Live chat!

Ok the other night we had a good party going down in the chat box (6-8 people), and it was great fun. It was also a chance for anyone with questions to ask them & get a response from the more experienced guys - D'man was on, danthewelshy was on & I was there. Someone (I think dan) suggested having a regular 'meet up' time, where people can ask questions & get responses, share ideas or just chat about random stuff for a while.

We could do a few things:

1) Just set a rough time slot & all meet up in the chat box, and chat.
2) Set up an IRC channel, though this would require an IRC client/software. This is available free etc. and there are more benefits than just the chat box.
3) Live chat via webcam, or just voices through mics.

What would people be up for doing?

We could have a live webstream hosted by someone (nudge nudge D'man ) where their webcam & audio is broadcasted with a chat area, so that they could teach/demonstrate & respond to what people want to know, or alternatively it could be someone wanting to learn showing us their playing, so people can make suggestions on how to improve.

There's also the possibility of a multi-webcam room, where everyone that joins has the option of showing their webcam & joining in. I'm not sure the best way to go about that, but will look into it if that's what is wanted

If it's done via IRC, mIRC is a great chat client that's easy to set up & get using. IRC is best described as 'multiplayer notedpad'. You connect to a server, then send & receive text messages.

If it's to be done via voice chat, we could use a couple of things - either Skype, which is free & readily available, or TeamSpeak or Ventrillo, which are two voice chat clients. These two need to have a server hosted for people to connect to though - something which I can arrange. I'm not quite sure of Skypes limitations as to how many people that can be in one chat at a time etc, but can look into that kinda thing.

My suggestion would either be IRC, or TeamSpeak. Your thoughts?

Also, what day would be best for people? Maybe we could pick 2 nights a week?

I work Weds, Thurs is footie & pub quiz night, Friday I work & am normally out Sat & Sun nights. So for me it's either Monday or Tuesday, sorry!

I think the idea 3 is a great idea but may be hard to do? The webcam bit anyway, voice chat is easy. IRC is a safe bet though. What ever we do we should meet at certain times as its a good laugh and a chance for everyone to ask questions or share idea's/thoughts as Smaz has already pointed out.

Yeah well, Monday, friday and Saturday are no go's for me.

And yeah, the webcam idea would be a bit of a dream right now.
I have a better experience with Ventrillo then Teamspeak. And i know how to use mIRC.

I also have a Skype account. And MSN, which can use webcam.

Sounds good to me

It could work. Even if it would only work once a week, it may prove useful for people starting out.

Great idea, if only D'man had his camera set up live and we were all in the same vent channel. That, at the very least would be effective. I'm free about whenever.

I'm really only free Sunday nights as I work every other night of the week. I'm going to look into Skype's video chatroom capabilities while I'm at work tonight and will let everyone know what the dealio is on those possibilities. Also, I can chat while I'm at work on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday so can be here to help anyone get setup with anything they may need (cameras, Skype, Vent, TS, etc..).

I hope I can manage to get there from time to time, but unfortunately (because of my main job and my freelancer-job as a sound-engineer) I don't think that I'll appear on a regular basis.

So put it where and when you want, I'll try to jump in if I can.

Really good idea. Specially starting own irc channel at least at first and maybe teamspeak or somewebcam thing later or at specific date and time. At least irc channel dosnt really need anything people come and go as they please and chatting happens when it happens. At least i think its better than teamspeak or web based chatbox.

Yea, I think we discussed the other day in chat? It's been something i've been toying with for a while.

I've noticed these "get togethers" seem to happen on Sunday evenings, at about 9-11 GMT.

I don't know what time that is around the rest of the world, but we seem to have a nice multi national mix in there, which is something I think is important.

Skype seems to be the in-idea at the moment. It's free, and simple to use. It also hosts video stuff I think!

I have it, but haven't had time to play with it. I will this week, though.

Not to be a killjoy, but it might be hard using mics in a large group. People talking over each other and such. Not all mics can pick up the bass sounds either [assuming thats why you want to use mics] and yeah.
Text is prolly the way to go, rly.

multiple Webcams will be horrendous to those with slow internet, too. it'll lag like anything. And as far as I can tell, theres not many days where everyone is available

Drakon7 wrote:Not to be a killjoy, but it might be hard using mics in a large group. People talking over each other and such.

you've never used Ventrilo for gaming, have you?

My 4$ mic picks up bass decently well. It just doesn't sound good - but I've recorded myself and you can tell a clear difference between the notes and everything, so it's not an issue.

Right, unless you end up spend $50+ on a microphone you're going to get about the same quality on any mic. What matters is what codec is setup on the Vent/TS server.

Pro, Yeah, I have, I prefer teamspeak too, and the odd xfire.

But Im just saying, with so many people talking constantly. At least in games, not everyones talking and they are gaming too, this is just a voice thing, without the gaming [unless they want to I guess]

Thats true too Mr, its different sending bass over the net then it is to the computer.
Im fairly sure through msn you can have a voice and text conversation with large groups of people at the same time?

After reading everyone's thoughts and points, this is where I stand:

Video Conference is a bad idea. Bandwidth would be a huge issue if there were more than a few people. Not only would each user's internet not be able to handle five or more well, computers would probably start bogging down too.

IRC is a good quick fix to the group night solution, but I'm still standing strong on the voice chat. While you make a good point, Drak, about everyone talking, it's not as big a deal as you would think. While we're all in the chatroom it's not like it won't have structure and complete anarchy ensues. I've been in six man voice chatrooms where people weren't playing games. If you think about it, I'm ballparking maybe three people will be there purely to answer questions (DMan, Smaz, and an unknown third). That eliminates about a third of them (I'm guessing a max of 10 show up). The rest can just take turns answering questions. We could even setup separate groups in the chatroom if maybe two people want to discuss something or teach each other something without bogging down the rest of the group.

These are just ideas. The worst we can do is try and see how it goes. Just like playing the bass, these things take a little work and trial and error before we get it right.

I think the VC would be the best and my vote stands on VC..

The private chat room thing is an awesome idea. If like, Smaz is trying to teach someone something, and they just arent getting it, they can go into a private chatroom and work through it!
Maybe my friends are just impulsive, which is why noone can get a word in

Yeah, lol, it depends on the people and the structure of the room. If we all go in with the notion that we can't all talk at once, we'll be fine. Also we gotta keep in mind we're all planted in different yards around the world so the lag in voice will probably range from about a half second all the way up to two seconds, maybe three at the worst.

I dont know if this would work or not ........

Maybe we could ask questions with text and they could be answered by whom ever with the voice option.

Then we would not be talking over each other.

Just a thought.

I think its a great idea
Maybe have the webcam thing, but people can choose not to view them to save their bandwidth.
I'm on a 20 mbps plan so I wont be having any issues hehe

Right, IRC for a chat channel & some kind of voice chat it is. I'll look into the best voice chat option (skype, Teamspeak etc.) and let you guys know