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Chatroom is SOOOOO quiet

  • Alexandra MacGregor
    • 299 posts
    May 6, 2005 2:50 PM BST
    Well it seems as if no one is using the chatroom these days. I have noticed a severe drop off in users over the last few months and others have said the same thing.

    I have to ask why this is and what can we do to rectify it?

    We have one of the fastest, cleanest and safest chatrooms within the community, staffed by a dedicated team of moderators who ensure it stays that way so it can't be because people are afraid of what they might find in there.
    Is it still because you can't have your own picture as in the ancient room? If so there are plenty of new icons to choose from and I'm sure more could be added. Lets face it that is a sad reason not to use a chatroom.

    Any thoughts, ideas, feelings etc on this would be gratefully received so we can rebuild the community spirit in the chatroom. If only so we moderators don't get lonely sat in the corner on our own.

    Alex
    xxx
  • Angel A
    • 134 posts
    May 6, 2005 5:51 PM BST
    Hi Alex, I am having a problem entering the chatroom. I thought it was just down 'cos i was able to get in b4 np. Anyway there is never anyone there & if there is (ocassionally!) they dont seem to want to chat about tranny things!
    I will try again 2nite,
    luv,
    angel xx
  • Monika Smith
    • 374 posts
    May 6, 2005 6:58 PM BST
    Hi Alex,

    I agree that it's sad if the only reason girls aren't using the chat room is that they can't use they're own pics. I must admit though that I haven't been coming here as much as I would like. For a while there I was in here at least once a day (some days twice!) and it started to interfere with the rest of my life

    I do check to see who's in chat every time I log in and most of the time it's not very busy or I don't know anyone. It would be kinda nice to be able to have some scheduled chats. With girls living in different parts of the world it might not be so easy, but it would be worth it to try it out a few times. I managed to luck out a couple of weeks ago when Katie Glover hosted a little chat with a friend of hers who owns a transformation shop
    in Australia. It was a lot of fun and there were about a half dozen of us in the room at the time. Hopefully things will start getting more busy soon.

    Hugs,

    Monika
  • Alexandra MacGregor
    • 299 posts
    May 8, 2005 8:47 PM BST
    Well it's good to hear people talking about this at least.

    For information I'm normally in the room between 7am and 3pm GMT (or UTT) when I'm not away as I can have it open on one PC and work on the other, so when someone enters I get a ping and I can start chatting.

    I'll be busy most of the next week with visitors but will be around from Thursday 19th on a more regular basis. If newcomers are interested in trying the room then at least there will be someone around to help them.

    As for topics of conversations well they range from shoes to soccer, from makeup to make overs, from polish (nails) to politics (but we try to steer clear if we can!!) so sometimesit can be girl talk others its just a good natter over a virtual coffee and hob nobs.

    Hopefully we can see an increase in the useage of the room and maybe get back that community feel it used to have.

    Alex
    xxxx
  • Alexandra MacGregor
    • 299 posts
    May 23, 2005 9:19 AM BST
    One thing I have noticed is when you look at "Who's Online" it rarely states who is in the chatroom or if it does it isn't telling the complete truth. So it can be difficult to know who or how many are in there, you log in and find no one so log out again and don't bother.

    Is there anyway to show how many people are in the room at anytime on the main page? That might encourage people to at least poke their noses round the door and see what the noise is about.

    More than anything the chatroom should be a dynamic expression of the community we have here, people coming and going, meeting old friends, making new ones and just being able to express themselves in whatever way they want. That's all I really want, not much to ask.

    Alex
    xxxx
  • Alexandra MacGregor
    • 299 posts
    May 25, 2005 8:10 PM BST
    Charlotte,

    First thing to check is your version of Java
    Second is make sure you have set any pop up blocker to allow pop ups fromTrannyweb.com
    Third is to have a cup of tea and try again. Sometimes the room seems to get stuck, especially when it gets to the Harp sound file, but you get a message telling you it hasn't loaded.

    Hope that helps sort everything out for you and hopefully see you in there soon

    Alex
  • Anna-Marie Trindall
    • 2068 posts
    May 6, 2005 3:44 PM BST
    i don't know why it's gone so quiet alex! i haven't been in myself cos i'm having probs downloading java,but i'm tryin to sort it out.it DOES seen so odd seeing as how we have the BEST chatroom and the BEST web mistress.so if it is to do with the pics i feel it is a pretty poor excuse for not using it.it was the first room i felt safe in since i joined......so come on girls lets start using the room, we don't want alex in there all on her own do we?....love and xxxxxxx anna-marie
  • Tina B
    • 456 posts
    May 6, 2005 4:32 PM BST
    I have to agree Alex, although I have been very busy lately so have not been visiting as often as I used to. I can't believe that people are so vain as to want their picture seen and that is the reason they are not chatting. Perhaps we just went into the room at the wrong time.

