New Cam Chat Room   Reply to topic

I wanted to take a few moments to announce the new chat room and also to address a few things with regards to the new chat room.

So, we have a new chat room! While a large portion of PV users seem to have embraced it, there are a few people who either don't like the change or are not able to access the chat room at all. I will attempt to address both issues with this announcement.

Why did we change the chat room?
- Several reasons really but the paramount reasons are:
i) because the old chat room was not being run on our servers and we had no control of it. By this I mean if the chat room crashed, we had to wait on other people fixing it or we had no control over the quality of the cam feeds we could stream.
ii) the old chat room did not allow us to offer non premium users free cam time and this is something we needed to address and have done so with the new chat room
iii) we have plans to upgrade several area of PV and the old chat just did not allow us to integrate features. Again, the new chat addresses this issue.

Why do private cams not work like they use to?
- Well, private cams DO work. Albeit they don't work like the use to on the old chat. In the new chat room, we have public streams and private streams. In a public stream, anyone can view your cam simply by clicking on it. If you elect to stream privately, people cam still see you have a cam on and clicking on your cam initiates a request for you to Accept or Deny allowing them to view your cam. I understand that this has ruffled a few feathers but please understand that PV is a community site and our chat room was never intended to be used as a private cam service. We have proven our ability to be a community site since 1999 and we'd like to think that we're good at it. If truely private camming is what you are after then there are services that specialise in this.

Why does the chat room not load for me?
- The chat room requires the latest version of Flash Player so please ensure that you have the latest version by visiting this link:
http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
If you still experience issues accessing the chat room, please get in touch with our support help desk and we will make sure you are given the help you require for your specific problem.

Regards,
Min

As the queen of multi tasking in the chat room, I'm not thrilled with the new private chat tabs. I would have as many as 7 going in the old chat room & could still keep up with the room with the scroll stopped. Now, I have to say it is hard to keep up with everything. Since you don't get to see immediately when someone writes a comment, your eyes have to be all over the place now.

I think the tabs need to be moved to the bottom, you know like each sheet name in an excel spreadsheet. Your focus in the chat room is always at the bottom of the screen, whether you are writing or reading a new entry. As I mentioned to you before, that little red outline when someone writes a comment is very hard to see on the light background. It would make it a lot easier to see when you receive one, as well as notice the change in the number of comments made if it were happening where your eyes are already focused.

Also when I keep the scroll stopped, after a while the screen goes blank. When I roll the scroll it goes all the way back to the beginning, when I first stopped the scroll. Why is that?

I came in just after the last chat room change, so this is my first change adjustment. But I do agree the boxes popping up were annoying, especially when you were camming & watching cams. I just think the new system needs to be tweaked a bit. You know me, I don't like people to think I'm ignoring them. But like I said, with your eyes focused on the bottom of the screen, it is hard to notice the tabs popping up, unless you make the effort to keep checking all the time. I realize that things can't be changed immediately, just dropping it into the suggestion box for the next update!

browneyes16, I see a LOT of merit in your suggestion to have the tabs at the bottom of the screen and I will look into getting this done.

I sincerely believe that the only way we can better this site is through "practical" suggestions from our users. I say practical because sometimes we just aren't able to implement some suggestions either because it is not programmatically (sic) possible to do so or perhaps it clashes with the community driven direction we intend for this site.

We do however listen and over the course of the next several months we will be making many changes and enhancements that we hope will propel PV forward.

I've seen the phrase "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" being used a few times and while this may be a relevant thing to say in most walks of life, when you're dealing with technology and web sites, it really is a different kettle of fish. We need to be proactive in order to attract newer people to the site and we need to be constantly evolving in order to give our existing users a better experience.

Nirvana makes a few good points too. Firstly about the pop-up screens being annoying and most importantly about people at least giving the new chat room a fair shake. If you're going to dismiss it straight off the bat then I fear you'll miss out on meeting some great people and sharing some great times with them.

Thank you min!!!

Brownie...
On a positive note, now you don't have to have multiple private chats open, you can allow multiple people access to your cam at once! I would think this would make life simpler for you.

As with everything mot, there are pros & cons. I luv the fact that you can now see an entire conversation not just one or two comments. And yes, it will be nice to allow others to watch my cam if I am private camming. Well, that is if I'm not tooooooo busy with the task at hand to notice the requests. lol

But I guess I will have to apologize now, if I leave people hanging while private chatting. Just like when I am between sites & forget I'm in the chat room, I forget to go back to the tabs. Sooooooooo sorry peeps!!!

ty brownie, agree...miss the 'lil boxes...lol..

Ditto Miss the boxes as well. And an audible tone when a private request arrives would be nice. Perhaps the old private boxes could be an option.

I now turn off the sounds because I think is is annoying on every post.

Hateto be the bearer of bad news...but more people are leaving due to this cam thing...when i jpined it suited me great as it did others...if u wanted to pvt you could...and in public if you liked...ive done both...now we haveno choice...its been taken away from us,,and lots of the members ive spoken to of all on about not renewing.
I joined to get cam time...now your giving it away to non members..so wheres our benefit as people who have put their hand in their pockets...alot of people are feeling VERY upset...and annoyed..this may well be the beginning of the end for PV...unless someone gets these issues sorted...and quickly...
Nobody cams anymore...in the last two days ive seen not a single lady...and the average male/female ratio is around 1 in 10...and why?...because they are leaving..