Expanding the TFP - Voice Chat?
 

I have the capability to set up a Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com) server and make it available to the public. It will basicly serve as a chatroom that you talk in with your computer's mic, and your speakers.

I'd just like to hear what people think of the idea. Do you like to talk? Would you personally use it? How often would you use it? Do you even have the right hardware for it?

Just give me a little idea of what to expect if I were to set this up.

Well, in order for me to use it, that would require hooking up my computer speakers and gaining access to a microphone - I think I would possibly use it once or twice a week - but at no where near the regularity that I typechat.

How would the server be filtered to keep the noise control so people aren't all talking over each other?

Just want to add that there would be capability for people to enter in private rooms to chat with eachother.

Seeing as I already have Ventrilo for gaming use, all I have to do is replace the sound card with the fried mic input. I'll do it.

I'm almost equipped to use it, and would probably do so every once in awhile, but not nearly as much as type chat.

It'd be a much different and involved dynamic than type chat (*says something*... *browses web for 15 mins.*...*chimes back in with "did someone say dildo?"*...etc.). I'd love for it to be available, however.

I don't have it now, but I'd probably get the hardware to do this. Definitely seems like a fun idea.

I have the capability to do so but would not in fact partake. I don't even use the chat as it currently exists.

A lot of webcams have built in mics. (google: Logitech webcam) But the best thing for voice only chatting would be a headset (earphones and mic).
Would this include video capabilities?
I'd definately try it.
My experience with chat is that alot of people lurk waiting for somebody they know to come online. The private chat rooms would be good for that. Hopefully in the general room, people would actually say hello to people they don't know.

My wife would probably get pretty annoyed with me yak,yak, yakkin away like a 13 year old on the phone, so I'm not too interested.

It would be fun to listen in though.

I'm not much of a talker, more of a typer, but occasionally it would be fun to hear people

well discussions would be quicker. i had a few days of googletalk with a friend over a project. it was great. we could keep doing work while talking. just like real life. but i would not use it. i barely talk to my gf on the phone.

Sounds interesting. As long as it doesn't degenerate into something like Paltalk, where 3/4ths of the rooms are 16 year olds playing their Eminem albums without even talking inbetween. I guess that's not likely to happen hear though :)

Go for it.

A couple of the smaller boards that I either currently belong to, or have belonged to in the past (they no longer exist :( ) have done yahoo voice chats from time to and they were great fun. These were scheduled events, with advance notice and have always been a good time. I'd use it as long as I didn't have to use IRC (I really don't care for IRC. )

Sounds like fun! I just ordered a new sound system so I should be able to participate.

I use Vent for WoW, so sure, I'd be dropping in, saying Hi, that sort of thing.

I like being able to Hear who i'm talking to- helps me to put a face on people!
:D

This sounds like it could be a pretty cool idea. I chat online with my brother all the time using skype as he lives far away from me and this means free unlimited talking (plus we can send eachother jokes and links). I am guessing it would all the the same.
Keep up the good work Halx.

I'd use it occasionally, but I'm in Linux, and there isn't a client version.

I'm pretty sure I have the ability to do this, but I don't know that I would. I enjoy listening to others talk, but I have a difficult time expressing myself verbally and get really tense and probably wouldn't use this function.

I have it, great program, use it for my gaming buddies.

It wouldn't be so bad for private conversations, but I think all it will do is segregate the current chatters. I have nothing against voice chat, it's comes in handy in games. I just think IRC is the better chat medium, especially when most chatters aren't devoting their full attention to chat.

hmmm...interesting but I don't know if I'd be any good at it. The beauty of forums is that you get to write things down, and then possible edit them, to get your point across in the best way possible. Things come out more clearly if you write them, than if you blurt them out. Also, someone shy would have a hard time having to actually talk directly to people. I find it a little daunting, but maybe that's because I've never met anyone from the net - so far.

