The Chat Problems Thread

[Jonah Weiland]

Testing out the new chat and having problems? Leave your detailed message here.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Any way to make Chat work without being in CBR style? If not currently, are revisions planned to make this possible?

All that yellow makes my eyes bleed.

Still, way cool to have an official CBR chat. Thanks, Jonah!

[Brandon Hanvey]

The chat doesn't really work that well with Safari. The window formating is off and it does not auto refresh.

[Jonah Weiland]

Any way to make Chat work without being in CBR style? If not currently, are revisions planned to make this possible?

All that yellow makes my eyes bleed.

Still, way cool to have an official CBR chat. Thanks, Jonah!Yes, eventually you'll be able to operate it in both styles. I'll let you know once it's ready.

[Jonah Weiland]

There've been a number of frequently asked questions in the chat so far, so here's some answers.

Can I create my own private chatroom?

No, at the moment only SuperMods and Admins can create alternate rooms. A maximum of 10 rooms are possible.

The chat window is huge. Can I change that?

At the moment, not really. That's tops on our list to fix, though.

Firefox users, here's a tip: When you're in chat, hold down your shift key and then click on the "vBChat" link in the upper left hand corner. It'll open a new, resiazble window and you can close the old one.

How can I change my status? How can I private message someone?

Click on the "vBChat Help" link in the upper right hand corner for the answers to those questions.

Is the chat room compatible with Safari on the Mac?

It appears that the only browser with compatability issues so far is Safari. If anyone else has problems, drop us a line with exactly which type and version of browser you're using.

[Matt]

It should be made painfully clear that any inappropiate behaviour (eg, of the predatory type) will result in an instant ban from the chat and forums with no questions asked, as well as other, more official, action being taken as deemed appropiate.

It is something we take extremely seriously and there will be no second chances.

[Gordon Smith]

Is there any way to save chat transcripts?

[zilch]

And of course...

its not compatible with WebTV

(theres a shocker!)

Any suggestions??

[Paradox]

CBR Chat? What? WHERE?

Awwww, I bet it's Mods only until you've worked out the glitches. :(

EDIT: Never mind, I found it. WHOO-HOO! Ride 'em, Cowboy!

[Paradox]

Second and sixth emoticon inidicator pics aren't showing up.

[Matt]

Odd. They seem to be showing up for everyone else.

[Jonah Weiland]

Odd. They seem to be showing up for everyone else.I've noticed that two emoticons don't appear to show up properly. Will have to check in to that.

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

All the emoticons are there now.

However every now and again my post line goes nuts and starts sending what I'm typing letter by letter (is happening about once every five minutes).
I can't tell anything I'm doing different.

Also a few people have mentioned posts just dissapearing.

[Alistair]

Yeah, occasionally you'll type a line, hit post, and it just disappears into the ether.

[west3man]

It should be made painfully clear that any inappropiate behaviour (eg, of the predatory type) will result in an instant ban from the chat and forums with no questions asked, as well as other, more official, action being taken as deemed appropiate.

It is something we take extremely seriously and there will be no second chances.
That being the case, where can we find the chatroom rules so that we don't accidentally exhibit bannable, no-second-chance behavior?

[JeffreyWKramer]

However every now and again my post line goes nuts and starts sending what I'm typing letter by letter (is happening about once every five minutes).
I can't tell anything I'm doing different.



I experienced this a couple of times last night, as did some other folk in the room at the time - I think Puma was one of them.

[JeffreyWKramer]

Yes, eventually you'll be able to operate it in both styles. I'll let you know once it's ready.

Excellent. Thankee!

[roguespirit]

The chat window is huge. Can I change that?

At the moment, not really. That's tops on our list to fix, though.

Firefox users, here's a tip: When you're in chat, hold down your shift key and then click on the "vBChat" link in the upper left hand corner. It'll open a new, resiazble window and you can close the old one.



this also worked for me in IE

[Tom]

That being the case, where can we find the chatroom rules so that we don't accidentally exhibit bannable, no-second-chance behavior?
The chat rules are basically the same as the general forum rules: no flaming, insults or porn.

