Chat room numbers counter!

[Deano]

Hi Chris,

What happened to the online status for the chat room?

Is it being developed further?

[netsmithUK]

you lost me there. I thought it was working and we were talking about it earlier.

Basically if its in red and there is a number thats the number of people chatting. If it looks like the rest of the menu items there is no one chatting.

Is that not whats happening?

You need to give me more to go on.

Chris

[TWINSET]

There was a people counter just now....

[netsmithUK]

The only time it might look odd is if you are the first person in or the last one out, but only until you jump to another page.

While you are in the chatroom you will not see the number update either - just the number as it was when you joined (as basically your page doesn't get updated) but that shouldn't matter as you will be in there anyway so will see people when they come in. Anyone on other pages will see the actual count.

[Deano]

No it's not that, it's when I am at the home page where the options for where I want to go on the site are.The counter was where the traderoom,forums etc was.....but now there is nothing!

I have sent a screen shot to you, but It could be my P.c playing up!!

Thanks

[TWINSET]

I was on the home page just now, and it said;

forums

live chat (2)

downloads

I thought the (2) was the counter?...

[Deano]

It's back now...just re-booted my P.c....I guess Billy boy Gates strikes again![!]

[BiggusDitchus]

Hmm, summat up tho i think just shown me there were 4 people in there, when i logged on no one in there (unless playing hide n seek ) when i logged back off and refreshed page it still insisted 4 people there.[8)]

[Deano]

well now I know I'm not going mad, sorry Chris looks as if we may have broken it already[:I]

[netsmithUK]

Its just a thought but, they way the system works is that it pops up a little window when you exit the chatroom, this processes the fact you have left. Its possible that if anyone is who uses the chatroom also uses some pop-up stopping software that it could confuse the number.

I'm not too familiar with this type of software but if anyone that has been in the chatroom today uses it is there any way to configure it so it doesn't do its stuff on thsi site?

I'm not saying those that are seeing odd numbers have it, they are most likely seeing the symptoms of other chatters that have it installed.

This might all be a complete red herring

Chris

[BiggusDitchus]

I dont have a pop up eliminator so dunno bout me. but that could explain the little box i see briefly when i log out of chatroom.

[mud4fun]

I don't see a popup when I exit the chat room?! but then with two firewalls and virus scanner I'm surprised I can get to the net at all.....

[netsmithUK]

the window is a small one which opens does some stuff and closes - some people won't see it at all. But its possible that some software might see it a pop-up spam and disable it. Which is a problem

[GroupCFan]

I am running ZoneAlarm Pro firewall software and here it was what I have observed:

1. If I have the firewall running, my connection to the chat room appears to become stranded when I exit it. I am assuming this is the case because the counter does not drop. I have refreshed the screen after exiting and the counter does not drop. I repeated this process multiple times and the counter is now in the double digits.

2. When the firewall is up, I do not see the dialogue box when I exit the chat room

3. When I turn the firewall off, my sessions seem to close cleanly. I see the dialogue box and when I refresh the screen the counter decreases.

I am not a PC/Network person so I don't have an answer for why my firewall is doing what it is doing. I will have to research it. Unfortunately there is never anyone in the chat room when I am online so I can't test further.

[netsmithUK]

I have a plan - watch this space

[GroupCFan]

Look's like you have fixed it. I no longer have stranded sessions [8D]

[BiggusDitchus]

Well I logged on at about 8am and i saw the counter saying 17 members, thinking wow big group but when i entered no one in there.[8)]

[netsmithUK]

I don't think I am ever going to fully resolve this, so have introduced a sledgehammer option. Basically above the chatroom you should now see an option to 'Close the Chat' - its a link in blue.

Please exit the chatroom by clicking this.

If you don't and it has a problem logging you will see the reminder at the top of every page on the site. If you see it PLEASE click it (even if you are no longer in the chatroom itself) and it will help keep the figure up to date.

Cheers

Chris

[Twmaster]

Same here (except was at 3AM US EDT)