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Post by kasparcat on May 12, 2006 14:39:19 GMT -5
Like many PTs users, I was a chat host for many years. Even though the CL program was shut down, I am continuing to hold my chat, much as I did for the last 8 years. AOL is making it harder and harder, with their new formats for boards, and I am looking into another place to do my chats. Herein lies the rub: my chat topic involves recipes. I have a huge Custom Editor file full of recipes. Each week, I do a different topic. Recipes are shared in the chatroom. After the chat, I use the Chat Log Manager to cull out the roomlist and recipes shared by others in the room, which I then email out to anyone who attended the chat, plus have a board where I post them. As you can see, it's a PTs-heavy routine!
The chatters want the chat to keep going. I want to keep doing it. AOL is making it harder and harder to use the boards and once the chatrooms change to html format, I have no idea what I'll do. I can easily find a web-chat that would welcome me, and my following, but it'd be a mess to try to copy-and-paste every recipe to a chatroom, to say nothing of greeting and the after-chat stuff. I accept that I will have to change what I do and how I'll do it.
So here is what I am looking for. Is there a webchat out there where Power Tools functions? If not, is there some other macro/chat-managing software around? I have a few thousand recipes here and the idea of trying to move them over one at a time is daunting! If I can find a way to deliver the chat, I am ready to leave AOL.
I am open to any ideas anyone's got.
Rani
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Post by DonEugene on May 12, 2006 17:22:25 GMT -5
Good Grief!!....AOL is going to make chat rooms HTML? They have totally destroyed other features by doing that. Looks like a lot of us may follow you off AOL, Rani. Good luck with your endeavor. Hope PT has a solution for you. How do you know that AOL is going to change the chat room format, btw?
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Post by Carole on May 12, 2006 18:58:38 GMT -5
So here is what I am looking for. Is there a webchat out there where Power Tools functions? Although this will be a new program, all ll I can reveal at the moment is that we're working on it  The current PowerTools, however, can only work with AOL. |
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Post by DONEUGENE on May 13, 2006 19:55:15 GMT -5
IS AOL GOING TO HTML FORMAT WITH CHAT ROOMS???
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Post by jeromy on May 13, 2006 23:05:32 GMT -5
We are not representatitves for AOL so we cannot say for certain. It is rumored that all chat rooms will be web based.
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Post by Rani on Jun 1, 2006 17:12:29 GMT -5
I'm not a representative of AOL either, but I'm glad to share with you what data I *have* gotten and who I've gotten it from. AOL has had several beta-chatrooms. The first I knew of was in AOL Finance. Then they closed that and had one at beta.aol.com/testers_corner/chat/chat.html which is no longer open. I visited both and showed them to many friends. They were html rooms and universally disliked. Surrounded on all 4 sides by substantial advertising, the first one had the chat screen taking up perhaps 1/4 of the page. The second was slightly better. Both had around 6 or so fonts and colors, Bold/Italic/Underline. The only thing people did seem to like was that it was possible to be in more than one chatroom at a time. An AOL employee told me that the reason AOL is going in this direction is to make things like the boards and chatrooms available to those who want to access their AOL via portable media, such as cell phones, Blackberrys, PDAs. She also told me that in the future, the plan is to offer a menu-based fee schedule. You have probably seen how they're offering some services for an extra fee, I believe gaming was the first area they did that, and now they have been adding more fee-extra services. The plan for the future is that members will only pay for what they actually want to use. So those who don't use chatrooms or boards won't have to pay for them. They do realize that their target public has changed. Originally, they were going for the computer novices and offered - at a bit of a premium - "Internet Lite," a clearer, easier, safer (and somewhat sugar-coated) way to maneuver around the online world. Once people learned their way around, many left AOL and were out there in The Big World-Wide Web, replaced by more newbies. The ones who stayed were either there for comfort-level or content or because they'd made friends there. And with the huge computer boom of the 90s and the first few years of this decade, just about everybody who was going to buy their first starter computer has done so and gotten online. The huge influx of newbies has arrived, learned, graduated, and ready to move on. Now that AOL is reducing content and removed supervision, they are already losing some membership from even those conservative members who were content to stay there. AOL's answer is that people who actually WANT something will find a way to make it. The saddest part, to me, is those who have online support groups. I have MS and was part of a very active support chat and we have contined to meet every evening, without hosts. Or rather, with our former hosts just as members now. That is fine for us. But how will newly-diagnosed members find us in our private room chat now that the boards and rooms are dead? There used to be a huge low-carb community on AOL, the busiest board had over 20,000 posts on it. Last I checked, it had under 700. Where are people going? As long as the boards and chats aren't monitored, they may as well try out web-based resources. I refer many people to the yahoogroups.com resources. And even there, people prefer "moderated" chats and boards. That said, I can step down off my soapbox now. Any update on this new program, Carole? Any idea where it might work and whether I will be able to move my Custom Editor file over, en masse? Rani |
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Post by jeromy on Jun 1, 2006 22:58:21 GMT -5
You previously wrote:
ºAny update on this new program, Carole? Any idea where it might work and whether I
ºwill be able to move my Custom Editor file over, en masse?
At this point we have only done a few internal testings of the new program. I can't say for certain, but there are still a lot of things in the program that haven't been implemented yet.
As for the importing of PowerTools custom phrases into this new program -- I can't say for certain. It's something I/we will need to ask the programmer.
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Post by Carole on Jun 2, 2006 12:49:48 GMT -5
Any update on this new program, Carole? Any idea where it might work and whether I will be able to move my Custom Editor file over, en masse? I've asked the programmer. He said the PowerTools Custom Editor data should be transferable to the new program by the time it's released (it isn't at this point.) We should also have a public beta version available soon, so stay tuned  |
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Post by Rani on Jun 7, 2006 13:34:15 GMT -5
Thank you both. Is the program being developed for AOL chats or for Web-chats, or do we not know yet?
Rani
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Post by kneadstoknow on Jun 8, 2006 6:59:03 GMT -5
I will be hosting in another community on the web. It is called Pet Hobbyist.com. The chat rooms are nothing like AOL rooms. They are Java rooms. I am wondering if the new Powertools that are being worked with now, will be able to be used in Java rooms. It would, indeed, be a blessing. Please advise when convenient. Waiting to hear.. would be thrilled, of course!  Kneadstoknow, Jo |
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Post by Carole on Jun 8, 2006 11:11:44 GMT -5
There are so many different kinds of web-based chat rooms, each with their own specifics, it's unlikely a program could be made to be compatible with them all, or keep up with them. The new PowerTools is designed to work with IRC chat rooms (Internet Relay Chat,) because IRC is a set protocol that has been around for a very long time. It will also include many other features, among which a fully integrated tabbed browser |
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Post by IRC Yoda on Jun 24, 2006 1:10:02 GMT -5
I can tell you with most certainty that AOL is looking to go completely web-based on all fronts. There have been a lot of modular based tests lately, as well as many functions that have been changed to HTML/web format, if you haven't already noticed.
They are looking at several new pricing plans, including fee based services.
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Post by kasparcat on Jul 31, 2006 20:19:59 GMT -5
I'm still doing the chat in the same AOL room, but a few weeks ago, the auto-greeter stopped working in that room, though it works in a PR chatroom and some other rooms. Any ideas?
Rani
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Post by kasparcat on Jul 31, 2006 20:21:14 GMT -5
Hey, Carole, will I be able to transfer my Custom Editor file over into the new IRC format PTs?
Rani
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The current PowerTools, however, can only work with AOL. 