[west3man]

The chat rules are basically the same as the general forum rules: no flaming, insults or porn.
'preciate it.

Since it's effectively replacing Rita's, one might assume Rita's rules apply.

[i_mmmchocolate]

Yeah, occasionally you'll type a line, hit post, and it just disappears into the ether.


Ditto.

It's very frustrating.

[Sheldon]

I disappear from the "Users currently in vBChat column when I surf CBR in another window.....

[Jonah Weiland]

Keep in mind we did not develop this software. This is a hack found on the vBulletin.org Web site. We'll take your suggestions and send them back to the developers, but there may not be a lot we can do about some of these complaints. I'll keep you posted.

[Matt]

For those that get the bug wherein stuff is posted as you type it, before you hit the post button:


People have to understand that if they want to use IE, they have to use a proper sequence in order to avoid the problem. And the sequence is, you always click in the Post Message box, before starting typing. If you do not do that, and if your browser at that moment is fetching the messages, whatever you type goes to the server. To stop this, you have to click in the message box again.

I do not think there is anything ZT can do about it. It's a bug in the way Internet Explorer handles things, not in this hack. To prove it, we tested the same thing with IE 5.0. That version does not have the problem.


Today's lesson: Stop using IE.

[Mon-el]

I have a dumb question.

Is there specifically something I have to do like turn off any anti-virus programs/ pop up blockers before the chat will work?

Im using aol dial up and I just thought I would try the chat out, and all I get is a blank page with this link:

http://forums.comicbookresources.com/vBChat.php?&do=main&nojoin=1

any help would be appreciated.

[Matt]

Im using aol dial up

Might be a clue there.

You do not need to disable anything that I know of to get the chat room to work, though it does help if you don't use Internet Explorer and use an up to date web browser such as Firefox 1.0.2

[Mon-el]

Might be a clue there.

You do not need to disable anything that I know of to get the chat room to work, though it does help if you don't use Internet Explorer and use an up to date web browser such as Firefox 1.0.2

I know I dont have a Great service provider. I live in the country and this is the only local service I can get and that is offered, kinda have to take what you can get. I tried using Explorer and Ill download Firefox. So I guess aol dial up users cannot use the chat I take it.

[Matt]

I know what it's like to live in an area that has an extremely limited choice of internet providers, it's certainly not good.

I honestly don't know if it's AOL causing problems for you or not, I'd actually think the cause is more likely Internet Explorer. So download Firefox and see if that works for now.

[mgs]

just wanted ya'll to know, i use IE and it's working fine for me, granted, I just started to use tonight, but everything is in order.

thanks guys. :)

[howyadoin]

For people having that window-resizing problem, I've found that if you control-click on the vBChat link and open the chat in a new tab, it works just fine.

(Obviously, you need a browser that supports tabbed browsing.)

[west3man]

just wanted ya'll to know, i use IE and it's working fine for me, granted, I just started to use tonight, but everything is in order.

thanks guys. :)
Same here. It even works, in a limited way, on my Blazer (mobile) browser.

[Xombie]

I have noticed that the chat has problems working with Netscape.

The chat screen is blank and when you type in it, it opens another window that displays what has been previously said.

[Gaz]

For people having that window-resizing problem, I've found that if you control-click on the vBChat link and open the chat in a new tab, it works just fine.

(Obviously, you need a browser that supports tabbed browsing.)
It works in IE too.

[Spike-X]

And of course...

its not compatible with WebTV

(theres a shocker!)

Any suggestions??
Get a real computer?

The post-eating bug is still a problem for me. that and the fact that chat's freezing up every ten minutes, taking the boards with it.

[howyadoin]

that and the fact that chat's freezing up every ten minutes, taking the boards with it.Been doing that for the past hour or so.

[west3man]

Quote:
Originally Posted by zilch
And of course...

its not compatible with WebTV

(theres a shocker!)

Any suggestions??
Get a real computer?
. . . .

