds of reasons, young people and old people, so it is always worth being conscious of this when posting messages.

The introduction of this new feature has been met with a bit of concern, which, I must be honest, was anticipated. At first impression it can be off-putting seeing such a feature but I can assure you that it is with the best intentions for the wider LambWatch audience. Let us not forget that this is after all the purpose of this site.

Having said that, as with anything that is put on this site, I invite people who have concerns to either air them here or if they prefer to email me or use the contact form.

People tend not to like change, but often change is for the better. I know it is not always for the better, but the only way I will know it is for the better is if people actually tell me (and that is by contact and not a message in chat as I don't always read  the messages posted in there). Unless you tell me your thoughts through direct means, it cannot be assumed that I know them. So this is why I invite anyone who is upset by this, or even if you have a comment, question or issue, to write to me by email or by using the contact form, to tell me your thoughts, so that I can reassure and explain the reasoning behind the decision, take on your thoughts and improve the site so that your concerns are addressed *takes breath*

If you have an issue with the site, and I don't know about it, it will not get fixed. If  I do, it will, if I can.

From what I have heard so far, I get the impression that people's biggest concern is not knowing what is going on in the other room whilst in one room.

This has been addressed by the following means:

1. User numbers in both rooms displayed at top
2. Hover over the user number to see the latest message posted in that room, who wrote it, and when it was written.
3. Whenever a new message is posted in the "other room", the user count box flashes
   

These features should work together to prevent the need to keep checking the other room so should hopefully make life easier.

Thank you Dan for that very comprehensive explanation. Im sure everyone will get the hang of the new feature , especially as even I can understand it ! Who knows, it may encourage new friends to enter the chat rooms both for general discussions and for more "Lambwatchy" discussions. Having an alternative chat box gives our viewers the opportunity to decide whther to enter into either of the two discussions going on... freedom of choice...

Thanks for the very clear explanation Dan - even I can understand it !   When the lambs arrive I think we will all be in the Lambwatch Chat nearly all the time but when no sheep or birds are around we will be in the Open Chat.  Hopefully we will meet lots of new lambwatchers - I remember it took me two months to gain the courage to chat so I appreciate it must be daunting for newcomers. 

Your new feature is a great idea Dan.  I really like the way the numbers flash in the box when a new comment has been added and also the fact that you can see the actual comment when the cursor is held over the box.  An excellent addition to the site. 

I found this site exactly a year ago..but it was mid-April before I jumped into "CHAT". Shy ? No !  But I had never entered a chat room before, and I was very cautious. The people here on chat intrigued me.  I have enjoyed everything about this site, and the folks here are especially wonderful. This new feature my take sometime to adjust to, but I think it Dan has put alot of thought into it, and it is very  considerate of him to include those who watch from the sidelines.  It is definitely a learning curve !  But I think it will have some very positive results !  I expect it we will continue to see changes as they are necessary, but I think once everything is tweaked into all the right places it will be just as much fun as before !                                            Good Job,  Dan !

With regard to the new 'Comment'  'Sighting' Announcement' box under the message box Dan... where do they appear when they are used?  Sightings I would guess go on the page for sightings but where do the Announcements appear?

Hi Margaret, I'm afraid that little gizmo is still "work in progress" and selecting different options on the list has no effect yet :) it will do soon! and ill let you know when its ready :)

Thanks Dan.  I hadn't tried it but just wondered about it.

Hi Margaret (and everyone!)

The new chat features have been integrated! When you are chatting you will notice a new "Type" field on the input message. There are 3 options:

1. Comment
2. Sighting
3. Announcement

A comment is just a standard, normal message. All messages so far are comments.

A sighting, is, well! Exactly that! If you see something interesting, select the "Sighting" message type.

When you select sighting, the sighting is recorded to the sightings chart AND posted in both the chat room you are in AND the other chat room!

The same applies for Announcement, except announcements do not get posted on the sightings page

Both sightings AND announcements get automatically "Tweeted" onto the LambWatch Twitter page!

If you're chatting, its now easy to record a sighting if you see something interesting! If you're chatting its now easy to make an announement to everyone in the "chat community!"

Sightings can still be made in the usual manner (ie by going to the contact page and recording a sighting that way)

Try not to go too over board with the announcements, as they do get "tweeted" to all followers of lambwatch on twitter.

If it turns out that lots of announcements are made, I may make it an option to "Tweet" it... we will see :) Time will tell! Hope you enjoy the new feature!

All should be working fine now in the chat room. The next thing on the to-do list is make the "archive" more usable. You will probably notice it takes a while for the page to load there... I shall fix that next, and make it more user-friendly! Scrolling down that long list of messages must be quite annoying....!

It depends how far down the archives we need to go Dan.  Separating them into days would be helpful. 

Hi all, just a quick notice!

You will probably not have noticed the new feature that I have just put in place, but hopefully you should find it very useful!

If you have a new PM in your lambwatch community inbox, it will show a little envelope at the top of the page when you have one!

This will automatically update when you get a new PM and disappear once it has been read, so if you are sitting watching the webcam, and u get a new PM - the envelope will appear to let you know! :)