I think it's a fantastic idea... I need more semi-intellectual idle chit-chat in my life, and I think this would be a great way to get it. So far, I have been pretty disappointed with IRC chat, every time I go there it's just a bunch of people ignoring each other... waiting for what, I'm not sure, I'm just saying it's a shame that the rules of TFP don't extend to the chat (contribute! participate!) At least with voice chat people would either be actively involved (or not), and you'd know who you're talking to and who's just listening in. I seriously doubt there would be as many people leaving the client running, only to be irritated by other people's voice chat, without any intention of actually participating. I agree that the forums are a beautiful thing, but it's fun to have unedited conversation, full of slip-ups and miscues.

Anyway, I have all necessary equipment, and I'd use it at least once a week, 2-3 tops, assuming other people were there to talk to.

This is something I'd probably do a few times but the majority of the time I would be in basic text chat. Granted, most of the time I'm in chat, I'm also at work so the voice could be a bigger distraction :)

I don't think people ignore each other. The chat is often a cyclic process. Sometimes it's full blown discussion and other's it's people idling while they are working or away from the keyboard. Chat is a unique creature. I know at night it seems to be a bit more lively as people generally aren't working. During the day it can be slow, but sometimes it does get crazy.

I'm usually doing several different things while in chat, talking would prevent that. Also, I enjoy expressing myself in the print medium. And I like being able to juggle several private convos + the main chat simultaneously, for the most part people understand they aren't the sole focus of anyone's attention, and can handle pauses...I'd be surprised if verbal chat was as robust.

I feel I can really actively converse with one person at a time, and do justice to the conversation/other person. I'd imagine it'd be pretty chaotic to have a bunch of people accidentally talking over each other, etc.

I guess I'm saying overall, I don't think I'd participate.

Then again, I didn't think I'd ever do the any chat room in the first place, either. TFP is the only chat room I ever use.

I've not used the program Hal's mentioned, but an earlier version of live chatting was Paltalk - and it got old pretty quickly because it didn't allow for talking over someone else - whichis good - but every so often you'd have a person play music too loudly in the background and that's all you'd get... it would prevent other people from talking... or even worse when some inebriataed person would show up... plus it had a lot of disconnects or other annoyances...

You know I'd use it. :) I use Teamspeak for Battlefield 2 and World of Warcraft everyday. Ventrilo is basically the same thing except with higher quality. It's really easy to use, REALLY clear and high quality, and not too expensive. I think it's a great idea.

I probably wouldn't use it. I'm not much for talking on the phone; I don't see why this would be any different.

I don't even use Ventrillo for World of Warcraft. It just doesn't appeal to me at all.

for some reason i cant even get into the chat room now. it wont let me. tells me that my username is in use or not allowed or something and wont let me do anything. :(

They are easy to use and really fun, I've used vent servers for years. www.nrgservers.net have really stable servers with great prices if you really are interested in it.

you're going to have a hell of a time moderating it, if you plan to

and if you don't, it's a wonderful idea! :P

I just want to hear the southern belles and aussies, they have sexy accents :)

Such is the nature of IRC. IRC without idlers is like the sea without fish. I've been in other types of chats where there are no idlers and there's a constant pressure to say something, it can be annoying. I like being able to quietly exit the conversation or not get involved. But it does seem to be more for random socializing than the more meaningful conversation of the board; usually there's just not an interesting topic of conversation which is why I don't go there much, well that and like I've said in the past I already waste too much time reading the board. ;) I don't imagine that would change a whole lot with a voice chat, but I'd give it a try anyway. I think it would be fun to be able to associate people's board names with voices.

I think it would be fun. Vent is a great program but to host a large number of people you have to buy licences which gets expensive very fast. I run a teamspeak server off my server for free and can host 100 members at a time. The quality isn't as good as vent but it gets the job done. You can find Teamspeak at http://www.goteamspeak.com also if you need someone to host it I can take care of it for you. I'd like to be able to help out the community some more, so let me know if there is anything I can do.

I quickly realized, as I was trying to set up a test server, that this may be more difficult than I had anticipated 'cause you have to rent a server if you want more than 8 people to be able to connect.

I have a teamspeak server that is much more flexible as far as max connections go, but it does not have as many features.. and ya.. it's not as high quality.