Persistence of group chat

[StevenageTony]

Our Go club has a private group that meets once a week for the members to play against each other. We use the group chat channel which is automatically assigned to groups to communicate and arrange games. This week I wanted to check something that had been posted in group chat at the very beginning of the meeting the day before. Unfortunately that posting was no longer available.

Upon making enquiries, I discovered that group chat postings only persist for 30 days or until there have been another 50 postings, whichever is first. I think that while the time limit is fine, the limit on number of postings that persist is a little tight and would suggest that it could usefully be increased to, say, about 100. I don’t know, but imagine this would be a trivial modification to code. I don’t know what knock-on effects it might have.

Does anyone have an opinion on this matter or know of a reason why it would not be a good idea to implement?

[bugcat]

Another option to consider whilst waiting for such a fix is to create a private forum thread and invite all the group members.

[shinuito]

@bugcat

Another option to consider whilst waiting for such a fix is to create a private forum thread and invite all the group members.

That does seem like a good workaround in the short term.

@StevenageTony

Upon making enquiries, I discovered that group chat postings only persist for 30 days or until there have been another 50 postings, whichever is first. I think that while the time limit is fine, the limit on number of postings that persist is a little tight and would suggest that it could usefully be increased to, say, about 100.

That’s also interesting to know about, I didn’t know about it They’re the kind of bits of info that’d be nice to collect together somewhere, like the documentation, or if not in an faq

Also yeah, it’d probably be nice if it retained more messages. I don’t know if it was calculated like

(max length of message)*x = (reasonable amount of storage per chat per group)

and x just ended up being 50 or was rounded to it. That would be the only issue I can imagine at the moment. I’m sure if it was, it could be recalculated

I do like that the chat persists already at the moment.

[bugcat]

group chat postings only persist for 30 days

I went and checked this.

There are still posts from November in the BGA group chat.

[Eugene]

Intereting - @anoek mentioned that it’s “50 lines or 30 days, whichever is soonest”

That being said, the actual parameters don’t matter a lot - the fact is that group chat lines will disappear from time to time, somewhat unpredictably - and the more there is, the less time it stays.

@bugcat

Another option to consider whilst waiting for such a fix is to create a private forum thread and invite all the group members.

Yeah - that was the option suggested to Tony in the mean time

[StevenageTony]

Bugcat, that could be an idea for some groups, but we don’t have a need which is so pressing that it would be worth trying to train up all the members in using a different system to the one they’re used to. Thanks for your suggestion, though. (Actually Eugene had already suggested it in my contact with him to establish what the limits were).

[StevenageTony]

Bugcat, I checked the BGA chat after reading your comment. The chat does indeed go back to 1 Nov 2020. I note that it is exactly 50 posts in length, however. Of course, the BGA is a national organisation, while we are just a little local club. That could be the difference? Or maybe the fact that the BGA group is public, while ours is private? Maybe anoek just spoke of the top of his head and got the time limit wrong?

[Eugene]

Or maybe there’s a bug with the 30 day limit code

[StevenageTony]

Or maybe there’s a bug with the 30 day limit code

Surely not!

[StevenageTony]

@Eugene

• @anoek mentioned that it’s “50 lines or 30 days, whichever is soonest”

Hmmm… just had a look at the “English” chat and it’s well over a hundred lines, although it only goes back about an hour, so the whole thing is obviously a lot less straightforward than you might think. I wonder if we can get a definitive answer to the question “How long does group chat persist”?

Thinking again now, though, maybe the process that chops lines off the end hasn’t had time to get round to reducing the length of the English group chat?

[Eugene]

I suspect that those old lines are stored in your browser, but no longer being served by the server.

Are they still there if you reload the page?

[StevenageTony]

EugeneOGS Team

13h

I suspect that those old lines are stored in your browser, but no longer being served by the server.

Hmm, yes, I think you are right, Eugene

[StevenageTony]

@Eugene

That being said, the actual parameters don’t matter a lot - the fact is that group chat lines will disappear from time to time, somewhat unpredictably - and the more there is, the less time it stays.

The point of this thread is, surely, that the actual parameters do (or can) matter, although it is perhaps even more important to realize that chat isn’t preserved forever

[anoek]

Yeah, bumping limits could be considered but I feel like it wouldn’t solve the problem because you’ll pretty much run into any reasonable limit. Long term discussions are definitely better had on platforms like the Forums as was suggested, or moved out to other platforms that specialize in that sort of thing, such as Slack or Discord.

[S_Alexander]

You can use news for important enough info.

[StevenageTony]

anoek,

Thanks for coming on. Of course, however much you increased the number of lines, there could always come a time when one wanted the line just before. I only wanted something from the night before and time really wasn’t the issue. Nor was it a long-term discussion.

To clarify, about ten of us meet once a week to play each other. To get things started, we put pairings up at the beginning. This is what I wanted to check the detail of. On consideration, chat is not the best place for that. In fact we started off putting them up in a newspost when we first started, but had problems with choking, so found it more convenient to put them up in chat. That’s always been fine, but nobody’s ever wanted to go back and check the detail before. I think we may go back to trying to use newsposts again.

It would still be nice to be able to review the chat from the night before. Ten people interacting to say hello, say goodbye and ask each other if they fancy a game in between or comments like “X really hammered me again” soon eats up 50 lines. 100 would probably be enough for us for one evening, but someone else’s group of 20 might want more?

[StevenageTony]

S_Alexander

1d

You can use news for important enough info.

Thanks for the suggestion. See my response to anoek above.

[BHydden]

@StevenageTony

Thanks for the suggestion. See my response to anoek above.

Just for the record, the forum have a built-in “Quote” feature that looks a bit nicer than just copy/paste

[StevenageTony]

@BHydden

Just for the record, the forum have a built-in “Quote” feature that looks a bit nicer than just copy/paste

Yes, thanks BHydden.

Is there any documentation explaining how to use all the features of the forum? Intuitive interface are great till your intuition fails you

I couldn’t work out how to use it on laptop, but just now something popped up here on my mobile and I have a feeling I may have successfully done ‘the elegant thing’ here. Let’s see …

[StevenageTony]

@StevenageTony

I may have successfully have done ‘the elegant thing’

Yay!

Btw, shouldn’t that button just below where I’m writing now say ‘Post’ rather than ‘Reply’. I’ve already written my reply by the time I come to use it …