I'm not certain that the chatterbox ought to be logged.
Of course someone can always log it for her or himself,
but that doesn't mean it should be an included feature.
It seems to me that a lot of what happens on chatterbox
is unimportant or only important at the time.
Logged chattering could lose context. Context is not
just a factor of date/time, which can easily be logged
(although which time zone would be used?), but also can
relate to activity on the site (recent postings, who
is logged in at the time) or events outside of the site.
For example, if someone made a post and failed to use
code tags, I might mention that on chatterbox (without
using msg if that person were the only person logged
on). The person doesn't reply but fixes the post.
This is a boring example. Who cares about some missing
code tags?
Next the person writes something insulting me for even
bringing the code tags up (or a poem talking about how
wonderful I am for mentioning it, depending on what view
of human nature you prefer in examples). I'm tired, so
I say more than I might have otherwise--"You are
so rude. I wish someone would rm you." (alternate:
"Please remove that, it's embarassing!").
Point having been made, the person changes the text of
the node so that it says "Oops, sorry for the blank
message, please remove this." Three hours later, it
gets removed. Seven hours later someone looks at the
log and wonders what I'm on and whom I was talking to.
I know, these are silly examples because nobody really
cares what I was saying to the unknown person at 2 in
the morning. Which is exactly my point: if it's important,
it belongs in a node; if it's in the chatterbox, it's
probably disposable (and if it isn't, someone should write
it up in a node so it will be saved).
| [reply] |
You make some good points about the transitory nature of the chatterbox, I can't argue with the examples you cite.
Perhaps what I really want is not a permanent logging of the comments for posterity, but a larger window into the discussion. I guarantee that I am not the only person who has logged on and caught the end of what looked like an interesting discussion. A lot of times, I would like to see what has been said already without everybody repeating themselves. Or perhaps someone has asked a question and all you have seen are the replys, again a larger window into the discussion would be useful.
A one hour cache would suit my purposes much better than a permenant record. A one hour cache would also allay most of the concerns about losing context. So if we had a page that showed the previous hour's discussion, would this be a better solution acceptable to all/most?
update Ok I realise very few people have actually read this post since I wrote it, but this seemed worth adding.
There is a separate discussion going on about chat scripts logging in while they poll for messages. ZZamboni has mentioned that (in order to ensure he does not miss anything) he leaves his script running while he is not there. If there was a "previous hours chat" page, you could amend the polling frequency of your chat scripts to once every 55 - 58 minutes or so, when you were leaving them unattended. This would greatly reduce the load on the server.
Thanks for reading
Nuance
Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle plan if it painted
itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord,
singing "Subtle plans are here again!"
| [reply] |
And would it be too much to ask to code up a series of AI
agents to sift through the data on a minute-by-minute basis
and adjust everyone's XP in real time based on their
adherence to Perl Monks best practices, with extra points
for style?
(jk)
jj, you can log the chatterbox yourself right now, but if
everyone did that, server would start sagging. but i agree,
actually, the chatterbox is full of tasty tidbits that are
lost forever.
e-mail neshura | [reply] |
you can log the chatterbox yourself right now, but if
everyone did that, server would start sagging. but i agree,
actually, the chatterbox is full of tasty tidbits that are
lost forever.
Logging it my self isn't an option for me, I pay my ISP
£0.01 pence per minute that I'm connected that's evenings
and weekends (for people who don't understand real money :-)
that's about $1.00 American roughly per hour) rising to
£0.045 per minute during the day. Logging it myself would
get very expensive very quickly.
I too would like some way to get at the history and was
going to post a discussion topic about this myself earlier
on (some of you may remember me asking if it had been
discussed before, I thought it had and didn't want to
rehash old ground).
Nuance
Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle plan if it painted
itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord,
singing "Subtle plans are here again!"
| [reply] |
Perhaps some nice monk will take it upon him/herself to offer such a service. You know, for the kids.
The Autonomic Pilot
| [reply] |
This would be great (as long as you can filter out an individual). Everybody knows who that is. | [reply] |