I’ve been working on the new chat which will be coming out soon. I still have time before (and will have after) to add new features. However, I’ve just about run out of ideas. I figured I’d put something here so more people would see it.
Chances are, I’ll be able to add what you request - in some form. We use the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol. This means that some things just can’t be done the way the server is set up. But, I can probably add it some other way. An example is pinning messages. IRC doesn’t have this capability. This means a user can’t pin a message for everybody. However, I have added local pins, so you can pin messages for yourself to view later.
Here’s a short list of what’s already been implemented. Please check this before requesting a feature - I may have already added it.
Notifications (can be turned on/off for specific channels, indicator in page title can be customized, desktop notifications can be enabled)
Username colors
Joining/leaving other channels is in the works
Away/online status
Username, channel, and puzzle tooltips
Chat can be dragged and resized
More markdown formatting
A markdown toolbar (e.g. you can select text and click the bold button to make the selection bold)
Toolbar also includes emoticons (with three custom emoticon slots) and a preview so you can see what your message will look like before you send it
Text size can be changed (10-18 pixels)
Autocompletion for usernames
Moderation tools
More chat commands
Redone layout with slideout
Pins
That’s not an exhaustive list, just what I can remember.
Like I said, I’ve just about run out of ideas. I’d love to add some more features before the chat is released. Thanks for your feedback!
I have highlights as a markdown option. The issue with text color is finding a good way to choose the color. I already have a filter set up for username colors that detects if the color doesn’t contrast with the background. Any ideas?
Honestly, not a huge fan of changing text color. Potential issues I see with it:
Makes it hard to read
Generally looks “messy”
I can’t think of a use case where it’s particularly useful, rather than “just for fun”, where it tends to be disruptive - seems like it’s likely to be abused
Will the chat client exist as a window outside the application and website? Will it be possible to change the background of the chat client to something like grey, or not blue? You’ll probably want to add in the ability to make the text another color (like black) if that’s the case. Definitely not red or colored text though, because all these points are pretty relevant.
Makes it hard to read
Generally looks “messy”
I can’t think of a use case where it’s particularly useful, rather than “just for fun”, where it tends to be disruptive - seems like it’s likely to be abused
Currently we use irc.eternagame.org to host the chat outside of the main site - I believe the plan is to move the new chat there too. You bring up a good point about changing the background. It is probably possible to make themes you can choose from. I’m thinking a default, dark mode, and light mode. Any other suggestions for themes?
irc.eternagame.org was always a stopgap thing - partially because I had to host the chat externally, and partially because the site itself wasn’t mobile performant and I wanted to make it usable for mobile devices. Ahalb’s work on the new client allows it to expand into a modal to fill the page - I was imagining that was sufficient for a “full page” chat.
