The original idea brought up by Luther is to make the hyper link to the Chat more visible, instead of keeping it hidden on the menus.

The idea has the intuit of promoting more interaction specially with the newer players who don't develop a bond with the players simple by mobmail.

During discussion a side idea has also been mentioned as an addition to this one. The quick chat message board on top of the 60 second list as its shown on the screen shot bellow.

http://www.mehwhatever.com/profile/pics/dotorgscre.jpg

The message board at the time consisted of 5 lines of chat at the most. They would disappear after a few minutes. Rules regarding the chat was left to each CL to decide. Some families didn't allow constant spam, others didn't mind it.

The second idea also has the intuit of improving inter-family communications, increasing bond between family members. It can also contribute during wars and emergency times since it counts with a speedy communication.


This thread is now open for discussion.

I have to say I have absolutely nothing against both ideas.

I believe a simple more visible chat button on the screen could get a lot more people joining the chat. Majority of the time families need to have a HQ thread explaining to people how to get into chat and even then majority of times, we still have to personally explain to new users. I believe this would help and it won't hurt and affect the game/anyone either.

My suggestion would be something like this, just a direct button on the end of the menu that calls attention. (PS: Terrible paint skills.)

http://www.mehwhatever.com/profile/pics/chatexampl.jpg


Also the message board idea, I'm completely in favor as well. This idea was a big hit on .org when Izzy coded it. I had already passed this to them a while ago and I believe it's somewhere in the to do list. It makes life much easier for leaders, rhs and members as well, and most importantly it creates interaction within the game and bonds families together.

The only issue that people will raise, is the fact that people will spamm it. I don't really see that as an issue. The message board has to be family based, and each family should make their own rules on the usage of this chat.

Having chat all to itself would help it stand out more and get noticed by new players in my opinion. This should solve the confusion problem from where the chat link is located now. I'm in favor of giving chat links their own very special tab at the end of all the other ones in the "chatexampl.jpg" picture. Hopefully this wouldn't be too hard of an issue to code.

On to the Family Chat where it gives a maximum of say five messages with the amount of players that are allowed in a family and the player base this number should probably be around ten. This is a brilliant idea and I'm for it. Just where could we place it so that its not too hard to find and not in the way. Also another point would this chat only be in the HQ Forums or would this be displayed on all pages so you can view the chat while you are doing petties and drug runs? Either way we decide to do it doesn't bother me in the slightest however, I do lean towards placing it on all pages so its not ignored.

Absolutely each family should make their own rules for the chat. Another issue as we have cities that work together, is this just going to be family chat or will the Godfather be able to respond to all the other captain's chats as well?

I believe that the Godfather/Godmother is in control of the city so that he should be able to read all the other family chats but this could get out of hand if they have 5 different chats from the different families. Of course you would also have to title each chat is to which family to make it easier to figure out which one the godfather/godmother should talk to if they ever needed, for whatever reason.

I like the idea of making chat more accessible for the the newer players & perhaps it could be changed on the main page to the mibbit version as the hyperlink there points to the older chat that doesn't always seem to work.

On my player account my HQ has a help thread and how to use IRC is a part of it.

However as for the family chat idea I'm not so keen on this being on every page as it will be an annoyance for those on slower connections. What if it where in the HQ forum that way it would also promote users to check there more often.

As to the chat option as another segment of the toolbar, I see no harm in that.

As to the Family Chat, I am a keen supporter of this development as a means of promoting interaction between family members without the need to go to IRC and leave your character. I would suggest that this is available on every page, as if you're going to click on the HQ forum to access the chat, then you may as well interact in the HQ forum itself. It isn't meant as a means of replacing posting or mails between characters, more as an alternative to IRC, based within the game.

I believe this should be kept strictly to a family-to-family system. The Godfather is unlikely to attend the speakeasy where his goons hang out and care less about what they chat over. Should he wish to keep tabs on it, he can always send one of his lower downs to report back to him.

With regard to which screens and concerns for connection, would it be possible for this to be an option to have on/off? If you've got a slow connection and are concerned about speed, you could bin this off. If you aren't and fancy chatting, you can have it on.

I would prefer something to be on every page if I am honest with the option of it being turned off for people with slow connections.

If it has a separate tab I feel it would be ignored, it is currently only a "hover" and click to get on to mibbit and people tend not to do that.

Links in HQ, if you have to go to the HQ then why not just have a thread in the HQ for people to post to?

I think of the two options

1) You have a chat frame on pages for people to use

2) You have a bulletin board option above the 60 second list.

One will get considerably more through flow of people

Two is less of a systems consumer but allows info to disappear very quickly through spam.

My personal preference is the chat option, but then I also use a mobile phone and have no idea how/if that would work.

1. Chat link
I believe the chat hyperlink should be more visible. Some people choose not to join IRC for whatever reason, but many just don't find the link and don't know how to do it. While it is the family's responsibility to explain things like this to any member, communication is one of the most important aspects of this game and it should be made as easily available as possible.

