PETITION FOR FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Seriously, can we make it so that a person can CHOOSE whether or not they want to join the cbox, instead of being forced to automatically join whenever the main page is refreshed? There are times when a guy just wants to quickly check notifications and leave: in such cases, being forced into the chat really isn't ideal. I know some people will say "you can simply ignore those who address you and/or close the cbox immediately", but there are two problems with that: firstly, closing the cbox is kinda pointless, if it automatically re-opens the moment I refresh the main page; secondly, it is a very rude thing to do.

So yeah, why cannot our chat be like every other chat in the world, in that people can actively decide when they want to join?

I am Ean Sableheart and I approve this message

Joe Wiccan likes this!

Things is, it was made so that the chatbox wouldn't be ignored. We had issues in the past where members wouldn't even log into the chat for days despite actually being on the site, thus taking away the appeal from the site. After all, a site's activity is mostly seen through the chatbox. Then there's also the fact people hated being logged off of chat. I can remove it but I will not hesitate to discard this thread and add in the script if the chatbox is left forgotten. I'll leave this here, though, to see what everyone else has to say

Roulette wrote:After all, a site's activity is mostly seen through the chatbox.

I have multiple issues with this statement:

1) In Forumotion-based forums the cbox is only visible to people who are registered, meaning that unregistered people cannot be persuaded to join by showing them an active cbox, simply because they cannot see the cbox at all (and people who are registered don't need to be persuaded that th site is active via cbox, see point below).

2) A site's activity is mostly seen through the amount of active topics. People join roleplays in order to roleplay, so if they are starting to lose interest because nothing is going on from an IC standpoint, I doubt an active cbox would persuade them to stay. Conversely, if the forum is healthy and bustling with activities, with lots of stuff going on and lots of people to interact with, people will be happy regardless of how active the cbox is.

3) I enjoy chatting as much as the next guy, but there are times when I don't want to do it. And in those times, I don't like to be forced into it against my will for the sake of what, by your own admission, essentially amounts to a promotional campaign.

And you of all people, Remix, should be very well aware of how little the chat actually matters. Until not long ago, even as recently as last week, FTRP enjoyed a regularly crowded, active chat, with 10 or more active members at any given hour. But what was actually going on in the site? Power struggles and quarrels between auths. And the chat itself reeked of the same toxicity, with people taking out their frustrations on other people. Ultimately, those issues killed (or severely injured, at the very least) the forum: did the active chat matter at all in avoiding that? If anything, it made things worse.

TL;DR, there are two possible scenarios:

1) The site has no issues. In this case, there is no reason for wanting to artificially inflate the cbox.

2) The site has issues. In this case, artificially inflating the cbox won't solve them. Again, FTRP (whose cbox was NATURALLY bustling with activity, without these sheanigans) is the perfect example of this.

In both cases, the auto-join accomplishes nothing, unless you consider annoying people an accomplishment.

EDIT: after Axel chastised my pushy way of presenting my arguments in topics like these, I put my best efforts in being less pushy, but I am afraid I failed miserably ;-;

1. Then there's also the fact people hated being logged off of chat.
2. I can remove it but I will not hesitate to discard this thread and add in the script if the chatbox is left forgotten.
3. I'll leave this here, though, to see what everyone else has to say

as i stated above, i dont really care about the removal of it. only that i wont hesitate to add it back if need be. I'm simply explaining why it was installed in the first place.

As per this:

And you of all people, Remix, should be very well aware of how little the chat actually matters.

thats where i must disagree. I've been around for a very long time. I've founded, made, RPed, and owned several sites and, as such, I know the importance of the chatbox. May be subtle, but it's of much importance. FTRP is one site out of many and, quite obviously, under new management. Power struggles are bound to happen at any point. Especially under points I have voiced frequently in chatbox and skype when talk of it arises.

Again, like any petition, I'll wait for what other say. After all, this is just a pinch of all the members here.

What I am trying to say is that, in FTRP's case and in many others, an active chat did nothing to solve the real problems. Or as I put it in the chat: a cbox is the termometer of the health of a forum. If you have a fever, hacking the termometer so that it always reads 37 won't cure you.

This being said, the decision is ultimately yours to make, I have said what I needed to.