Thanks Oded thats a great idea :)

Not sure I like this, but we'll see....

Can you change the two options on the Members page? The "Show:" section so that it has All, Online and Available for Chat?

otherwise clicking the "Online" link just shows nothing but Do Not Enter signs.

Seems a very good idea, a lot of members do not know about the new settings and i have people writing me on chat, and i can't answer them because they're busy so they don't receive my messages... 

Tomorrow we'll email all members to inform them of the new change. 

the bigger issue is still the fact that the online vs. not online indication and also "friends online" is still often wrong or worse, misleading.

Sounds like there might be a serious conspiracy brewing here...

How is it '...or worse, misleading'?

O

conspiracy?! 

misleading when it says "busy" but the person is actually off-line.

misleading when the person is in my friend's list, listed as "available for chat" on the members page but the chat link doesn't work and they don't show up in the Friends Online list.

Oded, not sure what you're trying to imply, but the problems with the chat system have been discussed more than once and i've sent plenty of feedback in the last two years. it's just sad that nothing (or very little, very late) is done about it.

I'm glad that you are addressing concerns that people have about getting relentlessly chatted on glocals.

I'd have rolled out the change a bit differently, though.

1. Pre-announcement: "On this day at this time, we will make a significant change to the chat system. Right now, it's like this. After the change, it'll be like this. Here's how you customize your own preferences regarding chat."

2. Immediate post-announcement (which you did, see above) with "let us know if there are any problems or questions."

3. Same-day post-change email: "Today, we made these changes. Here's how to customize."

Just my $0.02.

@Zonker - I just didn't understand what you meant by 'wrong, or even worse, misleading'.  If its wrong, its wrong.  Misleading implies that the chat is somehow trying to trick you, which I found funny.  Maybe its a prob with my English skills.  In any case, no offense meant.

Re the launch - I agree we could have done it better, but to be honest, I figured that the only people who would really be bothered by this change are the men who keep trying to chat up women (the ones who 'forced' us to make this change) and I did not see a need to explain to them why they will no longer be able to do what they should not have been doing in the first place.  

For future changes, we'll try to be more transparent.

O

Hi Ottavia,

If people initiate a chat with you, you should be able to reply to them even if their status is set to 'Busy'.

How do you know they are not receiving your messages?

Oded

Well lets be honest. The chat here is highly buggy and often does not work. It is even worse than the dreaded FB chat. But that is a separate issue, and I guess it depends on how much money and effort you guys are willing to put into making it better.

Hi Oded,

they don't receive my messages, and i know because i have some phone numbers and i called them and they told me... So I explained them how to set their status on available, and then we chatted. 

Anyway I think it's ok now :)

Cheers!

thank you!

Hi Oded,

I agree with Zonker -  From an end-user perspective, it is 'misleading' to think that a user is Busy, while they may be truly Offline. It's just that, as end-users we are unable to comment on what's right on wrong, as we do not have a detailed insight of how the site works.

For some reason, I have never been able to chat. I'm only able to see the attached screen...processing... I can't even change my status, which limits my ability to trouble the lovely ladies on this site. :) I'm usually on browsers on the Chromium platform, but I've tried FF, Safari, IE and even multiple OSs.Perhaps its because I never seem to have any friends online, but do I need some online to change my status?

Any change to a product with upwards of a few thousand end-users affects all end-users, irrespective of the number of users currently using the functionality that is being changed. Making release specs & dates public to end-users in advance helps stupid users like me to get around the site, instead of clicking around mindlessly, after the deed is done.

It'd also help if you had a list of site changes published in a central repository, which could double-up as a manual. I mean- users help themselves & other end-users, if given the chance...so it'd save you a lot of forum responses.

It'd be great to have this site - which solves expat problems thro' software turn into a fantastic software product. And great process/industry-best-practices go a long way in turning it into one. Here's a recent write-up that puts release management in perspective: http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Release-Management-Done-Right.aspx

Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Arun

Hi Oder,

I just want to add that I appreciate the work you do! Perhaps having an additional status to "Busy" or "Online" would help, e.g., "Online - not in your friends network"?

Kind regards,

Philip

That's all very nice, but WHERE do I change the setting? :)

@ysabel when you click on "Friends" you'll see a list of friends on the left, and your profile picture on the right, with the words: "who can chat with me" underneath.

There is a button, with a downward pointing triangle, that says one of:

All members, Only friends, No one.

Choose appropriately and voilà.

If only it were that simple I can't even see my 'who can chat with me' box! Its just disappeared...

How about an "away" status?  e.g., automatically after 30minutes of inactivity

this popup is very annoying indeed.

this popup is very annoying indeed.

Hi there,

I've tried to change my "busy" status to "online" but it doesn't seem to work and I've emailed the admin at glocals but I haven't had a reply yet.

Can anybody help me out?

Thanks,

Hi,

Thanks for your reply but I've tried that before and it didn't change my status.

Thanks,

since a few weeks ago, I just can't use the chat. It does not work. If I click on "chat" on anyone's profile, even friends, nothing happens. I have IE9. any idea why? 

Get a proper browser like Firefox or Chrome?

it doesn't work with Chrome either