miikerocks Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 AFter gaining more knowledge on this subject, I have come to the conclusion that 5 users is pretty decent considering it's a free service. I mean like they said "It is still a business" and in businesses the whole point is to gain a profit. The needs to pay the product developers, staff members, support staff, and then on top of that the servers costs for the entire board and its' hosted client is more essential then the needs of a couple members. Oh and why do you take posts the wrong way? You should read carefully he didn't mean it in that way. And for some other people, please try reading the above posts first before going and asking the same thing that 2 or more other people asked (when the info is right there <_<)
Trevor Brandt Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 Whenever I posted, I'd like to point out that I wasn't complaining. I fully understand that IPS could charge us for the application. How wonderful that it's free! Personally, I was just a bit surprised by the number. As I stated in my post, I understand that the application is running from your servers. I understand that having a higher amount of chatters would cause an overload. I understand all that. I was just honestly surprised that the maximum was only five people. All that being said, I guess we can't really place a finger on the exact amount of users we would require. If IPS said ten free slots, people would say fifteen. If they said fifteen, people would say twenty. Putting an exact limit on things is hard. Five is probably an ideal amount for a small community. I'm just curious what a larger company would do when it comes to something like this. I guess pay extra for more slots. Maybe IP.Chat should be sold as an actual product, a product that people can host solely on their servers?
Ditchmonkey Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 I guess pay extra for more slots. Well of course. They let you evaluate the product for free - even use it for free on an ongoing (but limited) basis. If you like it and its popular, you will pay what I would guess will be a modest fee. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Maybe IP.Chat should be sold as an actual product, a product that people can host solely on their servers? Clearly IPS has decided this application will work better as a software service than a distributable application. I don't see anything wrong with that.
Trevor Brandt Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 Good points. Will be interested to know the prices when they're released. IPS seems open to dealing with customers on an individual basis, so I'm sure if a large forum needed an extreme amount of slots, they could assist.
Management Charles Posted December 16, 2009 Management Posted December 16, 2009 We're obviously not out to get rich on the chat service :) we view it as a value-add to IP.Board itself. The 5 online users is designed for small communities and those who wish to try before they buy. It is also designed as a free benefit to active IP.Board service license holders much like our spam service. While prices are not announced yet, I can say that the next level up from the 5 online limit is currently planned to be less than $2.00 per month if that helps calm anyone. IPS has a track record of being customer friendly and we are surely not going to mess up that track record now.
Trevor Brandt Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 While prices are not announced yet, I can say that the next level up from the 5 online limit is currently planned to be less than $2.00 per month if that helps calm anyone. IPS has a track record of being customer friendly and we are surely not going to mess up that track record now. Seems very reasonable to me. :)
.Ian Posted December 16, 2009 Author Posted December 16, 2009 Hold on a moment here - I am now being accused of complaining about something that is free. That is not true. Not my intention. I was merely saying that I thought 5 was too low - given that no site has yet used more than 5 concurrently I was saying that 5 seemed low. I am very sorry that as a customer that is wrong.
Ditchmonkey Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 I am very sorry that as a customer that is wrong. It's this victim nonsense that has everyone annoyed with you.
Myr Posted December 16, 2009 Posted December 16, 2009 It seems pretty reasonable to me. I'll have to wait and see on the issues. I might offer IP.Chat in addition to my other chatroom until the features are close to parity. IP.Chat is a bit feature-light right now. (understandably as it is the 1.0 version). I will say that my chatroom has a minimum of 3 people in pretty much 24/7 as my site has a worldwide audience. It is not uncommon to have 15 members in chat.
.Ian Posted December 16, 2009 Author Posted December 16, 2009 It's this victim nonsense that has everyone annoyed with you. probably :)
Terry - AKA Dumbledore Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 We're obviously not out to get rich on the chat service :) we view it as a value-add to IP.Board itself. The 5 online users is designed for small communities and those who wish to try before they buy. It is also designed as a free benefit to active IP.Board service license holders much like our spam service. While prices are not announced yet, I can say that the next level up from the 5 online limit is currently planned to be less than $2.00 per month if that helps calm anyone. IPS has a track record of being customer friendly and we are surely not going to mess up that track record now. One point of clarification please? Is the free account just one per person, or one for an active IP. Board Lis. I have 4 lis. can I have 1 free for each active lic.?
Management Lindy Posted December 17, 2009 Management Posted December 17, 2009 One point of clarification please? Is the free account just one per person, or one for an active IP. Board Lis. I have 4 lis. can I have 1 free for each active lic.? You can use one chat per active license. :)
SPARTdAN Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Fun fact: The only chat room I've seen, to date, go over 5 active online users is here on our own forums, and that's only been (1) when we first opened the service (everyone wanted to check it out) and (2) when I specifically posted a topic asking people to join. You may want to check that fact, our chat room has had 10 people online at one point.
sergiu Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Indeed. If every single IP.Board had a free chat room with 10 users in, the costs on our end would be huge. IPChat is using IPS server resources or the server resources where the board is hosted ?
AndyF Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Its using an IPS server (or cluster of, I'm not aware of the backend technicalities) , so you do not have to worry about server loads, this is one of the reasons why its not a product you can download and install yourself. :)
Rheddy Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 I still think that IPS needs to add the ability to create private chat rooms. It just seems limited in allowing only one particular room to chat in.
Management Charles Posted December 17, 2009 Management Posted December 17, 2009 I still think that IPS needs to add the ability to create private chat rooms. It just seems limited in allowing only one particular room to chat in. The original topic announcing the IP.Chat service stated we are going to be adding private chat rooms. We want to get "normal" chat working perfectly before getting into lots of new features.
Cybertimber2009 Posted December 17, 2009 Posted December 17, 2009 How some of you people utilize forums on a daily basis and lack the ability to read and comprehend amazes me. Kudos on the new service IPS guys. The plan sounds right to me so far, espically since you aren't seeing usage above 5 on average. Reminds me of the old foodfight chats though ;)
Olivier Turbis Posted December 18, 2009 Posted December 18, 2009 5 seems pretty fair to me considering a "small" forum won't have more than 2-4 people at the same time in the chat.
Rhandi Posted December 20, 2009 Posted December 20, 2009 I am just attempting to check out this chat feature. I have a small board and haven't been able to figure out chat options yet, so we were using Meebo. I'm excited to give it a try - even if only 5 can chat for now! Thanks to the staff. It seems each of you had to repeat each other a few times and I'm sorry for that! I think it's great that they offer anything for free! Off to read up on the chat announcement.. :)
Rheddy Posted December 21, 2009 Posted December 21, 2009 I think I may stick with the basic package until I see more and more members on my site using it more often.
cnmoore Posted December 23, 2009 Posted December 23, 2009 I'd be happy with 5 users for free. We currently pay Parachat $6.95 monthly but we rarely have more than 3 people in chat at any one time. You do mean 5 at any one time? (Not 5 a day or something like that?)
Nuclear General Posted December 23, 2009 Posted December 23, 2009 Yes, 5 at one time. And you can have as many you want join a single day, but just 5 at any given time. :)
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