all right, just 1 more idea tonight

[mike_d]

Maybe this already exists. Mike can you put up some kind of icon or message that let's you know there is a chat going on without opening the chat itself?

[lupe]

maybe chatters don't want everyone to know they're in there?
But i can see where if you had time or were in the mood for a little chat, it would be a pain and a little bit of a let down to go through the trouble of opening it up to find nobody there.

I think eventually we can arrange scheduled chats. Many other forums also will have spontaneous chats and someone will post a quick "we're in chat now" BB message. We could probably do the same thing.

[mike_d]

I thought about chatters wanting to be private but then wouldn't they use AOL, google, or MSN for a private chat?

[Mike]

Mike. Not a bad idea. I will poke around. One problem though.

With VB, there are tons of modders out there that create plugins that compliment the board, like that little thing yesterdy where you wanted the link to open a new window. I found a template hack, did it and done. Vbulletin encourages external "hackers" or programmers to do this because if they built it into the board, the board would be so feature heavy, development would take twice as long.

With chat, the chat component I purchased is by an entirely different company. In fact, the chat window is hosted by another server that I pay a small monthly service for.

The problem is, there are not that many mods out there for the 123flashchat that I use. In fact, not any other than the smnall notification I was able to plug in at the bottom of the page and even that has a small bug, but I understand the request.

The whole idea of the chat was partially to allow for scheduled chats, maybe wednesday nights for new residents or to have guests, like Rosa Parks' new principal or John Tavaglione have a scheduled chat once in a while and maybe parlay that into a live town hall one day via audio or webcam plugin for chat.

Long answer, I know.

[Mike]

One more thing. There is a status at the bottom of the home page. It tells you how many sessions there are. That is how I see what's going on.

[mike_d]

So if there was 1 chat room then someone is chatting?

[Mike]

yes

[mike_d]

That would be good enough

Thanks!