It’s taking a bit longer to get the new chat feature out the door because we’re rolling it out as a part of new photo, video and music flash players for BaristaExchange. All of these will come out in a release currently scheduled for February 26th and we’ll have more information on the new players shortly. But first, the new chat feature!

New Chat Features

We’ve retained all the great features you have on chat today, such as private chats, and are adding the following new features in this next version:

* Chat will be persistent on every page of Barista Exchange. With this new release, chat will become a bar across the bottom of every page of bX. It will start in “bar mode” and will expand into “window mode”.

* You will be able to pop chat out of your network and keep it open as its own window. This is something many of you asked for and we’re happy to provide it in this next version.

* Sound notifications when messages are received. Notifications start OFF by default, but can be turned on through the options menu.

* Members will appear online more accurately. Because chat is now persistent across all pages on your social network, members will be displayed as online more accurately. However, there will still be the option for a member to make themselves invisible, if they choose.

* Chat will now load the entire scrollable list of people online. No more clicking on ‘More’!. As a result, search will now be faster too.

* There will be local message history. Your chat client will now remember the last ten messages sent and allows to look at them by pressing Ctrl+UP and Ctrl+DOWN (arrow keys).

* Chat will now be in Flash. This means that you need to have a minimum of Flash 9 on your computer. You likely already have Flash 9 and, if not, we’ll have instructions for how to add it.

Hope the new changes will be well received, and will improve the overall chat experience for all members. Everyone should remember to log in this weekend and try it out.

- Matt

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What about the protocol?
Can you be more specific?

Valentin David said:
What about the protocol?
Sound great thanks Matt
heck yeah!
u rocks Matt!!
Some people might want to use it without have a browser opened. I know it sounds like the geek reaction. But if you consider all the social networks coming up chat features, if you consider subscribing to several of them, you then get lost easily. If I need to have one chat for coffee, one for a photography network, one for a music one... I finally use those I can integrate into my chat software, so the one who use a protocol that is opened (or at least commonly used). Protocols can be IRC, XMPP, etc. Moreover, even though I am not completely against Flash technology (because it really helped the web, for video streaming for example), it is really starting to kill my computer. I need to restart my browser every 24 hours just because of advertisements in Flash taking all my memory resource. For me "popping up" the chat does not help much, because it is still using the browser. What I would expect is to be able to connect to it as IRC.

You asked me to be more specific, here I am. Do not take this as I am criticizing. I do not use the chat on bX, so do not do nothing for me. I just wondered.

Matt Milletto said:
Can you be more specific?

Valentin David said:
What about the protocol?
what the updates should bring, is a chat more similar to facebook or gmail ... will live within a tab or browser window, but will be much more integrated and prominent for those on bX who want to use it ...

Valentin David said:
Some people might want to use it without have a browser opened. I know it sounds like the geek reaction. But if you consider all the social networks coming up chat features, if you consider subscribing to several of them, you then get lost easily. If I need to have one chat for coffee, one for a photography network, one for a music one... I finally use those I can integrate into my chat software, so the one who use a protocol that is opened (or at least commonly used). Protocols can be IRC, XMPP, etc. Moreover, even though I am not completely against Flash technology (because it really helped the web, for video streaming for example), it is really starting to kill my computer. I need to restart my browser every 24 hours just because of advertisements in Flash taking all my memory resource. For me "popping up" the chat does not help much, because it is still using the browser. What I would expect is to be able to connect to it as IRC.

You asked me to be more specific, here I am. Do not take this as I am criticizing. I do not use the chat on bX, so do not do nothing for me. I just wondered.

Matt Milletto said:
Can you be more specific?

Valentin David said:
What about the protocol?
Looking forward to a more user friendly and reliable chat, Matt. (But as Valentin David said, Flash=Bad when it comes to system resources - I usually keep Flash deactivated on my computer.) But I'll use whatever you give us!
Ok, so the new chat feature is live and seems to be working. It should resemble the chat on facebook.com where it is more out of the way, but readily available.

Please try using it by looking down at the bottom of your browser window. The private chat feature is much better, and the pop out ability is improved.

Look forward to hearing your feedback.

- Matt
Hey all. So the new chat has been live for a few days. I think it will take a little time for people to get used to it being down at the bottom of their browser page, but the functionality of the chat has been greatly enhanced.

Check it out at the bottom, and feel free to "pop up" the chat while you are browsing bX.

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