[Jonah Weiland]

Been doing that for the past hour or so.When it does this if people could send me an e-mail with a "Hey, the Forums are acting funky" I'd appreciate it. I do not monitor the forums all the time. When these things happen they're rather easy to fix, but I need to know about it.

[west3man]

When it does this if people could send me an e-mail with a "Hey, the Forums are acting funky" I'd appreciate it. I do not monitor the forums all the time. When these things happen they're rather easy to fix, but I need to know about it.
I don't know if you meant the forums, in general, but assuming you did... it just happened.

No access for a few minutes. I'm hoping that by the time I finish typing this, it'll still be up.

Often, when the message board stops responding, the chatroom usually does.



Finally, when I first read your message, I thought you may have meant a couple of different things - each of which relied on some aspect of this online animal to be functional. What JUST happened, though, did not bring up a message which allowed ME, at least, to automatically send an e-mail to you or whomever, as is sometimes the case. That might be good information for you to have or it might not. I dunno.

Hmm... it just occurred to me that a lot of times, www.cbr.cc is functioning FINE despite the fact that the message board is unavailable. Maybe we could just go to the homepage, find a hyperlink or something with your e-mail address, then let you know what's up.

Argh. Even though this looks something like a stream-of-consciousness mess, it may still contain some helpful tidbits, so I'll leave it as-is... despite the potential damage to my rep and oh-so-fragile ego.

[Dreadstar]

So, what's the deal?

Is it the chat? I mean, I know we had *some* problems before, but not everyday, every hour, or every 15 minutes like it is now.

If it's the chat, can we drop it, until we get the bugs ironed out, and just go back to the regular boards?

If it isn't the chat, then what is it? Is it the mega threads (of which we got rid of one already)? If they're eating bandwidth, should we close them?

Come on, inquiring minds want to know.

[Jonah Weiland]

I don't know if you meant the forums, in general, but assuming you did... it just happened.

No access for a few minutes. I'm hoping that by the time I finish typing this, it'll still be up.

Often, when the message board stops responding, the chatroom usually does.



Finally, when I first read your message, I thought you may have meant a couple of different things - each of which relied on some aspect of this online animal to be functional. What JUST happened, though, did not bring up a message which allowed ME, at least, to automatically send an e-mail to you or whomever, as is sometimes the case. That might be good information for you to have or it might not. I dunno.

Hmm... it just occurred to me that a lot of times, www.cbr.cc (http://www.cbr.cc) is functioning FINE despite the fact that the message board is unavailable. Maybe we could just go to the homepage, find a hyperlink or something with your e-mail address, then let you know what's up.

Argh. Even though this looks something like a stream-of-consciousness mess, it may still contain some helpful tidbits, so I'll leave it as-is... despite the potential damage to my rep and oh-so-fragile ego.My e-mail address is pretty simple: jonah@comicbookresources.com

[Jonah Weiland]

So, what's the deal?

Is it the chat? I mean, I know we had *some* problems before, but not everyday, every hour, or every 15 minutes like it is now.

If it's the chat, can we drop it, until we get the bugs ironed out, and just go back to the regular boards?

If it isn't the chat, then what is it? Is it the mega threads (of which we got rid of one already)? If they're eating bandwidth, should we close them?

Come on, inquiring minds want to know.As I've stated before here and elsewhere, no, it's not the chat and it happened before the chat. No, we don't know exactly what's going on and as far as when I've been keeping an eye on things, no, it's not been every 15 minutes ever. That's ridiculous.

We're going to take a hard look at things this weekend and see if we can fix it.

[MKTerra]

I have noticed that the chat has problems working with Netscape.

The chat screen is blank and when you type in it, it opens another window that displays what has been previously said.Hmm, what Netscape version?

[Jonah Weiland]

You can now log in to the Comic Chat using both the CBR Style and the old Default style.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Every time I try a second depth IP search CBR seems to freeze. I'm nots sure if it is the IP seach causing it or that CBR goes down while I'm doing the IP search.

[west3man]

The chatroom just seems to stop refreshing for me, once in a while. It says people are there when they may not be (but really, who knows?) and vice-versa.

