# Preference on IM style Chatbar



## SAS Admin

Please vote on the poll. This is something that can be added within a day or two.

ArrowChat is going to be more similar to CometChat, but with better features:

Customize sounds on/off, block users, etc:









Actually hide the chat:


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## Brasilia

I bet people will still find something to complain about. Shame.


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## Twelve Keyz

I think we should give arrowchat a chance.


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## Azaria

ArrowChat is deffo better imo.


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## basuraeuropea

arrowchat!


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## StrangePeaches

whatever


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## StrangePeaches

i liked what we had!


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## Elad

arrooooow chat.

whats the point in using the old one? arrow chat is pretty much exactly the same with more features.


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## Reclus

I'm up for trying something new - the old one was very unstable.


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## SAS Admin

Ok, ArrowChat should be live, but it seems like it's still not configured properly. I'm not sure if it's the push service (sends the messages between users) or what.

Anyway, refresh your browser window and you should see it.

Give it a try and let me know what issues you notice!


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## komorikun

Think it's making the screen wider than it should be (like when people post huge photos). Now I have a horizontal scroll bar even if I minimize the chat thingie.


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## SAS Admin

komorikun said:


> Think it's making the screen wider than it should be (like when people post huge photos). Now I have a horizontal scroll bar even if I minimize the chat thingie.


What internet browser and version of that browser are you using?

Have you tried refreshing your browser, clearing your cache and/or restarting your browser?

If not, I can adjust the alignment settings to try to accomodate more browsers.


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## komorikun

SAS said:


> What internet browser and version of that browser are you using?
> 
> Have you tried refreshing your browser, clearing your cache and/or restarting your browser?
> 
> If not, I can adjust the alignment settings to try to accomodate more browsers.


I refreshed the browser and cleared the cache and still it appears.

I'm using google chrome.

Version 24.0.1312.52 m

On internet explorer and firefox I don't see the horizontal bar.


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## SAS Admin

komorikun said:


> I refreshed the browser and cleared the cache and still it appears.
> 
> I'm using google chrome.
> 
> Version 24.0.1312.52 m
> 
> On internet explorer I don't see the horizontal bar.


Is this what you mean by the horizontal bar (the bar in just the lower right corner -- screenshot below)?









Or do you see it spanning the entire width of the browser?


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## komorikun

Like this:

It's a scroll bar.


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## ShadyGFX

I thought I was tripping when I saw the Facebook style bar.


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## Twelve Keyz

arrowchat seems glitchy so far. I'm experiencing some of the same problems as I had with cometchat... sometimes messages don't show up, or they're delayed by several minutes.


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## SAS Admin

Twelve Keyz said:


> arrowchat seems glitchy so far. I'm experiencing some of the same problems as I had with cometchat... sometimes messages don't show up, or they're delayed by several minutes.


In that case, I'm wondering if it's just something conflicting with vB3.8.X and if the only reliable alternative would be to upgrade vB (which is coming once they are out of vB5 Beta 25...seriously and speed things up because it's slow) or to use something that is flash based, but that might slow down page loads.

I'm going to try to monitor the javascript errors and see what's coming through to see if there's something conflicting with any comet js service.


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## shyvr6

I don't use the chats, but I like that it's smaller than comet chat when it's minimized so I don't notice it.


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## SAS Admin

I'm running ExceptionHub to watch for js errors and testing both using our server and ArrowChat's servers for "pushing" the messages.

What would you say the one or two problems you guys have noticed the most is?


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## Perfectionist

I have a couple questions about this:

1. It seems to log me to the chat on everytime I sign into the website. I am a big browser closer/opener, so already in like half an hour I've had to click "offline" in the bar like four times. Is there a setting where we can say always show as offline or something?

2. Can there be a setting for getting rid of the chat bar thing altogther? Not just hiding it?


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## SAS Admin

Perfectionist said:


> I have a couple questions about this:
> 
> 1. It seems to log me to the chat on everytime I sign into the website. I am a big browser closer/opener, so already in like half an hour I've had to click "offline" in the bar like four times. Is there a setting where we can say always show as offline or something?
> 
> 2. Can there be a setting for getting rid of the chat bar thing altogther? Not just hiding it?


1. Are you clearing your cookies/logging out each time you do that? So that you need to enter your username/password again on the forums?

2. I'm working on this!

I should have fixed the scroll issue (not on this page because of screenshot!) other user was having. I'm still trying to figure out why some users are seeing "garbled" text.


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## Perfectionist

SAS said:


> 1. Are you clearing your cookies/logging out each time you do that? So that you need to enter your username/password again on the forums?


No. I barely even know what cookies are. Just closing and opening my browser.


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## kiirby

Hold on... there's a chat which isn't the separate flash chatroom? I've been missing out on so much.


