Perhaps it would be beneficial to have a chatbox here on the forums. That way when things such as Discord going down happen, we can still organise events/talk etc.
It could also be a good way to bring some activity to the forum, especially if we keep discord for voice comms more than general chat as we don't want this area to be a dead zone.
I'd also suggest we keep the chatbox from integrating with Discord for the same reason.
That's my opinion anyways. I'd love to hear everybody elses.
(I'm assuming Discord is down then, based on this post and my apparent inability to get connected :P )
I'll look at putting up a chat box this week. See if I can find anything easy, simple, and dummy-proof :P
as for discord integration. I agree with your desire to NOT integrate it, but I still feel we should. I *strongly* believe the forum should be the repository of knowledge and our communication point. but let's pose a hypothetical - a member who doesn't use discord is getting grief on a server, and comes on the forum, and posts to the chatbox.
even at my best, it could be an hour before I see it - and it could be longer for others.
having that discord integration would increase the likelihood of it being seen, and getting help to the hypothetical member faster.
That's actually a good hypothetical, perhaps in that case there could be some kind of "Emergency" channel that could be broadcast into where stuff like that could go into?
I've never integrated Discord in to that degree to anything although I know Callum has some experience, so he could let us know if perhaps that's possible.
You could do the integration the same way I've done it elsewhere.
The shoutbox functions as a stand-alone chat, but will sync messages between discord and itself. If discord goes down, it doesn't affect the functionality of the shoutbox.
But an emergency broadcast system could be done, either through discord integration or some other means.
I'd be happy to write up a script for you guys that would run it and you can put it in the site wherever you want?
I actually - in quick search - found this: https://titanembeds.com/
need to do more homework, but this looks interesting.
From a quick look at that you wouldn't have the fail safe the one I've built has if Discord goes down. (From a very quick look though)
I got the same impression - it still looks shiny :P
Do you have any general shout box suggestions?
For pre-built SMF ones, SMF Packs Shoutbox is good.
Still recommend my shoutbox and bot combo though 😜
Write it up - what do we need? :P
Python 3 on the web server, then I'll talk to you properly about getting the bot into the discord server as well need a bot account etc which I imagine you'd want under your own dev account.
Let's talk later - get your stuff organized and we'll see what we can accomplish :)
Sounds like we have a plan then ^_^
... I'm working on this...
with any luck, I should have this up tonight or tomorrow.
Awesome, I think Discord is proving less than reliable this week
Running *way* behind on this, but I updated status to Implementing. This is coming - bug me about it, and I'll try to get to it this week (be very annoying about it, and may do it tonight :P )
Happy to report the Chatbox is *finally* complete (Thanks entirely to Callum)
We have a few quirks to iron out (And I made a suggestion for Callum to make it viewable for non-registered users - so they can see the shenanigans we employ) - but, it's there :)