The smilies switch up every session, it seems.

Also, I've got this pain in my back, whenever I do like THIS... ;)

[west3man]

The boards and the room are intermittently functional.

[howyadoin]

When it does this if people could send me an e-mail with a "Hey, the Forums are acting funky" I'd appreciate it. I do not monitor the forums all the time. When these things happen they're rather easy to fix, but I need to know about it.Will do. Never occurred to me before, to be honest.

[west3man]

Will do. Never occurred to me before, to be honest. At times, it says an e-mail has been sent to the administrator or whomever. I think that, after seeing that so many times, I figured it was covered - particularly considering the number of moderators there are around here.

[Jonah Weiland]

Every time I try a second depth IP search CBR seems to freeze. I'm nots sure if it is the IP seach causing it or that CBR goes down while I'm doing the IP search.Hey Brandon, not sure what you mean. Drop me a PM and I'll try it on my side.

In other news, we upgraded MySQL last night (thus why we were offline for a while) and tonight we're going to upgrade Apache. This is in hopes of solving the troubles we've been having with this server.

[Dreadstar]

15 minutes ago, chat not only hung (Netscape 7.2), but my comp refused to accept further entries and was frozen. I finally did get Netscape to close, but when I tried to bring it back up again, it told me I had to register, because the default was in use. Which has never happened to me ever.

And I may have used hyperbole on the 15 minutes/hang up, but I've already seen 3 or 4 slowdowns/hangups today since I logged on 5 or 6 hours ago. Really, I don't think I was seeing that many hangs prior to chat, not one on the average of every 90 minutes (<----NOT hyperbole).

[west3man]

For those p.c. users who were concerned about not being able to resize the window, I've found that ctrl-n opens a new window containing the same chatroom content, but it's got the minimize, maximize, and close options available in the upper right corner... not to mention the other typical menu and toolbar items (in IE, anyway).

After I open the new window, I just close the old one and keep on truckin'. Very cool.

[Jonah Weiland]

15 minutes ago, chat not only hung (Netscape 7.2), but my comp refused to accept further entries and was frozen. I finally did get Netscape to close, but when I tried to bring it back up again, it told me I had to register, because the default was in use. Which has never happened to me ever.

And I may have used hyperbole on the 15 minutes/hang up, but I've already seen 3 or 4 slowdowns/hangups today since I logged on 5 or 6 hours ago. Really, I don't think I was seeing that many hangs prior to chat, not one on the average of every 90 minutes (<----NOT hyperbole).I definitely caused it to go down once today and know exactly how. Our own Brandon Hanvey figured something out that might have been causing some if not all of these troubles we've been having. I'm going to test it out this weekend.

[MKTerra]

15 minutes ago, chat not only hung (Netscape 7.2), but my comp refused to accept further entries and was frozen. I finally did get Netscape to close, but when I tried to bring it back up again, it told me I had to register, because the default was in use. Which has never happened to me ever.If you get the "default in use" thing from Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox after a crash, the thing to do is press ctrl-alt-del, find netscape/mozilla/firefox.exe in the process list, and end it. Then try launching the browser again.

Particularly for the Firefox people: If you've ever encountered this message* and created a new profile, and then couldn't find your old profile... go to Start -> Run, and enter:

firefox.exe -p

That brings up the profile manager, and from there you can switch back to your old profile and/or delete the new one you created.

Also, for the record, Firefox's uninstall doesn't delete your profiles. If you uninstall and reinstall, the new install just picks up the old profiles. More info here (http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile).

*: version 1.1 will have a less misleading message, fortunately.

[Jared_Humpherys]

Question about the available rooms:

The current rooms are comic chat, x-men chat, and a rumblers chat. Since, from what i've been told, the chat was created as an alternative to RITA's, why isn't there a Community chat room?

[Brandon Hanvey]

Question about the available rooms:

The current rooms are comic chat, x-men chat, and a rumblers chat. Since, from what i've been told, the chat was created as an alternative to RITA's, why isn't there a Community chat room?