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## Twelve Keyz

sorry to say, but cometchat was better. This is the main issue right now:

http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f53/this-friend-chat-sucks-230605/


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## SAS Admin

Twelve Keyz said:


> sorry to say, but cometchat was better. This is the main issue right now:
> 
> http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/f53/this-friend-chat-sucks-230605/


Don't be sorry, just provide as much info as you can. It's not client side JS errors that ExceptionHub is picking up, so it's either their comet service (which I have had both on and off for testing) or something that isn't producing errors that EH is picking up.

I'll get it fixed, we'll go flash with the ability to disable completely or we'll just get rid of the chat altogether.

Thanks!
Drew


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## SAS Admin

komorikun said:


> Like this:
> 
> It's a scroll bar.


Are you still having this issue?


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## komorikun

SAS said:


> Are you still having this issue?


Yeah it's still there. Even if I move the task bar to the bottom it's still there.


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## 0589471

Yeah I'm having the same issue with messages not showing up unless you continually refresh the page.


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## SAS Admin

Ok, thanks for the update guys. I tried a couple things that I thought might fix it and am working with ArrowChat. It may be that we just go to a 123FlashChat integrated IM (turned off completely by default so as not to slow down people's browsing on slower computers/older browsers).

This is an example of 123FlashChat's (what we use for our main chat) IM setup with vBulletin:
http://www.123flashchat.com/community/


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## TobeyJuarez

SAS said:


> Don't be sorry, just provide as much info as you can. It's not client side JS errors that ExceptionHub is picking up, so it's either their comet service (which I have had both on and off for testing) or something that isn't producing errors that EH is picking up.
> 
> I'll get it fixed, we'll go flash with the ability to disable completely or we'll just get rid of the chat altogether.
> 
> Thanks!
> Drew


dont get rid of the chat.... i really like it, just try and fix the buggs or try another chat thingy


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## SAS Admin

We won't be. The guys from ArrowChat have helped out and we think we know what the problem is.

Despite that this possible fix hasn't even been implemented yet, a couple small hacky changes I made, lead to (I think?) a better chat experience as we broke over 4,000 IMs in a day yesterday. I'm not saying it wasn't frustrating for you guys to have to deal dropped messages or having to refresh to even see new messages, but I think we should try to keep working on getting ArrowChat fast and consistent. I think people like it overall, minus the issues and we may have the fix! 

Thanks to everyone for their constructive feedback and I'll keep you updated.


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## meepie

Arrow chat is nice, only problem is when I log in with my phone onto SAS it cuts off. I wish there was a way to turn it off, otherwise I can't login to SAS through my phone. I have a low-level smartphone, so that maybe an issue too.


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## SAS Admin

So, you're chatting on your laptop/desktop and pull up SAS on your iPhone _at the same time_ and it cuts off the desktop chat?

Or that it cuts off trying to chat on your iPhone?

I just want to make sure I understand. Thanks for the feedback!


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## meepie

SAS said:


> So, you're chatting on your laptop/desktop and pull up SAS on your iPhone _at the same time_ and it cuts off the desktop chat?
> 
> Or that it cuts off trying to chat on your iPhone?
> 
> I just want to make sure I understand. Thanks for the feedback!


Well I log on to SAS on my phone when I am not on my desktop.
I have a Samsung Dart, which is an entry level smart phone.
My smartphone can't handle flash based stuff(don't know if that has anything to do with Arrow Chat).

I just wish I was able to check the forums/pms from the phone. The moment I log in to SAS, my phone's web browser crashes(I suspect it is arrow chat causing this since I was able to log onto SAS on my phone when we had CometChat). If there was an option to turn off the chat when I am not using it, it would be great. This would allow me to turn it off when I use SAS on my phone.


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## SAS Admin

meepie said:


> Well I log on to SAS on my phone when I am not on my desktop.
> I have a Samsung Dart, which is an entry level smart phone.
> My smartphone can't handle flash based stuff(don't know if that has anything to do with Arrow Chat).
> 
> I just wish I was able to check the forums/pms from the phone. The moment I log in to SAS, my phone's web browser crashes(I suspect it is arrow chat causing this since I was able to log onto SAS on my phone when we had CometChat). If there was an option to turn off the chat when I am not using it, it would be great. This would allow me to turn it off when I use SAS on my phone.


Hmm, I hadn't thought of that case. Crashing before you can even select the mobile skin from the dropdown that appears:









For now, you should be good if you go to http://m.socialanxietysupport.com (only on your phone...if you do it from your laptop/desktop, it'll just refresh back to the normal forums.

Thanks for the feedback!


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## meepie

Thanks for letting that option be available, SAS works smoothly on my phone now.


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## SAS Admin

meepie said:


> Thanks for letting that option be available, SAS works smoothly on my phone now.


I'm always glad to hear when I do something right 

Thank you for the feedback!


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