User blog comment:Ohmyn0/What's Going on with Chat/@comment-10370-20110524213441

Hi guys -- a little update on the current chat work. We're in the middle of a few weeks' work on new chat updates. This is version 4a, if anyone is keeping track. :)

This week, we're working on a bunch of small tweaks that will make the chat experience feel smoother. We've already released some tweaks -- for example, admins can now make other users "chat moderators" in the user rights list. (Coming soon: the ability to make people chat mods within the chat window itself.)

Some stuff we're working on this week: We're removing some not-useful "disconnected" and "left the chat" messages, so that people don't get spammed with them. We also found that showing people a "buffer" of previous chat messages was helpful in active chats, but confusing if you're the first one in the chat room in the morning -- so we're clearing that buffer when everyone leaves the room. These are all minor elements by themselves, but they add up to a better experience overall. We've got some other tweaks like this planned for the rest of the week.

We're going to start working on the next big addition next week -- being able to send private messages within the chat. It's really useful for busy chats when people start talking over each other! We'll be working on that for a couple of weeks, and our goal is to be able to release that to Wikia Labs around the middle of June.

So -- lots more stuff coming! It's great that you guys have been really interested and enthusiastic about the project. A lot of our work has been informed by the feedback and experiences that people have had here and on the other test wikis. Thanks, and keep telling us what you think!