Longer idle time before auto logging out of chat room

[polo_pro]

How complicated is it to change the auto logout timer for this site's chat room? I've found the current limit of an hour or so not to be enough. I'd prefer 8 hours or longer if possible, though I'm not sure if this would put too much of a load on the Segway Chat server.

Today, I see 15 people logged on reading Segway Chat but likely idle. If the auto logout timer can be increased to 8 hours, they could instead idle in the chatroom (with it's log allowing them to catch up with the conversation). I also suggest that we celebrate any change in the auto logout timer by designating the following week as "log into the chatroom and be idle there" week. Having something on the home page under News about this would help! I think the whole tone of the Segway Chat community might change.

Heck, our site's name of "Segway Chat" might even begin to apply, eh?

ps - I do realize that I can private message anyone online. But most people don't use PM options that attract their attention. I could run an experiment to confirm this if the membership didn't mind.

[bystander]

How complicated is it to change the auto logout timer for this site's chat room? I've found the current limit of an hour or so not to be enough. I'd prefer 8 hours or longer if possible, though I'm not sure if this would put too much of a load on the Segway Chat server.

Today, I see 15 people logged on reading Segway Chat but likely idle. If the auto logout timer can be increased to 8 hours, they could instead idle in the chatroom (with it's log allowing them to catch up with the conversation). I also suggest that we celebrate any change in the auto logout timer by designating the following week as "log into the chatroom and be idle there" week. Having something on the home page under News about this would help! I think the whole tone of the Segway Chat community might change.

Heck, our site's name of "Segway Chat" might even begin to apply, eh?

ps - I do realize that I can private message anyone online. But most people don't use PM options that attract their attention. I could run an experiment to confirm this if the membership didn't mind.I agree the live chat feature is under used, but won't encouraging people to log into live chat while browsing Segwaychat just cause a bunch of idled icons to appear in the chat room? If the person is not focusing on the live chat, they might as well not be logged in? Or am I misunderstanding your proposition?

Not to try to foster my preferences on anybody else, but personally I keep my computer's speakers off nearly all the time. So any audible alert from the live chat interface will go unnoticed (at least by me).

Maybe if the idle time is extended, a message could appear with idled icons that say "User has not responded for 30 mins". That way you would know that you were dealing with someone who was logged in, but not responding to live chat because they are away from their terminal. Sort of an auto-applied "BRB".

[pam]

Hmmm, silly question, I know, but what prevents people from actually logging out of the chat room when they leave? I just did it and don't show up as still in the chat.

Pam

[polo_pro]

If people were more likely to idle in the chatroom instead of idle reading the forum (as is show at the bottom of the page that lists every forum), then they'd have the benefit of seeing all the logs of the conversations that went on while they were away.

As trivial as that difference seems, I'm in the internet security business and our researchers "hang out" in security chat channels just so they can read the logs as IT security professions stop in, say hi and couples of them talk over the course of the day. It actually is a valuable form of communication and this pseudo eavesdropping enhances the overall community feeling.

But for this to happen, "idle" people in the chatroom have to be able to stay there for 8 hours at a time (instead of being booted out after an hour as currently happens).

ps - A cultural change has to happen though...people like cmonkey already have done it. I see him hanging out and idle in the chatroom on many occasions. I type hi, wait a half hour and keep my eye on the chat.

On another tangent, someone mentioned that chatrooms can make a ping everytime someone types something. That's totally and easily configurable. I thought it was silent by default...but I may be wrong.

[pam]

Yes, if you go to settings in the chat room, there is a sounds column, and you can click on user entry/exit.
Pam