The Comic chat room is the Community one.

[west3man]

I didn't know if it was worth starting a fresh thread to mention this so...

I'm pretty sure the message that came up on the screen while the recent maintenance was being performed, said that things would be back up by 1am Pacific Time.

I figure that either you guys got done waaaay ahead of time, you aren't done, yet, or it should've said "pm," instead of "am."

I thought of a couple of reasons why it might be worth mentioning. If it's not useful,... file 13.

Thanks.

[Jonah Weiland]

I didn't know if it was worth starting a fresh thread to mention this so...

I'm pretty sure the message that came up on the screen while the recent maintenance was being performed, said that things would be back up by 1am Pacific Time.

I figure that either you guys got done waaaay ahead of time, you aren't done, yet, or it should've said "pm," instead of "am."

I thought of a couple of reasons why it might be worth mentioning. If it's not useful,... file 13.

Thanks.Yeah, it should have said 1:00 PM. Sorry about that. Hopefully it didn't scare too many people away for a long period.

[west3man]

Yeah, it should have said 1:00 PM. Sorry about that. Hopefully it didn't scare too many people away for a long period.
Yeah. I was pleasantly surprised when I took a chance JUST IN CASE the boards were back up.

Thx.

[LoneWolf21]

The chat doesn't work for me. It always says I'm alone in the room, and chat screen is just orange, the member list doesn't load, and half the icons are red "x" boxes.

[Brandon Hanvey]

The chat doesn't work for me. It always says I'm alone in the room, and chat screen is just orange, the member list doesn't load, and half the icons are red "x" boxes.


Are you using Safari?

[Jonah Weiland]

The chat doesn't work for me. It always says I'm alone in the room, and chat screen is just orange, the member list doesn't load, and half the icons are red "x" boxes.Could you give us some more details? Are you PC or Mac? What browser are you using and what version of the browser?

[LoneWolf21]

PC, HP Pavilion laptop, and I'm using AOL 9.0

[Brandon Hanvey]

PC, HP Pavilion laptop, and I'm using AOL 9.0
That may be the problem. I'm not sure if AOL's browser is compatible with the chat.

[west3man]

PC, HP Pavilion laptop, and I'm using AOL 9.0
You may know this, but...

Even if you're accessing the 'net via AOL, you can open an Internet Explorer window, separate from the AOL window. Use that IE window to access the chatroom and see if you experience the same problems.

...assuming that's not what you're already doing.

[LoneWolf21]

You may know this, but...

Even if you're accessing the 'net via AOL, you can open an Internet Explorer window, separate from the AOL window. Use that IE window to access the chatroom and see if you experience the same problems.

...assuming that's not what you're already doing.

Yeah that's what I usually do when something isn't working for me, but even that isn't working.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Have you tried FireFox (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/)?

[Jaye]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf21
The chat doesn't work for me. It always says I'm alone in the room, and chat screen is just orange, the member list doesn't load, and half the icons are red "x" boxes.


That happened to me, until I switched to the FireFox browser.

[Paradox]

Is everyone just going to let west3man's comment LAY THERE:

Also, I've got this pain in my back, whenever I do like THIS... ;)

Don't do that. That'll be $50 please.

Really! Let's have some priorities around here! :p

[Dom]

OK,

I keep getting booted out of the chat. The screen pops up, I hang out a bit and then closes on me. I've disabled every pop up and spam blocker I can. I've tried it on IE and Mozilla.

[Ronald Bryan]

OK,

I keep getting booted out of the chat. The screen pops up, I hang out a bit and then closes on me. I've disabled every pop up and spam blocker I can. I've tried it on IE and Mozilla.
Your computer just hates chatting. This sounds almost just like your Messenger problems.

[Dom]

Your computer just hates chatting. This sounds almost just like your Messenger problems.

I'm thinking it's my ISP.

[Nitmo]

That may be the problem. I'm not sure if AOL's browser is compatible with the chat.
I'm using AOL Top Speed 9.0 Security Edition and it seems to be working fine for me, besides the usual hiccup and ether problems