This might not be doable with the current council fire set up. However I think it would improve traffic, and communication of qj's members. If when someone was in council fire it showed to the side (1 person chatting) I know the CCBB's chat room, and bwca.com's work this way. I think more people would visit council fire, if they knew that someone else would know they were in there.

Rather than a number, I would be interested to have a listing of screen names of who is currently in CF displayed on 'Put-In' page.

I'm in.

Some indicator showing the presence of others in Council Fire would definitely increase traffic & the utility of CF.  I drop in frequently on Friday & Saturday nights, jumping back & forth between the forums & Council Fire.  Rather than try to "catch" somebody in there, IF there was some indicator that another (or others) were present, I would likely jump into CF at THAT time versus "hit & miss".

Jimbo   8-)  

If I remember correctly, that infomation (number in council fire) is "present" on the screen.  However, it is the piece that is not working (small window toward the top of the screen when you are entering your login name).  This gives the appearance of a Java (language) incompatibility that the designers of the chat room should be able to fix.

dd

I agree with everyone, I have truly strange sleep patterns, it would be nice to be able to know if there is someone to chat with at 1 am Eastern instead of hit and miss.

flp

It is what it is for now folks:
QJ's host has never supported and no longer offers that particular chat applet or any flavor of chat for any price these days. The old applet is still there and works OK for most but it looks to me like the host has blocked all access to the port required to cache the count. I expect they had a reason for doing so. I don't have root access to the server, and they have no interest in supporting chats so...

BTW - I recently discovered a similar problem with the site search that they corrected while I was on hold. The difference was they had an interest in making the search work as it's pretty speedy resource wise. The chat is too but I expect no one's paying the creators. Shhhh.

That said:
Displaying the names of everyone chatting is certainly do-able, as is archiving transcripts depending... In both cases, every visitor would share a bit of weight depending...

I'm basically clueless and learn by doing but the two eyes and three typing fingers I know best still prevent me from chatting. (Could be my brain's fault too I guess.) So, perhaps I don't quite understand why if someone felt like it, they wouldn't just log on and if they found themselves in there all alone, wouldn't keep the window open in the background and listen for the drip or ding or whatever sound it makes when someone logs in like the first person does on other sites.

If there was enough support for it, great, but I'm just not seeing it. I expect those that do/did, kinda know when to? I've not poked my head in there for a very long time so feel free to enlighten me.

db,

Your solution is mostly what I end up doing.  I open it up, minimize the screen, then open up another internet window to QJ so I can look around the forums while I'm waiting.  The ding or click is often enough to catch my attention, depending upon what else might be going on.

I agree this is a low priority item.  There is a viable work-around, as described.

Jimbo   8-)

QJ's host is "ending support for Volano online chat service beginning November 19th, 2008."

The thing I liked most about what is being discontinued is it required absolutely no attention from this web-lackey's perspective - not to mention no transcripts I'd need to archive.

While I used the chat five or six times years ago, the best were mostly mostly private chats. Get more than three people in there at one time and my three typing fingers became overwhelmed so personally, I wouldn't miss it.

The host suggested a number of third party options that could replace it so if a number of you guys..., speak up now.

I've used chat many times in the past and have enjoyed getting to better know some of the members.  On many occasions, the exchange with other members have been very entertaining.  I've even received some very useful information via this venue.  

However, over the past year, each time I've checked to see if anyone has been "on" I've been by myself.

If volcano is going to disappear, I don't see any need in trying to seek a replacement ... although I'll be somewhat sad to see it go.

dd

I still check out the Council Fire a few times almost every weekend, hoping to find DD or QP or FB or Satchmo or Tripper or FLP or Stumpy or other notables in there.  Admittedly, over the past 2-3 months, it has been pretty lifeless.  However, Council Fire seems to slow down during the summer months and perk up, again, as permit purchase season/summer planning approaches... not all that far off now, by the way.  

I DO agree w/dd about sharing very useful & entertaining conversations in there, including with some newer members who are trying to figure things out.  My personal opinion is that, if we got it organized around "probable chat times" & then better publicized, it could become a much-valued feature of the website.  I, for one, enjoy the feature & would hate to see it go away.

I would definitely vote for us to pursue alternative chat functionality.

Jimbo   8-)

I'm sure I'll start dropping in every now and then, just been extremely busy of late.

I do chat on yahoo messenger if anyone is interested?  Nice feature on yahoo is you can set up a private room to chat as a group.

qp

I found this thread interesting....I have checked the Council Fire a few dozen times over the past few months and I have NEVER found anyone in the chat room!  This thread indicates others actually use it occasionally, so I'll keep checking.  Maybe I'll find someone in there as Spring/Summer comes.  

prouboy  

During this weekend's 'copia event, I asked db if we wouldn't mind changing the "time-out" parameter so that you don't get logged off after 5 minutes (or so) of inactivity.  

I'm one of the somewhat frequently users of the previous chat venue and what was somewhat typical was to "plant" yourself in the room and wait until someone else dropped in.  (The old version even included an audio "plop" sound when someone logged on.)

So, you could log on and then go do other things and wait until you heard the sound, then return to that window to have a chat with the new arrival.

Effective tonight (via a test of mine), it appears that the 5 minute auto log-off is no longer in place.  I stayed logged on for well over an hour (with no activity) without being bounced.

However, the bad news is ... if you accidently loose connection, you remain logged on for some indefiinte period (so far as I can determine), which is going to make re-entry under the same ID a bit interesting.

db also said that if you "loose signal" you might be able to hit the browser back button to reconnect.  I've not have a chance to test this option personally.

dd

I got home and thought I'd do it before I forgot ... wound up breaking it and fixing it today. Go figure. Seems it was broken around the beginning of the month??

Anyway - Off the top of my head - if you use your browser's history you may be able to get back in. Certainly if you didn't close the window but it may depend on what browser/OS you use and how your history is structured.

You wouldn't be able to start over and login again under the same name under any circumstances although you could use a different name depending on where/how you accessed it.

I found a quick fix but it possibly raises security issues... It's just a chat but still...

Give me a week or so, I'll see if I can make a way back in both secure and intuitive or at least workable for those that use it on a regular basis. I'm a self taught, need to know hack so don't hold your breath waiting for elegance.  ;)

OK - If you login using your default forum username and you accidently close the window... so when you try to login again it tells you that you're already logged in... there is now a link on that page you can use to logout. It seems that would work for most people. Worst case? Re-register under a new name I guess. Currently the inactivity auto-logout is 90 minutes.

I'm not really the chatting type so let me know if something needs tweaking.