Webcam Chat Blog

At first there was Java to connect to the chat room. That was the method we used to connect the webpage user to the chat server. That’s because there was no other stable way. Java was very slow to load and was very heavy on the user’s computer. The chat room took a while to load. We tried other ways but Java was the only sure way to get them into the chatroom.

Then came ajax. This is much better. Though still not Flash it loads fast and is easier on the user’s machine.

All along I have looked for a Flash connection to the chat server so we can be loading as fast as possible with the latest technology and offering the best user experience. It seems that Chat and Flash development just never crossed paths in our favor.

The good news is that now there is a fine Flash applet available for the chat. Though not as fancy as our current ajax applet it does the job just fine.

As technology changes so should we. In order to stay up to date and use the latest technology I think it would be in our best interest to move to a Flash based chat. Having a Flash based chat will have us in a better position for future upgrades and updates.

The new Flash chat may not look as nice as our current ajax chat, and it may not have as many features but we needed to update the chat to stay current and so we’ll be ready for future upgrades. Flash is the quickest, slickest, up to date way to get the users connected from a webpage.

Thanks for reading and watch as CamChat.org grows and changes.

Introducing the CamChat.org VIP Pass

With CamChat growing so rapidly we’re going to have to make the changes. We’re losing regulars because it is no longer a relaxing place to hang out and webcam chat. The traffic is too heavy and full of problem users to enjoy a good chat. We have to find a way to keep the regular chatters happy because they make our community what it is.

My first idea was to give them their own room free of the problems. This brings up several things though. In their new room the webcam list would not refresh. There would still be people trying to chat with them in the main chatroom that they no longer watch. Additionally there would be people requesting their webcam from the main room. Also remember that people return to see these regulars that we would now be paying attention to a different room. This all seems like an awkward solution.

Another idea was to install a registration layer where the new user would have to register and wait for a password in order to access the room. This brings up a different issues.

Julie came up with an awesome idea that will solve most of our problems. A VIP Pass for the regulars. Here is how it can worked. We already have the new database structure sketched out on paper.

The chat room will be capped at 40 users. When the 41st user attempts to join they will be sent to a “Room is Full” page. This page would have a “Try again’ button that would become active after a 10 second countdown. After a 10 second wait the user can again attempt to join the room.

If that 41st user is a “Regular” they would be logging in with their VIP pass and would be let in. The room would then have 41 users. Room Moderators, of course login around this whole process and are not affected.

How do they get a VIP Pass?

I’d like to stay away from a voting process as used in nominating the chat room moderators. We’ll need something faster than that. We’re going to set up an additional database. A current mod will add a name for VIP consideration. A second moderator will agree. These will be this VIP holder’s two sponsors. It will then move to my desk where I’ll approve it.

VIP users would skip all the in between pages and be thrown right into the chat.

I think this is the right direction for us. The “regs” will always be able to get into the system while keeping the other users waiting if the room becomes too big. We should have a higher ratio of contributing users while keeping the number of problem users limited.

Thanks for doing this, guys. I have been very busy lately and I’ve been called back to work so I have a job again. (for now). YaY! $$

CamChat has grown. OMG! It has grown beyond my wildest dreams. I just enjoyed chatting with people from all over the world and wanted to share it and I always found a way to offer it for free. Well … I covered the costs.

It all started so small … I’m talking about me and -_Dark_- (Rob) looking at each other on cam and wondering how to make it successful. But I’ve already told that story. The truth is that it has finally succeeded. I never thought it could get this big.

I understand the mods are stressed. This is something new for us. We are not used to this level of traffic. An area where camchat has failed is scalability. The ability to grow. I wanted more traffic but failed to consider consequences of it actually catching on. I’ll need you guys help in dealing with this.

I feel like the community feel is becoming lost. We’re losing the ability to retain “regulars”. The mods are over-worked and the site has become a place to login and ban undesirables. This was not my intentions.

I have never opened a second room because I felt we do not have the moderator power to cover it. Additionally there is a technical issue where as the webcam list will not update while changing chatrooms. It’s two different systems.

The traffic to the room is out the roof. I can’t believe the numbers from the stats page. This is a result of 15 years of trying to get to the top of search engines for the right search term and it finally worked. We’re finally ranking on Google.

Is this temporary? I don’t know. I suspect we’re here to stay. Camchat has succeeded and we’re experiencing growing pains.

As most of you know I won’t discuss the money, but I will tell you this much … the website has it’s expenses which I’ve always paid.

My dream has become true and I now have never-ending traffic to my chatroom. This is what I had always worked for. I did it with keyword research and good SEO (search engine optimization). (Google it)

Here’s something I did not expect … more traffic \ more pervs. As the site becomes more popular and starts to grow it looks like we’ll have to make some changes.

I’ll have to agree we are losing the community feel. There is not really a place for the “Regs” to hang, relax, and chat. I know we are losing good regulars because the room has become chaos. Something must be done to maintain a community feel.

Breaking down what I said earlier, the camchat has expenses. It also makes money.

Many of you are aware of Thomas, “Thunderstorm” who owns Vagipe and sponsors our video. He told me in advance that I would get the most ad clicks right below the chatroom. It seems people become bored in the chat and click the links below it. We can see this with the analytic data. It’s important that we have a constant flow into the chat page where people can quickly click away or fit in to become a regular.

We don’t want to do anything to slow down entries to the chatroom.

As it starts to get this much traffic I am saddened that it is losing a community feel and we may be losing valuable regular users.

Because we need as many users as possible hitting the chatroom I’m going to go with Loka’s option #2. I think we should open a #room2.

This would be a room where only “regs” who are sponsored by a mod can enter. I think they would enjoy a room.

