The New Chat :-)

April 25, 2006

The new BuddyList

Answers to Questions

Dj-Slim thanks for great input and a great idea with the ability to also censor the normal fields of a profile. This gave me an idea that if we log every time navis have problems with a specific chatters profile, then we can say "3-strike and you are out" meaning after the 3rd time we will freeze his profile so he cant change it more than once a week and it will be checked by a navi every time.

mmjustbooking no you dont approve profiles unless a profile has been marked "abusive" by another chatter. If you agree and it actually is abusive, then you can censor it to make the user change it and re-approve it once the user has removed the abusive content. It would be too much to approve 6 million profiles :-)

Nexx you are right, we should have a "note" system where a navi can write a short note about that the user needs to remove from his profile, that way other navis can see this note and help out if the censor naiv is not online. And we will have a dedicated profile place on the bridge where the censored chatter can go.

andrew_surrey we will ofcause make it so the countries can change their age from 15 to 16 to 18 or what ever they want.

ok... moving on to... ta-daaaaaa....


The new BuddyList

We are currently working on the design and functionality of our new BuddyList.



With lots of functions like mouse over:



With several new functions if you click on a name



As you can see, it looks pretty much like any messenger, except we got something new.

FAVORITE LIST!

The difference between favorites and buddies is that with a buddy we have the whole Apply and Approve system just like on the chat today.
You can freely add anyone to your favorite list, like girls or guys you really like or admire or what ever reason you might have.

Then the interesting question comes:

"Who has me as their favorite?"

And yes, we also have a feature to show that list.



(dont worry about the 20Z, I will tell you about that later)

And if you accept:




Adding a new buddy.

Here we have user "Arsen", he wish to add "Tinka" to his BuddyList.
First he has to find her:



Once he found her, he will add her
(actually he applies to become her buddy, and she has to accept, just like today)



Meanwhile on "Tinka's" screen, she will get a notification that "Arsen" wants to be added on her BuddyList



If "Tinka" clicks Approve, she and "Arsen" will be buddies

If "Tinka" clicks Reject, she will not be buddies with "Arsen"
Today this can be a problem if....
- Arsen applies
- Tinka rejects
- Arsen applies again
- Tinka rejects again
- Arsen applies again
- Tinka rejects again
- etc...
In order to avoid this, Arsen must wait 1 week after being rejected before he can re-apply to become Tinkas buddy.
If he tried to apply before this time, he will get this error message:




Protecting the kids.

As a new rule on the new chat, an adult cannot in anyway communicate with a child.
This goes for:
- private messages
- logbook messages
- shipsmail messages
- viewing profile, photos, etc..
UNLESS the adult and the child are buddies!

If the adult gets the child on the buddylist or vice versa, then they will be allowed to communicate anyway they want to.
And since they now has a relation in form of a buddy connection, we can watch them CLOSELY!
Also I'm sure that you moms and dads out there would like to have your kids on your BuddyList, no matter if you are being watched or not.

So how are we gonna handle this?... Watch and enjoy :-)

Here we have a man. His chat name is "Hanzo" and he is 47 years old.
He want to add the 12 year old girl "LisaKids" to his BuddyList.

So "Hanzo" finds her via her chat name:



Once he clicks Add, he will get a warning:



By accepting this warning, he knows that she is only 12 and he knows we are watching him.
I believe this would scare most adults who has bad intentions.

If he accepts this warning, "LisaKidz" will receive her notification:



If "LisaKidz" chooses to Approve "Hanzo" as a buddy, she will get this warning:



Again, we make it VERY clear that she is about to add a 47 year old man. We make it clear what this means and that she should only do this if she trusts him. (I'm sure the text could be improved, but that’s up to you guys)



So... what do you think? Isn’t this a totally awesome buddy system? :-)

- Torben & Team

9 Comments:

  • One word > perfect
    Love the protection of kids.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 00:43  

  • I tink the protection of children is paramount and I am in total awe at that new system - That's amazing!

    Am I right in assuming the new notification system for adults vs children only applies if a chatter wants to talk to a child in private or look at their profile?

    Also - what would happen if an adult tried to PM a child? Would they get a message telling them they could not send a pM to that user unless they were on their buddy list?

    And this gives me an idea...

    Would it be possible for regular chatters to have the option to opt out of receiving Private Messages from people who are NOT on their friend's list? With the exception of Navigators on watch of course.

    Any thoughts?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 01:21  

  • many click on reject by mistake, maybe not realising who the chatter is etc so making them wait 7 days before reapplying is a bit harsh after one rejection.

    Having a favourites list does this mean u can send loggies,shipsmails to those on ur favourites list or is it just a list of those u like which actually does nothing?

    I do like the adult/minor part torben. it would im sure put some off from adding them.


    While we're on the subject of friends lists. i'd like to mention the ignore function.
    The first thing we as navis ask chatters to do is use their ignore if they are argueing or receiving abuse from someone.
    Chatters tell us they have placed the offender on ignore and some would copy & paste this into the room, but as we all know this is easy to remove again.
    Would there be a way for navis to check if the chatter has placed someone on ignore?

    And also what about those who put someone on ignore but then take them off it to send abusive loggy/shipmail or say something to them in the room and then place the chatter quickly back on it. This is a constant thing with some chatters who think its great fun to play games like this, often resulting in the chatter receiving the abuse either leaving the chat or having to create a new name. Would it be possible to keep that ignore in place so the chatter cant take someone off it if they are found to be abusing the function?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 02:12  

  • Great ideas for the new BuddyList Torben, the adult/child BuddyList feature would help a great deal in the fight against online abuse towards younger chatters.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 21:33  

  • Here I am again ^^

    I don't like graphics in that "messenger", in particular the colors that you have ginven to icons. In msn, for exaple, colors are green and red (complementary colors).... green and yellow are a fist in an eye (we say so in italy ehehe). I think that you have to reestablish the colors...

    About protection of kids: can we really know that an old man have added a little girl? or is it a way to frighten the man?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 14:48  

  • cos it would be so hard for a perv o create a profile with a younger age wouldn't it, that would out fox them

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 15:08  

  • I really like the look of the new buddy system it's going to make things so much easier to use..
    Private messages are a good thing esp whenyou don't want everyone knowing your council etc but chatters should be allowed tro choose whether they want to recieve them or not tho..

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 14:24  

  • I agree with mmjustlooking. I also think you should be able to undo an action on the chat. E.c. if you by mistake blocked a friend that you can't apply back on your buddy list because he/she doesn't own a membership.
    It is great that you do so much to protect underage chatters - BUT as things are now you can just create a profile that states you're 14 yrs old when you're really 56. So how will that work?
    Last but not least, I think it's all very creative and all, with all of these changes and "improvements", but it has become a mantra in /think: WHY don't you fix the current problems on the Chat before you move on and on? It is more or less a joke that nothing ever works on the ship. Actually, there's always SOMETHING that "didn't work as intended"! It never runs 100% as it should. And some of us are paying for this through our memberships.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 19:49  

  • Will this system actually work on the uk chat? as i know as a fact it does not work on usa, im not 100% convinced that uk chat is gonna be better or diff from lycos eg lagging or from jubii usa so prove me wrong
    As for what i seen love it, it makes chatting days so much easier

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 03:58  

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