I do like the idea of putting the link at the end of the top menu.



2. In-game chat / Message board
Knowing that many people do not like or just can't join IRC, I am all for this idea.

I have no doubts it should be a family-only system as family is the basic organizational unit here and the instant message board should support the communication on the most basic level. Communication with other families/the godfather is something that can be organized in a different manner, be it IRC, backalley threads, etc.

I don't know if 5 lines is enough - it depends heavily on the way it will be used.
{Maybe 5 lines should be shown as a default with an option to "load" previous (5-10-25) lines by clicking a proper button.
Or there should be an hourly/daily log of the whole chat available as a separate static page.}

It should be up to each family to decide about the rules applying to the usage of the chat and whether they are willing to use it at all.
{An option for the CL to switch it off completely?}

As for the placement, I think the chat should be visible on every screen, above the 60 seconds list. Placing it in the HQ forum would deny its purpose - I don't think it would differ much from any regular HQ thread.

I also believe, each player should have an option to turn it on/off. This option should be easily available, preferably as a button next to the chat area. That way it would be easy for a mobile user to turn it off quickly.

I think that the tab should be at the end of the tab or possibly a revival of the old Mafiareturns IM that was suppose to be released but wasn't.

The message board was done on .org fill a necessity of faster communication. It wasn't done with the purpouse of being a chat and/or replacing IRC. I believe we should keep that in mind here as well.

While minor chat was always done on the old version, it was a brilliant idea that helped a lot on the day by day routines and necessities of families. The message board was used for really important things, WS requests, locations, wars. How many times during a war a CL needs to send 10 mass mails or more. Then the members who have been offline have loads of unread mails all with different orders. The message board solved that issue, since its only a real time message board, it communicates with those that are online at the time.

With this mind, the board was placed in every page above the 60 sec list, because it's something that all members need to see at all times, once again reforcing that this is not for chit chat only, unless the CL's allow that to happen. With that in mind, I don't think there should be a turn off button. If a CL or RH is passing on an important message to the family they need to make sure that everyone who is online is seing it and a turn off button will remove that option and bring CL's back to having to send mobmails.

The 5 lines is enough for the purpouse of the message board, I don't see the need to be overly extensive, since that's not the purpouse of it.

About the actual Chat link, I think it should be put more visible like I mention in my previous post, and I also think that if we aprove it, the best is for the coders to choose in which exact place they want to place the new chat button as long as its visible from every page.

{ Guys we really need to get into a consensus here on this idea. Please keep in mind we are talking about a message board, not a chat room. Either way, I need us all to start getting into a final idea consensus so that I can put vote up. This is two simple ideas that shouldn't be taking us long to decide on.}

{What I just explained above, was exactly the way the message board worked when it was originally coded, I believe that we could do something like that and test it out, with time users can suggest ways to modify it if they find better ways for it to work.}

This subject will be open for votes in 24 hours. Vote proccess will be open for 48 hours.

{I will be honest, having read through this a few times I haven't the foggiest which/what we are voting for. There has been a number of suggestions from a link to chat on the actual tab bar to a bulletin board system being brought into play to a family chat system.

Before we start voting can we clarify what exactly we are voting for}

PC post for clarity.

{I agree with Nino, and this seems to be a larger problem with the threads overall. I think prior to voting there should be a statement made i.e "Can you please now vote on:" and what it is we are actually voting on. I actually am in support of both a chat link on the toolbar and a bulletin board style development.}

{ Well people weren't supposed to vote just yet, I'm not even sure if the code on voting is complete yet, last time I check with coders it was still half way. I was going to declare votes open once I had confirmation that everything was working, then on the voting announcement we need to specify what exactly is being voted on}

{I'll speak to Izzy and see if the code is done, I guess I'll also ask for a button to open it for vote, so votes can only be done once we are all ready to go and know what you are voting for. I'll get this votes reset as well}

{

This subject will be open for votes in 24 hours. Vote proccess will be open for 48 hours.

I thought that was you saying we could vote lol}

Votes are now open! Votes will be open for 48 hours.

Subject to be voted on: Chat Button more visible in each page of the game and Family Instant-Chat Message Board also visible in each page of the game.

{Now this is a pain as I want to vote yes for the chat link but no for the family instant-chat as to be honest I see no reason for it with how easy it is to access irc through mibbit.}

I vote yes for the chat link being more visible and for instant chat in the form of a message board (dotorg style, as explained by tita in the posts above).

{Sorry Flash this is being voted as a group idea, in the future we will be able to expand into another thread and vote separately though.}

{While the use of mibbit may be easy, the message board usage was nothing like the usage of IRC. It's a really valluable feature for families, but if you don't like it, it's your opinion :>}

{Looks like the "No" votes aren't being scored. Also, PC-Asylum, you were one of the original sponsors of this suggestion; why the change of heart?}

{Incidentally, I'll be voting yes to both}