Right now at SEN we're facing a problem, channels that have the potential to split SEN into smaller groups destined to decline faster than a consolidated community.

For years the shoutbox has been brimming with activity, sometimes spanning over several pages in a single day, but lately we've experienced a significant decline. Some of this can be attributed to the school cycle, as finals roll around and term papers are due, people simply don't have enough time to devote to long conversations or scanning for interesting content - but the summer bump will not fix everything.

A number of chat channels have sprung up here and there, most significant to the present is the SEN Skype group. For my own safety and for the productivity of this topic i'll preface this by saying - it's not a bad idea, they have better technology making for more efficient communication, no need to spam refresh, no need to upload to external sites to share files, and something like this should be considered - but it does pose a problem to the unity of the community...

Not everyone is going to embrace the separate channel of communication, many will use both, but many will end up using one much more than the other - and therein lies the problem, SEN is a small community, and the fastest way to kill a small community is to fracture it into smaller ones.

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As far as i'm concerned the path forward is clear, we need to achieve the communication advantages possessed by separate lines of communication (such as Skype) without separating them from the shoutbox and from large portions of SEN.

As for my ideas for specifically addressing this problem:

- Create a third-party add-on to Skype (or a similar programs), such that it logs you on to SEN and sends the public chat messages sent to the SEN chatroom to the SEN shoutbox
- Create a bot to echo chat from here to there (is this against the rules?)
- Create a chat client specifically for the SEN shoutbox implementing many features found in other chat programs
- Change shoutbox software to something that already essentially does -^
- Massive updates to shoutbox to make it standalone-worthy of 2013

As for other suggested ideas:

- IRC ? (not sure this addresses the problem, but do discuss)

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It would not be terribly difficult to get a chat program compatible with the shoutbox from my understanding, but I'm not personally versed in networked programming and thus we may have trouble finding someone that is and has the time - whats more SEN's code isn't terribly stable, changes will probably cause some intermittent problems.

A third party program for (skypeish programs) is perhaps my favorite solution, all it would require is keeping the user logged into SEN when active (a simulated 'refresh' click every 14 minuets or so), reading (with auto-refresh) and duplicating the text they send; a weekend's work of hacking at most. Though this may require a bot to send shouts back to the skypeish program if the third party program cannot be made to insert what it reads automatically, possibly causing inelegant text on that side.

A bot would be very simple to implement, as I recall some people have, in the past, created websites that capture and post real-time changes from SEN. Though we would have to worry about being compliant with (Skypeish programs) rules, and unless it was warped into the existing shoutbox code the resulting text would be inelegant.


So SEN, what are your feelings/ideas on/for moving forward with our communications?

As long as it can be integrated into SEN in terms of restricting access based on bans/suspensions and allows SEN's mods to regulate it, I'm open to ideas. That said, I think part of the reason why people use the SEN Skype chat or anything else is because we (SEN's staff) aren't moderating it. If it became an official SEN chatroom, there are plenty of things that have been said that would be removed, which I'm sure would lead to another chatroom being created.

As a side note, I'm a bigger fan of IRC than Skype, but Skype does have major advantages.

If you create a SEN Chat, I would definitely use it. Would others?

But the unofficial one would still be around regardless. I remember someone talking about IRC?

I still have the #staredit.net IRC channel on freenode, so in theory people could use that if they wanted.

It sounds like you want to cover up SEN's downfall to make it seem like we are not as inactive as we are.

We all came here with a common interest in mind. The people we were introduced to along the way may not all have been friend-worthy, so we stick by the people we do connect to. As community degrades, it is not uncommon for some of us to keep in touch with those we have formed friendships with. I do not see it as breaking up the community; the community is just fading on its own along with the original interest.

This community is definitely on its last legs. Donuts is much more inactive, UMS assistance is not as active, maps are released in longer and longer intervals - even my contest with real world prizes generated few participants.

The old adage remains true: all good things come to an end.

Don't act so defeated...SEN has a lot it needs to do to remain prevalent in this day and age, and I think the biggest problem here isn't that we don't have a chat room (which again, I would use), but we don't have people with the money or time to dedicate to some of the things other gamer/sc sites do. There's still a lot to offer...

@Rive

Nah, I recognize the decline and that there will be no lasting solution to growing inactivity, however it's unnecessary to speed decline along such as I believe (and have previously witnessed) splitting the chat apart does. Hence attempting to find non-coercive methods to improve the immediate situation.

Moreover people have noted shoutbox being buggy/outdated, and we shouldn't deny SEN extra chat features within our grasp.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 24 2013, 11:05 pm by jjf28.

Hey, if we supported .NET technology here, I'd be eager to roll out some SignalR code for a new Shoutbox.

I maintain conversations outside of Sen because I want them to be outside of Sen. If there were an integrated Skype (or other client) Shoutbox thing, I wouldn't use it any more than I use the Shoutbox today.

You are exactly correct about this, but this is the same concept as begging everyone not to shop at walmart. They know it's wrong, they know what might happen because they shop there, but the convenience is really the only deciding factor.

I'm not telling people not to shop at walmart, i'm trying to get walmart restructured to benefit the local businesses

What's cool about it is walmart has no say in the matter.

Honestly, we all just need to play a little more SC lol.
In my opinion, keep a moderated channel as for spam bots are annoying and people like me like a quiet channel..
I mean the show box is great and im all for it, but not all the time i want to come to SEN to check what others are talking about...