A CHYOA Chat Client

So suggesting this but it comes with the note that I would be really surprised if this happened. Since I have no doubt it would be a lot of work to implement.

The title pretty much says it all, a chat client on CHYOA for IM chat. Right now the only site that really has a chat client is Lit and that one is a fucking piece of shit that they refuse to update.

It would be nice to have a client that allows for things like friends list so you can see when people are online, notifications when a PM is read and a marker when someone is typing a reply. Along with the usual rooms for fetishes.

Again I have no doubt this would be no small task to implement but I am throwing it out there none the less.

 

Don't we have this already on the forums?

You are able to see what members are online including those you follow.
Under conversations you are able to see the last reply date
Going under current visitors you can see what people are doing including typing a reply. It is delayed, not sure how much though.
As for fetishes that would be your page.

Now if you are asking for this on the main site, then yes that would be awesome.

 

sort of but it is not the same as a real time instant messenger. What we have write now is more like firing emails back and fourth compared to chatting in real time.

 

I understand

 

Beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick though...

 

Could be useful, though I think a quite basic thing would be enough.

 

A low investment solution could be to have a Discord server for the site.

We made one just one of my stories and it gets multiple times the activity in a day that the forum get in a few weeks.

That way there no need for the technical aspect of things, just creating channels and some moderation if wanted.

 

Fine suggestion.

 

Even though it would mean that I would probably end up having to use my real online moniker, because i'm too lazy to make a second Discord account. I wouldn't be against an official Chyoa discord.

 

That is not a terrible idea but I still think it is only a stopgap.

I don't think as many people would be willing to use it as would be willing to use something that was already built into the site. Easier to get people to use something when all they have to do is a click and go instead of downloading a new client.

 

Agreed on all counts: and there's nothing as permanent as a 'temporary solution'.

 

Well... how many users use the forum which is only one click away? (I think the number went up greatly within the last months though I guess it is mostly used by writers...)

Who would use the chat?
What purpose should the chat have? (Story collaboration? Idea exchange? Wording help? Site usage support? Hangout? Sex chat?)

 

Same one as Lit Chat, most chat and RP but considering it is a chat room you could really use it for whatever you want.

TBH I think if the site did add it would need very obvious on the main page. Not hidden away on the forum. I just think that there are a lot of people who are sick of the chat on Lit but who don't really have a better option to go to.

 

Hopefully? Everyone.

All of the above? (Except PERHAPS sex-chat...) Seriously, I could see it perhaps superseding the forums in many respects if done well: but it would have to be more publicized than the forums ever was.

 

As someone who is on such a server (focused on one story, but it is a sample)

People (readers) can chat with the authors, discuss the story with each other, we have private channels for authors to discuss between each other.

Galleries of pictures, channels for off topic stuff like gaming, Mangas, tv/movies.

It is a really nice way to interact with people and be able to ask people their opinion on something or help about à subject you don't know a lot about while writing.

This forum is... Kinda dead.

The thread about my story has maybe 15 messages (half of them off topic and 4 from me). The server has 320+ members with hundreds of messages per day.

It is also different from a simple chat system. If you just have an instant chat on the site people will chat a bit, the more people use it the more confused it will become and people will only ever see or care about what was told in the last 20 minutes or the last 30 messages or so.

For me it was what changed users/readers into a small community and I don't regret it.

 

Let's be fair here, While i'm not going to refute that the forum is nowhere near as active as the whole rest of the site is. Giving an example of your discussion thread and its lack of discussion when you very clearly have a different method of discussing your story isn't exactly the best example. Especially when there's several examples of other stories using the forum model just fine(any story feedback thread with more than 100 replies for example). That's sort of like wondering why people never use MySpace anymore while idly browsing your Facebook account.


Not to mention that The Gamer is roughly three times as popular(in terms of likes) than its nearest competitor. It makes sense that you would have many times more active members and messages than the average story. You need a better form of communication with a story as active as that. Most stories don't.

 

My point is that as popular as it is and with so many very active readers barely anyone knew that the forum existed or took the time to come here.

 

I think you are misunderstanding what I am talking about. I'm not talking about replacing the forums with a Chat client. I am talking about having a chat AS WELL AS the forum.

The problem of the number of people using the forum is another conversation entirely. Yes Discord can be great but at the end of the day it still has problems. Namely the fact that you are putting the future of the client in the hands of a company that you can't really deal directly with. Whilst I doubt that they would ever take down the chat, considering some of the themes and topics on this site I can easily see putting the chat at serious risk. It would only take one report of the non-con channel and suddenly either you cannot have that channel or the whole thing is gone.

There is also the point you made, having a discord does muddle the message. Having a chat client on a site like this tends to have a pretty clear reason. It's for sex chat and RP. You could def use it for other things but most people kinda know what that kinda chat is for. A discord is a bit broader. You could have a discord for the site and I think that would kill the forums in a big way for a lot of people, hence why I am not suggesting it.

At the end of the day, the Lit chat averages a couple of hundred users at any given time of day and a lot of them would be happy to move to something better if it was on offer.

 

I suppose that a chat would be a third party plugin hosted on the site, just like the forum.

 

Absolutely not. That runs into exactly the same problems as Discord. The real point here, as I see it, is to one up Literotica and create a decent chat feature that will allow us to steal some of thier thunder. Lit is a jugernought, and we need to remember that in a sense we are at war with them, an asymitric war of atrition. We need to wear lit down, and draw off their readership, this is a way to do that.