Who Needs Ice?

[Ponnerbell]

Yams, any chance of incorporating your chat room to the site. I've noticed some other members online the same time I am. It would be cool if you could contact them and talk to them live in a chat room or something.

What do you think?
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More cowbell!

[WildYams]

Lemme look at it this weekend, there may be a way to incorporate a chat room. I wouldn't need to use "my" chatroom though, this site should already be equipped to handle a chat room just like my site and your site are.

[elvispanda]

I suggested that very same thing on Friday January 27 at 4:05 pm (when I clearly should have been working).

[Ponnerbell]

Apparently I have some pull with Dr. Yams.
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More cowbell!

[WildYams]

Ok, there's your damn chatroom. Just enter a username (don't worry about registering), pick a chatroom (I'd go with 'default') and hit the 'chat' button at the bottom of the page. Go hogwild.

Thanks to Riggs for setting it up

[elvispanda]

Chatrooms are for Pepsi drinkers.

[Ponnerbell]

I love Diet Pepsi.

Yams, thanks for the chat room. The only problem is that how do you notify someone that is also currrently on whoneedsice.com to go in with you? Is there a quick way to ping them?
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More cowbell!

[WildYams]

[Guest]

Is there any way to show how many people are in the chat room on the home page?

[admin]

[elvispanda]

Dear Doctor Terrible:

Maybe I'm just a paranoid panda, but I'm wondering if the "photo domino" thread is not possibly growing to include a super ginormous amount of "hotlinking". Is it okay for this to happen? Does it matter or is it totally safe for us to "hotlink" away without hesitation? The topic is cool and I want to post to it, can I do so with a clear conscience?

Sincerely,
- Doesn't Know Enough About Hotlinking in Burbank

[WildYams]

The main problems with hotlinking are that you run the risk of the site either changing the photo to something gross or that they could just block it so the photo won't appear at all. It doesn't effect things here at all other than that though. It's not like there's anything illegal about it or anything like that, it's just considered "rude", because you're stealing someone else's bandwidth (in a really minor capacity).

The solution to it is way beyond what anyone here has any interest in, I'm sure, which would be to get an account with a photo hosting site like Photobucket and download any picture you find and then re-upload it there. I do this sometimes by re-uploading pics onto my personal site, but it's a lot of hoops to jump through and I don't expect or ask that anyone do that. Just keep doing what you're doing and I'll try to clean it up if I notice a hotlinking problem like the image not showing up or something like that.

[Oddjob]

Will the movie quote quizzes be returning anytime soon?
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"Gravitas!"

[WildYams]

[admin]

I suppose it was just a matter of time before this happened, but apparently we've attracted a couple spammers or people who apparently just register so they can have their domain name seen in the member list. I've tried PMing them to see if they're real people and they don't respond, so I deleted them. However, because it seems like almost everyone is registered here at this point, and because the spammers have found the site, I've increased (slightly) the security for registering a new account here so that you need to verify you're a real person by typing in the word you see displayed when you go to register. I'm sure we've all done something like this before so it shouldn't be a big obstacle. Hopefully this will be enough to keep the spammers out. If you guys think this is too drastic a step or anything like that, let me know, but otherwise I just wanted to let you know so if a friend of yours goes to join or if you decide to sign up as Jack Burton or something you won't be confused about what changed.

Keep in mind, this only effects people who sign up for a new account; so as long as you are all content keeping your current accounts you won't even notice this.

[elvispanda]

You know what would be cool? An old-school Times Square style scrolling ticker across the top of the main page. Maybe a button where anyone could change the message? Does such a thing exist or can Terrible concoct one?

John, could you suggest this in a couple of weeks?

[WildYams]

A thing that scrolls a message does exist, but I wouldn't know of one that could be randomly changed by anyone. I don't think something like that exists. Anyway, I personally don't want a bunch of animated stuff on the page like a scrolling message. I think things like that are generally pretty distracting.

[fhqwhgads]

You're distracting me, and it takes time to get back to where I was.

[WildYams]

Exactly. Check out #'s 19 & 20 on this page of Common Website Design Mistakes:

19. GIF Animations that move too fast, or that get annoying quickly. Worse, a whole page of GIF Animations that makes you feel like your eyeballs are still moving when you look away. If you choose to use an animation, do not use more than ONE per page, please, or if you have a very long page, you can put one further down so that both do not appear on the screen at the same time. More than that just gets too frenetic!

You should also avoid animations that move too fast, or that have just a few frames that repeat and repeat. If you have a program that can edit an animation, you can either slow down the frame rate (how many frames per second), and you can put a limit to how long it "loops" or how long the animation plays. You can set it to move just once, or you can set it to loop for long enough for your visitor to appreciate it, then to stop and give their eyes a rest.

Animations get very distracting, very quickly. It is hard to concentrate on the page content when this thing is flashing there screaming "look at me!". They can really enhance a page if they are used well, but if they are not, they tend to annoy at a very deep level. The wrong frame rate (faster ones are worse) can even stimulate certain brain and nerve centers and can become so irritating that it can almost hurt. They can even trigger migraines, or in extreme cases, seizures if the frame rate is too distracting!

Again, this is not something you should do just because you can. Only use them sparingly if they can enhance the appearance and message of the page, otherwise use a still version of the graphic.

20. Flashing or scrolling text. This is not always bad. It is like the Animated GIF. It should never be used more than ONCE per page, and then only for SHORT phrases. Three words AT MOST. More than that is just too hard to read. And slow it down! Flashing or scrolling that is too rapid not only is too hard to read (and what is the point of drawing attention to your text if nobody can read it?), but it is annoying and distracts the visitor from enjoying the content of your site. Catching their attention with your flashing text won't do a bit of good if your visitor leaves because it bothers them. Try reading a paragraph on your site. If you can still see the flashing text in your peripheral vision, and if it makes it difficult to read through the paragraph, then you need to change it. A bright color may do the job just as well.

[elvispanda]

It was just a suggestion. Just thought it would be cool to allow anyone to change the message, just to see what people would write to display to everyone.