Chat Box - Possiblde to Move?

[flamingolady]

Is there a way to move the chat box to the bottom of the screen.  I keep thinking it's a search box, but mostly it takes up my screen space.  I know I can get rid of it, but prefer it to be at the bottom of the page.  I checked layout and profile but didn't see any options, maybe I missed it if it's there.
dee

[brynn]

Hhm, no, you can't move it yourself.  But you can hide it.  See that white square on the right side of the titlebar (the dark blue bar with "Chat" on the left side)?  That white square, I think it's suppose to be a minus sign.  But anyway, click that, and it will close up the chat box, and only the titlebar will be showing.

You can actually collapse all the portal blocks and panels, if you don't want to see them.  Just click the minus sign button on each block that you don't want to see.  And there are a few minus sign buttons which it's not clear what they close.  But you can use trial and error to see what they do.

If everyone wants the chatbox moved to the bottom, I'll be happy to do it.

[flamingolady]

yeah, I just get tired of minimizing it.  Doubt many people will even reply, it's really just the ones that are real active that would even notice it, so probably not worth wasting time unless it bothers the admin.  I just thought there was a way for me to do something myself.  Thx for your response, no worries.

[brynn]

Do you mean that after you minimize it, the next time you visit the forum, it's open again?  I'd have to investigate, but that could be a cookie issue.  Are you accepting cookies?  If you're only accepting session cookies, that could be the problem.  I would think it should stay minimized otherwise.

Oh, unless you log out after every session and then log back in the next time.  Not even taking the right cookie would avoid it in that situation.

I remember back in the day when malicious malware/viruses were first proliferating, best practice was always to log out and log back in for each new session.  But websites have protections now, as far as I understand, and it's safe to always stay logged in now.

[brynn]

While I'm not sure how much I like it, it is possible to put the chatbox in a side panel.  See this forum uses SMF and chatbox on the side:  https://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?action=forum.  They have a quite different theme than we use (and possibly a different chat mod) but you can at least see how it looks.

But anyway, if others would like, we certainly can try it.  Just because I'm old and I don't like change doesn't mean we can't change things.  I just like to see more people wanting the change than don't want it.

Oh, another thing we could do, is put the discussion from the chat on top of the box where you enter text, more like IRC works.  I like it this way, because you read downward, to follow the discussion, just like we normally read English.  For IRC, it bugs me to have to read upwards, to follow the discussion.  (!idea - I wonder if my irc client allows to switch it around....?)

Actually, I think I can switch the position of the discussion vs the text field, and change the direction of the discussion, separately.  I think we could have both worlds.  But again, only if more want it than don't, or if it would prevent confusing it with search.  I'm not sure if it would help with confusion.

[lurkalot]

See this forum uses SMF and chatbox on the side:  https://www.tinyportal.net/index.php?action=forum.  They have a quite different theme than we use (and possibly a different chat mod) but you can at least see how it looks.

Brynn, on that site I'm only using the Shout box that comes built in with Tinyportal, it does have two layouts to choose from, one slight more compact than the other.  We do have plans to improve the shout box, so it will nearer to what you're using now, not sure when that will be though.

[brynn]

Interesting -- thanks for the info.

It might be worth trying out the TP chat anyway.  This SMFPacks shoutbox has an issue with the notification sound not always playing when a new message is posted.  I did post the problem in the SMF Support topic, but it never got any replies.  While that's just one small feature, it's quite an important one.

Anyway, thanks again

[lurkalot]

Interesting -- thanks for the info.

It might be worth trying out the TP chat anyway.  This SMFPacks shoutbox has an issue with the notification sound not always playing when a new message is posted.  I did post the problem in the SMF Support topic, but it never got any replies.  While that's just one small feature, it's quite an important one.

Anyway, thanks again

In that case I will add,  that the TP Shout box doesn't have a notification either, so you won't benefit in that way. Some for our ideas thread.