I apologize if this has been asked before (I imagine it has), but is there some better technology for the chatrooms? I'd absolutely frequent them if they were considerably more user-friendly. Perhaps Java-based chat?

We talked about this very recently. I agree, a Java client would be perfect (or a flash client even). Of course, it's a matter of writing one, and I haven't really got the time at the moment and I doubt Ben does either. However if someone wants to do it, feel free to speak up

no! no java! we had one! it sucked! no one used it! we made ben change it back!

AaronUnlimited said:

Imagine a good one though. Look at Yahoo chat for example.

ian said:

you're making it worse!

AaronUnlimited said:

Have you no sense man

Anyway if we ever do add a Java chat client, I'd say Ben will want to still keep the current client which people are used to too, so you'd have a choice.

ian said:

Oh, I'm sure he will. But I'd hate to see another feature go (a la profile pictures) because he needs the bandwidth to run two chatrooms. And we had two chatrooms for quite some time on this site. No one used the java chat

AaronUnlimited said:

Nah we could have just a single chatroom (the same webapp backend) and multiple chat clients. So it wouldn't use more bandwidth. But if it did, we'd probably delete your account to save hard drive space

Um, I know this suggestion might frighten some of you guys, but for a great example of a java-based chat, check out Gay.com's rooms. They're graphically engaging, and the public and private features really help to build the community of the rooms.