World: r3wp

Not sure if this has been suggested before but a Search [By Group|By 
Person|All] would be very helpful in Altme especially when combining 
threads/posts from disparate groups/users - this would also bring 
us more in line with web based forums for usability :)

erm ignore that.. i finally discovered the magnifying glass..

never noticed that before :)

I think i am so used to looking for a textbox next to a search button 
that i totally overlooked it.  Perhaps that is something to consider 
- new users to altme who have come from a web background will be 
expecting a textbox where they can type something in and then press 
search.  Having it 'hidden' behind a button may cause confusion for 
some of us ;)

what's the logic in segregating some buttons top right and some top 
left??

top right seem to all be group/message related so they form a logical 
grouping.  As for the top left buttons they seem generic functionality 
based - whether they are easier than a menu functionality i'm not 
sure - one has to hover over them to determine their immediate usage

so chat settings is in the wrong place!

yes

probably better to have all the icons in a row at the top

like 123

( Lotus )

quite possibly - although i would have a main bar across the top 
with world/setting options and pane/message related stuff built into 
the message pane to show a clear linkiing

it also open the option of multi-child panes being displayable

although not sure if that would see wide usage

Perhaps the guiding principal is that the brain can only grasp 5 
things at one time?

quite possibly

( related to the fact we only developed 5 fingers on each hand ... 
)

although from my psychology studies they reckon 7 is a good limit

I just made that up :)

seeing as i have a little free time i'll go sketch out an 'I wish' 
Altme interface ;)

using R3 ?

yes

wip ;)  http://rebol.mustard.co.nz/mockup-v1.pngdone with draw 
and a little bit of R3

Just experience the same problem I had in January; the "exists, but 
not on-line" error. Fortunately, I posted the note here about how 
to fix it by starting the world from the menu in the app, not with 
a startup shortcut.

is it logical to group altme users and groups inside the same control 
as they are different entities and things such as status do not seem 
to apply equally?  I understand that they are treated as 'personal/private' 
chat groups but the users seem to fill a dual role here.

current user info indicated:
1. is user online
2. when was user last on
3. are there new private messages from a user

current group info:
1. are there new messages

seems to work okay

indeed - so did black and white tv ;)

But it did take a few years for me to get used to the tiny red indication 
of a new private message

to be honest - im still trying to think of a simple, logical replacement 
for the mixing.. its a tough one

the challenge with private messages is the thread integrity

also - private messages currently do not store a conversation as 
a unit - but rather as a history - this could be place too look for 
ideas

ive always seen altme as a merge between email and forums - or IRC 
with history

perhaps adding threading to groups / private messages would fulfil 
the conversational role

World name server outage - now the name server does not resolve my 
server. How can I easily fix it? Just to reregister?

Pekr, do you know if it was running under port 5400 or not?  Was 
it your ownly world you had running?  If so, you should be able to 
register the same name and all will be well again.  This happens 
to me many times per year.  It's more complicated if you have more 
servers as you have to re-create them in the order of the port they 
were using.

ok, risked it, and re-registered - yes, it was on port 5400. I was 
worried, as I renamed Master account, but all what was needed was 
to shut-it down, start altme, start reregistering the world, and 
I am done ....

I wonder how Altme.com can loose worldnames?

Brock - I wonder if following trick would work - imo Altme checks 
for already running worlds. So - if you know what port you need, 
you simply open REBOL console and open particular ports. E.g. you 
know that you world Test was running at 5402, so you can open tcp://:5400, 
open tcp://:5401, then there is a chance altme would run it on 5402 
as needed ...

I would think it would work, probably only looking to see if a port 
is available.

I believe if you don't pay for your world to be registered to you 
that it is not in there records and is prone to being lost.  I for 
one choose 'Risk it' if my world name is closed due to inactivity. 
 My problem has been that I have never had this world inactive for 
more than a couple of days, yet it is inactivated atleast a couple 
of times a year.

I don't agree. Why should it be lost? Imo there is a bug somewhere. 
It seems like in-memory-only database or what? I can understand time-out 
of the world, if not used for some time. But not loosing world name, 
when the world is apparently running. That simply can't be regarded 
being a solid service ....

I don't agree either, just stating a fact.  It's happened to me fairly 
regularly but I'm told there isn't a problem.

Has anybody done some stress test of an AltME server concerning large 
files?

I'm interested to see how it scales.

A big bug with Altme is that someone else has to opt you out of a 
public channel

You can't do it yourself.

Perhaps it would be simpler to allow channels to be invisible in 
the sidebar. This could be turned on or off in group information. 
Then there should be an option in the Divider options (bad name for 
this option, btw.) to display all or just visible groups.

Then you wouldn't accidentally opt yourself out of a group and not 
be able to get back in again.

thankyou for the opt out graham :)