    Lots of girls who used to chat now do not - it would be interesting to try and find out why this is. I agree that the room is fast and, as far as I can tell, safe so it is a mystery.
  • Meredith Newton
    • 2463 posts
    May 6, 2005 5:27 PM BST
    I'll admit I haven't been there a lot lately. I get in when I can. Maybe we should start to schedule some specific times when we can all get together, and whoever is new there is certainly welcome to join the insanity.

    I'm going to have to use the chatroom more because I'm banned from calling anyone.
  • wendy larsen
    • 2573 posts
    May 9, 2005 4:45 PM BST
    It very much depends on the time of day you are in chat. I occassionally find myself alone, but more often there are a few girls and often 10+. I admit, I chat with a lot of UK and AUS girls, but my schedule is strange. People lament the pictures but the chats are much smoother. Nobody said they were not coming in because the pics were gone.
  • katieglover
    • Moderator
    • 2127 posts
    May 9, 2005 7:55 PM BST
    I have no idea why things are so quiet. Surely it can't still be the picture problem - after all DigiChat has been installed for months and months now. It makes me very sad that we've put so very much into this community and it's still not successful.

    What on earth do people want? I wish I knew. I've moved heaven and earth to try to please everyone all the time but it seems to make very little difference.

    One idea I've been thinking about recently is a chat alert service.

    The idea is that those who enjoy chatting when there are plenty of people to chat to, join a special Trannyweb mailing list.

    Then, when there is a themed chat session going on, they'll be sent an email message the day before and again about an hour before it starts.

    We had one recently for our Australian members and it worked very well.

    It's just an idea.

    If anyone has any ideas for people we could bring in as guests for chat sessions, please let me know.

    Hugs,

    Katie x
  • Meredith Newton
    • 2463 posts
    May 9, 2005 8:11 PM BST
    Katie, don't get down on yourself. I love the new chatroom and get there when I can. I guess we can almost say the same thing about the good morning threads with the yelling and jumping.

    I know I speak for many when I say how much we appreciate your efforts. We can all put our heads together for an answer. I don't know who specifically is unhappy, and I do wonder if they pay to be a member.

    By the way, I'm going to that store Transformations in Oak Park on Wednesday and ask them to advertise here.
  • Karen Brad
    • 2627 posts
    May 10, 2005 6:59 AM BST
    Katie Mere's right. You can't ever please everyone so stop trying. I have been to a lot of sites but this is a true community. Maybe you should ask yourself what do you want here.
  • wendy larsen
    • 2573 posts
    May 11, 2005 7:13 AM BST
    Katie,

    I know one thing that keeps there from being more chats. Regularly, people on the TW site see someone there and PM or email them to chat. By the time they get the message it can be hours or days later. No chat occurs. I have this happen to me a few times a week. You had mentioned, some months ago, about an instant IM for TW, similar to the one in DigiChat, that would reach anyone signed into the site. What is the status on that? It might help. I'm not convinced that we are chatting less. Is there a server statistic on it?
  • katieglover
    • Moderator
    • 2127 posts
    May 23, 2005 5:48 PM BST
    Hi Girls,

    Thanks for the idea Sarah but the reason we moved away from a web based chat solution, which we did have previously, is because it used up so many server resources.

    The Java room we have now is compatable with all platforms, PCs, Macs, Linux, OS, Windows, Firefox, Netscape, IE, Opera, and more.

    Also the fact that most of the processing happens on the user's computers means that the chatroom is lightning fast and uses very few server resources, so people on other pages in the site, don't get slowed down because several people are chatting.

    It also has heaps of bells and whistles we could not do with a server-side solution, like video and audio chat.

    Katherine Albany has been writing a little Java applet which will in future, show how many peeps are chatting.

    We may also have our Hubz installed soon (hopefully in this lifetime) which will make chatting and communication even easier.

    Wedo still have a problem with integration though, because the chat room and Hubz have their own buddy list which is now connected to our existing buddy list.

    Getting it all to work together will be costly and could take some time. We are saving to have this done though.

    We also now find that we need to have a special "Code signing certificate" (whatever that is) to make all this work, which will cost about US$400.

    That's why everything takes so long to do here - we're constantly having to save up to buy new software and have it integrated with our system.

    Anyway, we're on the case and hopefully we'll have a new chat supremo soon, who will be in charge of running our chatrooms and making them popular.

    Hugs,

    Katie x
  • wendy larsen
    • 2573 posts
    May 26, 2005 4:11 AM BST
    I think Alex means dl the Sun Java 1.4.2 (or above) from the sun website. It works best.