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July 12, 2006 at 2:36 am #23874TigerbladeParticipant
During the IRC chat about the future of BBB, we mentioned updating the IM centers for each network… I’m going to list a few of my observations and ideas as separate posts for each relevant section, and please feel free to list any of yours that I might have missed.
I’ll add more later when I get more time to look around more indepth at some of these pages… in the meantime add your own observations.
Sections:
July 13, 2006 at 1:28 am #147724TigerbladeParticipantOld Information
I found this in the opening article of our “IM Basics” page:Quote:In fact, Jupiter Media Metrix has declared that instant messaging is the fastest-growing segment of the Internet, estimating that by 2003, 90% of the online population will use IM.uh… this is a bit old, isn’t it? Estimating by 2003? Hmm… perhaps we need something more recent? I dont know what the current stats are, but we need something more recent than 2003 if we’re to be taken seriously as an IM site.
Section:
The BigBlueBall Instant Messaging Centers
A few things here…- Should those icons be updated? I remember something way back when about how we couldn’t use the AIM yellow guy, etc… plus those graphics just *look* old. We have enough graphics-oriented people around here that this shouldn’t be hard.
- Should we now have a section for Windows Live Messenger?
- The Odigo link goes just to the “Other IM” forum. We don’t have an Odigo forum anymore. We do have an Odigo Center though, should this be updated now that “From 1/1/2005 Odigo will no longer be interoperable with other IM accounts” ?
Tutorial:
Step By Step Guide to IM
Getting Started with Instant Messaging
Perhaps we could rewrite this to be a bit more… I dunno… not old? I don’t know exactly why I think it needs to be rewritten, just reads like maybe it could use a bit of an update. Here’s just a rough idea of something… it’s not terribly different than the current text, but just what I came up with quickly:Quote:What is Instant Messaging?
Instant messaging has become perhaps the fastest growing technology on the Internet, but why is this? What makes instant messaging (or simply IM) so popular and far-reaching? It allows you to communicate digitally with other people just like email, but without the delays between each message inherent to email. Your conversation with the other person (or people) takes place in real-time. Using the IM service of your choice, you can see which of your friends are online and available to chat, then send them a quick message to get the conversation started.
IM makes staying in touch with your friends and family easy, fun, and quick.Getting Started
Well it all sounds good so far, but how do you get started? The first step is to choose an IM program. The most popular networks include AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), MSN Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger, but there are others to choose from. Of course, most if not all of these programs are free to use!If you’re not sure which IM software to pick, the easiest and quickest way to decide is to check with some of your friends and find out what they’re using. The best way to chat with them is to use the network they’re using. Of course, there’s nothing keeping you from installing and using more than one service – if you want to use AIM and MSN at the same time, no problem. Some programs even allow you to be connected to more than one network, and some instant messengers allow you to communicate with friends on other networks. If this sounds interesting to you, you may want to check out our IM interoperability matrix.
Also, it mentions interoperable messengers, but not that some networks work with each other now…
Should we then also include an extra step on actually setting up your messenger after installing and signing in? Just general basics, like the ideas of adding contacts and such.
The same idea goes for the other pages in the IM Basics section… just generally rewrite/update the text in some of these sections? I’ll try to write some up when I get some spare time, but please feel free to help out with whatever you can write up if you like.
Link Problems
The Chat Lingo Glossary, accessed from the sidebar thing, doesn’t exist.July 13, 2006 at 1:38 am #147725TigerbladeParticipantWhat Is AIM? Introduction to AOL Instant Messenger
Perhaps a slight update/rewrite is in order? Just to give it more of a current feel, to keep things fresh.Link Problems
- The breadcrumb navigation across the top includes references to the old ASP pages… those should be updated. (shown as Instant Messaging: AIM Center)
- On the AIM Expression Tutorial: the top navigation isn’t complete, and the “AIM Center” link is a file:// reference. Also, at the bottom of that page is a link to an expression creator which is obviously no longer available.
- In the same page as mentioned above, the “Discuss in the AIM Forum” link leads to the discussion for AIM expressions.
- The link to “Send this page to a friend” doesn’t seem to do anything. It works in some of the other centers, but not here.
July 13, 2006 at 1:43 am #147726TigerbladeParticipantWhat, no special links along the sidebar for MSN? AIM has plenty of extras, Yahoo has a few, but MSN is feeling left out.
Should we perhaps now have a WLM Center also? Seeing as how MSN is supposed to be on its way out…
July 13, 2006 at 1:46 am #147727TigerbladeParticipantSeeing as YM is now up to v8 beta, perhaps we could add a review for a version upwards of v6?
Also, are there any special things to add to the sidebar, similar to what we have for AIM?
July 13, 2006 at 1:50 am #147728TigerbladeParticipantSeeing as how ICQ 5.1 is now out, how :new: is our ICQ 4 Review? Perhaps we could get one of our ICQ-using members to write something up here?
We might want to update some of the links to be more direct. i.e., instead of “here in our ICQ forum” linked as https://bigblueball.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=125, it could be what we tend to use more often, https://bigblueball.com/forums/icq/ ?
Beyond that, just a few very minor typos to be fixed. We do want to appear as professional as possible, and typos can hurt credibility. I know it’s nit-picky, but hey.
July 15, 2006 at 11:16 pm #147723Jeff HesterKeymasterThree big cheers to Tigerblade for getting this ball rolling!
I just have a couple of comments. First, Windows Live Messenger is the new name of what was previously known as MSN Messenger. As such, I don’t think we need two separate sections, but we do probably need to rename the section to Windows Live Messenger, perhaps with a subtitle that says “incorporates MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger.”
As for the content, there are additional links available… goes and rummages about… Ah-hah! Even better! I found a prototype I worked on a while back that includes most of the other MSN links. You can see it here. It includes a link to our MSN downloads, a series of tutorial/articles, recommended links and FAQ. I’m not happy with that layout, but you’ll get the links at least.
On the subject of the IM Centers, there are two distinct parts to this. First (and most important) is the content. What bits of content should be included? The prototype I linked above is a good starting point. It includes an overview (albiet out of date) of MSN Messenger, a link the the FAQ, recommended links, download links, latest version info (also out-of-date), links to get older versions, latest forum topics, and articles/tutorials. Generally speaking, each of the IM Centers should use the same structure as far as the content goes.
The second part of the discuss is the presentation. How everything is organized, how the page is arranged, and how you navigate around the IM Center. I’m going to be tackling navigation in another post, and have some strong opinions, but I love hearing everyone’s views.
July 15, 2006 at 11:58 pm #147729princeGParticipantJeff wrote:I just have a couple of comments. First, Windows Live Messenger is the new name of what was previously known as MSN Messenger. As such, I don’t think we need two separate sections, but we do probably need to rename the section to Windows Live Messenger, perhaps with a subtitle that says “incorporates MSN Messenger and Windows Messenger.”Hmm, how about Msn/Windows Live Messenger? There are still dozens of people that use msn 7.5 or older and are posting quite often here to find a solution to their problems. Even though I’d like to promote more WLM, we mustn’t forget theres ol’ msn too. I prefer this title than the subnote, lets not make it that complicated. Just a Msn/Windows Live Messenger. Heck, I even still say “msn” when i want to refer to WLM! =p
😉
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