Chat on this site

[dretchlord]

I was wondering, or probably there already is, is there a way to direct chat with someone than using a pm(private message)? I think if your friend is online it would be nice to chat with them than to send a pm. Or is it that there is a chat and I don't know about it. Sorry just recently joined this site a few weeks ago. Also I'm wondering if there is a group chat

Further detail, I don't refer to an IRC chat but rather website built chat.

[Tempus]

Nope, there isn't. You can either PM them, ask for there email / Skype / whatever over PM and talk to them on that, or visit the #renpy channel. Quite a few people from LSF hang out in #renpy.

[xavimat]

Sorry for my ignorance but, what would be the difference between the current IRC channel and the website built chat you ask?

As Tempus has said, some of us meet usually at the #renpy channel.

[dretchlord]

That so I thought it would be nice if people could just chat right away than connecting to an irc client/site then typing a channel.

[TrickWithAKnife]

People aren't going to be replying right away anyway, so the few seconds to type /j renpy shouldn't make much difference.

Plus, once you get to know us you'll want to auto-join anyway.

[xavimat]

Plus, once you get to know us you'll want to auto-join anyway.

+1 !

[SusanTheCat]

My sadness is that work blocks irc.

Susan

[TrickWithAKnife]

I had wondered why we hadn't had the pleasure of your company lately.

[mugenjohncel]

Every time I go to the #renpy IRC I can feel this subtle hostile atmosphere so I try and minimize my time there as much as I can and only go there for "extremely important" reasons and leave ASAP...

Mental Image everytime I visit the #renpy IRC channel

Sorry, I just had to say this and at least serve as a warning to others who still have their internet innocence intact that the real time nature of IRC (not just Renpy's) is not always Rainbow and Flowers and must tread with caution. Think of it as some Dark Alley situated between tall buildings where suspicious shady people hang in there offering you everything from Weed to Cough Syrup to Smuggled Gummi Bears... also jerks... yes, even though it's mostly quiet in there most of the time, weird things can and has happened in #renpy IRC... you have been warned

"POOF" (Disappears)

[SusanTheCat]

Think of it as some Dark Alley situated between tall buildings where suspicious shady people hang in there offering you everything from Weed to Cough Syrup to Smuggled Gummi Bears... also jerks... yes, even though it's mostly quiet in there most of the time, weird things can and has happened in #renpy IRC... you have been warned

I always pictured it as a smelly locker room where you mind your own business and don't butt in to other people's conversations because you can never be quite sure what they are talking about.

jk I've found the IRC chat room very helpful and friendly. Mind you, I am comparing this to IRC 20 years ago when I couldn't spend 30 second in a chat room without someone asking me my ... ahem... preferences.

Susan

[TrickWithAKnife]

It's not nearly that bad. Especially if people stick around a while.

There have been some people who log in drop a question and log out within the same minute. To them we may seem rude, but the nature of IRC is that people are probably doing something else at the same time.

I'm not referring to you (Mugen) in particular because I know you've been sticking around longer to chat lately, but I wouldn't want any new people to mistakenly think we are ignoring them when we aren't.

[xavimat]

I'm quite new in the #renpy channel and don't know what bad experiences had Mugen in the past.
But my current experience is really good. I ask if I have a doubt and usually get an answer, I try to anwer the questions if I can and usually mess it all sometimes my answer helps.
Simple as that.

[Ferdokki]

Agreeing with dretchlord, I would really like to have a in-chat thing for this site. I was kinda disappointed that there isn't one.
I prefer a chat to an IRC because in the chat, I can be specific to who is included in my conversation. IRC's are too public; I can't discuss game-specific stuff with the specific developer I'm working with because it's not a private conversation.

Sending PMs is not the same thing, because that's still pretty much like email.

I just think a chat option would be helpful for this site. I mean, we have a list in our User Control Panel of "friends" who are online or offline. What's the point of that if the only thing I can do is message them via PM and wait for their PMs back?

[Tempus]

I prefer a chat to an IRC because in the chat, I can be specific to who is included in my conversation. IRC's are too public; I can't discuss game-specific stuff with the specific developer I'm working with because it's not a private conversation. Sending PMs is not the same thing, because that's still pretty much like email.

On the sites I've been to that have an integrated chat, everyone registered on the site can use it. They aren't particularly private. If you already have specific people who you want in a real time conversation, you can invite them to a channel on IRC or to a chat on Skype. You can also message specific people in #renpy privately while in the channel using /msg [their nick] [message]. At least I think that's the syntax. Or you can just speak to them on IRC independently of a channel too.

[PyTom]

Just for the record, I have no plans to add chat to this site.

One of the nice things about IRC is that the fine people at freenode run the servers for us, which means that I don't have to bother configuring anything. That's nice, since it means I can spend more time on my own projects, like Ren'Py.

IRC allows you to register a channel and make it private or invite-only, as well. (I'm not sure such channels would be suitable for freenode, but there are other networks than freenode out there.)