Chat Room???

I never turn the sound on. The chat seems to be more stable with it turned off. By the way, I can tell that it made the Safari browser crash as well (here, it works acceptably with SeaMonkey 1.1, and sometimes it works OK on Firefox, but Konqueror and Opera... a nightmare)

 

It is certainly fine with Firefox 2, IE6 and IE7 on Windows, which covers what 98% of users will be using.

The sound uses an embedded Flash file, so it is likely that your problem is with Flash rather than the browser.

 

Well, Firefox 2 on Linux... not so good. But I can manage with Seamonkey.

And it isn't Flash, because I've been to other sites which rely heavily on Flash (YouTube, for example) and everything works well.

 

So there's no hope of an IRC chat room? I know if there was one, I would be on pretty much whenever my PC is on. I often have an IRC client running in the background, but I don't always like to have a tab open on my browser to the same website, especially one that I'd rather not have my dad see. IRC is really much more simple than it looks, I promise.

IRC can be done with downloadable programs (mIRC, xchat, etc...), or a web based Java client. One of the really nice things about IRC is that you can choose if you want a username and password or not. If you want, you can register a username and attach a password to it, or just leave your username unregistered if you don't feel like bothering with it.

Also, I understand your concern about Java based chats, but lets be honest here. If someones parents have the computer that locked down, odds are those parents are checking browsing history, and likely even have spying software installed. I could be wrong, but I would think that anyone viewing this website under conditions like that probably wouldn't want their parents seeing "Empty Closets" as a viewed site anyway. Basically what I'm saying is if someone is already on Empty Closets, their computer is probably not locked down, or if it is their tech savvy enough to find ways around the parental controls set on the PC. Having the client be Java based, in my opinion at least, probably wouldn't really exclude any members.

 

I totally agree... IRC, IRC!

 

It is most likely that Windows machines will be set up with parents having admin accounts and everyone else having standard user accounts (which prevents installation of things etc but allows the machine to be used normally). They are also likely to have something like Norton Internet Security installed, possibly with some level of parental controls set. With a setup like this, people would NOT be able to install IRC software or an IRC java client. They would therefore be excluded from the chatroom.

The chatroom has to be accessible to all, not just to those with the technical savvy and sufficiently unlocked machine to install things.

I do not want to exclude anyone from the chatroom. Yes, I know some Linux users might claim they are being excluded because it doesn't work on their particular distro and browser, but they are also technically savvy enough to use a different browser or whatever. I specifically do not want to exclude non-technical users with PCs running Windows as above.

So the answer is no, there will not be an IRC based chatroom.

 

Do you really think most people on Windows-based machines don't have Java installed or have Java locked down? I don't think I've run across that situation... ever? Java is a pretty integral part of the web browsing experience. I think the only situations I've run across where it's blocked or not installed is in workplaces where the IT folk are control freaks, not in homes.

But whatever... you've obviously made up your mind. Just means I won't be using the chat feature.

 

Why not? You have a functional web browser - that's all it needs.

 

Because I think the existing software is annoying and frustrating to use.

 

Well I am open to other suggestions of WEB BASED chatroom software that anyone can use in a browser, as I have said several times before.

Suggestions along these lines have not been forthcoming though.

All I get is complaints about the current software and suggestions for things that are clearly unworkable.

Perhaps I should just get rid of it?

 

I can't even get on it at all I try to log in than a "click to continue page appears" and instead of going to chat it goes right back to the login page