Actually I think this is the right direction … let the regulars have a special secret room free of undesirables. It would require little moderation and we could retain valuable community users.

There are things to look at before we do this …

#1 Example .. there would be people requesting their cam from the main room, not the lounge. There would be people talking to them in the main room that they are overlooking .. and how to explain this to the new entry.

#2 There are also problems we may encounter such as “Oh he/she’s cute !! Can I invite him in here ??” and how to deal with that. Sponsoring guidelines?

#3 The secret code is “/join #RoomName” … right ? and you’re not allowed to tell anyone, and you have to have a sponsor … is this where we’re going ?

#4 Another mod just sponsored someone you don’t want in there.

We’d have to address these issues first. You guys come up with the guidelines

This will take some planning and I look forward to you’re input.

Well what does it take to succeed in the webcam chat business? We have done it so I think you know. We have to offer a quality webcam site that is moderated 24 hours a day. The traffic to these sites can be mostly undesirable so you really have to weed out the good ones.

I think that’s the way we have built our community. We look for the ones that see what we are doing and want to join the fun without ruining it for everyone else. The moderators at CamChat.org are the best in the business. I quick training course on how we do things and the mods are ready to work.

Moderating a busy chatroom is an exhausting job and accidental kicks and bans can happen. Most of the regular chatters realize this and put up with our mistakes.

Have a great day and enjoy the chat.

CamChat.org is a success. It took ten years but it’s finally there. It has finally become the website I have always dreamed of. We’re at the top of Google rankings now and we enjoy over 10,000 new visitors to the site each day. The chatroom is moderated 24 hours a day and we continue to offer a clean and safe chatting environment. Happy 10th birthday camchat.org may we continue to grow.

Happy holidays and good chatting to all the cam chatters out there. May we enjoy another year of fun. Happy chatting all

As CamChat.org moves into it’s tenth year we have made many great improvements and upgrades. Here’s just a few.

1. On a larger network (Mibbit) better uptime.

2. Enabled iPhone access.

3. Moved from Java to AJAX. More people joining. Easier on user’s machine and we have been able to hide the IRC users list making the look and feel of one list. Most browser and OS problems are fixed.

4. YouTube player built into the room. When users share a YouTube link it plays right in the room.

5. Forced gender choice on homepage.

6. Removed the password option on the homepage.

7. Increased the number of illegal nicknames that are not accepted into the system. This makes it easier on the room mods.

8. Room moderators now have a “@” before their nickname on the cam side.

9. Now all languages room with the help of AJAX and the IRC room bot.

10. CamChat.org is now active on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.

11. Mod in training process trimmed to a shorter length of time to enable faster adding of room mods in training.

12. If a user types in an age of “17″ on the first round it will show in their profile info as “Actual: 17″. This should help identify the under aged users.

13. All ways to private message from the AJAX applet has been fixed. Users may now enjoy a normal chat without being overrun with private messages.

14. New webmaster blog at http://www.camchat.org/blogs/

15. New “Rulebook” launched.

Plus much more …

Many of you know that I registered the domain name for CamChat.org in 2001 but not everyone knows that I was at it much earlier on. before the domain name I ran this project on free web severs such as Geocities or anywhere else I could find free hosting. I also put up with the ads that come with the free hosting.

We all know our chatroom moderator Rob, _-Dark-_, but did you know he has been with us from the start? Yes Rob supported this thing from day one and was here long before the domain name was ever registered. It’s partially due to him that we exist today. I’ll explain.

There was a time when it was only Rob and myself in the room. Can you imagine that? Well it’s true. CamChat.org was not always the success we enjoy today. So I would say something like, “Well Rob, this sucks, huh?” as we look at each other on cam. He would always turn me around and say something like, “No, John. CamChat rocks. Don’t you give up.” I guess it’s because of Rob I never gave up.

I can remember several times when he’d go spam us on other chat locations, get banned, and try to get users to our site. LOL it rarely worked.

But I wanted you guys to know Rob’s long history with CamChat.org as he has seen us through all of the ups and downs we have gone through and he continues to support us today.

Thanks Rob for your years of continued support. You have supported us in good times and bad and are probably the reason I stuck with it.

PuP

I wanted to say a word about our webcam chat room moderators. First of all I think that camchat.org has the best moderators in the history of chat rooms.

The new moderators that go into training are nominated by the current mods then a vote is held on the board that they post on. If the person passes the vote then they are our newest room mod in training. The training process consists of reading the mod training documents then about a week with hands on training being an actual operator in the chatroom. At this point they can already kick and ban from the chat room but do not have access to the moderators control panel.

The new mod in training uses their time to become comfortable being in a position of authority and practicing kicking and banning trouble users from the chatroom. They also lean on the more senior room mods and ask questions as well as depend on them for direction.

After about a week in training the person is given access to the mod control panel where they can help moderate the webcams as well. At this point the person is known as a full mod.

This is the process that has worked so well for us for so long. As the site owner I rarely need to correct the mods behavior and choices as they have all read the same documents and know exactly when to kick, ban, and warn users.

Again I believe we have the best chatroom staff in the history of chat itself. Be sure to check out the moderator staff at our site at www.camchat.org and watch these masters at work. It’s unbelievable.

What is our webcam chat community objective? I hope everyone is well and getting ready for a big Halloween.

What’s the objective?

For the first 3 years I didn’t know either. I knew I liked chatrooms and when you added the webcams made it that much better. You could see who you were chatting with.

So what are we trying to do?

I think the driving force behind CamChat.org is being able to sit down at your computer and webcam chat with people from around the world for free. CamChat.org has always been free and that’s the way it will stay. I guess it has finally become a community and our objective would be to make it grow. This is why greeting the guest is so important.

Our goal would be to make the community grow with users like us.
: )

Webmaster
www.CamChat.org