Chat status

My suggestion would be to make status in chat a lot more obvious. It's obvious enough in the list of characters. Can't get more obvious and intuitive than a colored circle in the corner of the avatar. If I had to improve it maybe I would also add a border line of the same color, with like 4px thickness or something like that. Maybe changing the entire background of the character block to like a transparent version of the status color.

And then when someone opens chat same thing there - more and bolder colors somewhere, and for DND maybe even a popup like the one that says "Offline message", but saying something like "Person is currently DND, please only message them if you absolutely must" or something like that. For "Cybering" could be "Person is currently engaged in another RP".

TLDR - there are two ways to approach these things. Community education and making things bolder and more 'in your face' or in some cases even restrictive from the platform side. I think both are things that should be done in parallel, to a healthy degree.

Sadly, some people are just going to log on and message the first pretty thing that catches their eye regardless of what's going on their status. If something comes up and you need to leave but don't want to log out, I usually open someone's profile and close the chat window until I'm ready to come back. You stay logged in and all you gotta do is click on the chat.

Exactly!
Personally, when I want to approach someone, I first check their time zone, their status and their preferences and likings, then I try to first message them on the main site, see if their interested, and only when they're up for it, I'll take it to the chat.
Now I don't expect everyone to be like this, just going as far as paying attention to your own status and the person you're approaching can go a long way. As I said, communication is the key, and things like chat status, keywords, description, stats and just the way someone talks, all help create a better and more fun environment for all of us.

If you approach me when I'm "ready to cyber", after having a look at my keywords or reading the description, then start with something like "Hey, how's it going?", I'm far more likely to respond, than you just jumping into my DM and hitting with a "sexfight?", "wanna wrestle" or in some cases, just insult me, because you fail to understand when to be in character, and when to be out of it. Or for example, I've stopped doing mixed matches and mentioned it in my bio, not because I don't like to fight them, because a few rotten apples, people who fail to use these tools of communication, have left a bitter taste in my mouth. And every time I want to make an example, someone comes in my DMs and keeps saying "I'm different" or "I'm an exception" or just keeps pushing it, and I try to be nice or polite, but if I lash out, I'll be branded as bitchy or rude, while these bitter interactions can all be avoided, if we all learn how to communicate and respect each other, instead of just caring about our own.

Now I'm going really off topic here, but overall, what I'm trying to say is, let's try to be as willing to improve our ways of communication as we can, using all the different tools, with the chat status being one of them, to make a fun environment for us and everyone else.

I actually prefer when people approach me with a 'straight to the point' post. I appreciate the courtecy, but honestly, if I am looking for a I usually don't want to waste time. Maybe I'm working on something else while waiting, like a job, or maybe I'm in multiple chats. Either way skipping straight to the point is just quicker.

Compare this:

- Hi, how are you doing?
- Fine, you?
- Great. Wanna X?
- Ah, no, I'm not into X, I prefer Y.

With this:

- Hi, Wanna X?
- Hi! Sorry, I'm not into X I prefer Y.

Considering all the wait time and stuff, it saves anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes. In some cases up to 20-30 minutes even. Multiply by number of people approaching.

I agree that chaters does not yet have the number of people for this to be a issue, but then when hunting for RP I usually also sit on other platforms, so it all adds up.

That said - insulting or being mean when you approach someone is definitely bad. However, there is a thing called "IC or OOC approach". Some people like IC approaches, some OOC, some either. And if someone approaches me with a post that sets up a scene, and jump starts a , while also clearly showing that yes, he\she read my profile and into most the same things I am - I think it's great. But if it's a poorly written 1-2 liner that is just confusing then I usually just don't even know how to reply to that properly.

I can agree, AND disagree regarding the way to approach someone.
I think that's also based on someone's status. For example, you're quite an active member Laurissa with many scenarios and such, so if you're looking for a match or have "ready to cyber" status, I'll just jump straight into the point.

"Hey Laurissa...I saw your scenario, I'm interested in..."
You get the picture.
But when I have "just chatting", well that means that I'm just chatting.
I also agree with the IC points that you make, but sometimes, an IC approach is someone writing something appealing and interesting, but in many cases, at least for me, it's like "Hey Cunt!" without any further elaborations.
When like that, I don't feel offended, but rather disinterested. That's the point I'm trying to get across, if you wanna be direct, IC, or be chatty and OOC, a good chat status (the status itself + plus the little note you can write with it) can help further simplify the way you can best approach someone.

Ah, well, sure, I agree that status matters. Still if I saw someone not in 'ready to play' status who I wanted to play with, I would open up with "Hi, are you open for a fight or discussing a scene for later" or something like that. Maybe the best of both worlds would be to just spit it all out in one post: "Hi, how are you? Are you open for rp?" I see how this could be percieved as somewhat rude in some places, but I consider this to actually be more respectful of your partner's time. Chat and text conversation is not real life, there is lag and delay that has to be taken into account, so including more information with each post just saves time. Days of time in the long run.

"Hey cunt" is just an awful approach. It's the kind of half IC half OOC that makes it insulting. I mean hey, at least open up with a punch! :D

I too do prefer distinct separation between IC and OOC talk.

Now you're talking! When I say "let's chat around", that's what I mean.
I don't expect my writing partner to ask me about my life story, but a formal way to approach.
I personally approach people with something like "Hey, how's it going? So I had a look at your profile and found it very interesting, I'd love to chat around more and even setup a match." or something like "Hey, how are you? I see you're looking for some action, I'm interested to discuss it further with you!"
Something formal, but also direct.

Mhm. I have to admit that while I don't mind either way, somehow it feels better when people don't include "how are you" and just go "hi! so I had a look..." etc. Because it does feel like a disingenuine question. Like you dont really care about my irl wellbeing, why ask?

But I suppose that it just comes from culture of the place where you're from. I know that in US it's norm, and considered correct to ask these questions without actually meaning them. In my country it's considered rude, we only ask "how are you" if we are really interested to hear a real answer. It does not mean that whoever we're asking that HAS to reply in detail, but if they want they can. In US, as far as I know, it's not really expected to get a lengthy life story.

Well, I can understand where you're coming from. In my way of greeting people, when I ask "how are you?" I'm not really wondering about your well being and as you said, it's more of a way for me to show respect.

Sadly that has happened that more women who do mixed have decided to just not do it because you have a select few who ruin it for everyone. Goddess Donna I am sorry that you have had to go through that. This site should be fun for everyone and yet we have people who don't know how to act causing things like this to happen. I also believe that's why we have people who make accounts do one or two fights or stories and then leave because they have had a horrible experience. We need to strive to do better granted I feel the one that read forum already are the ones who do better. We just need to do better

Agreed! It is easy to just see the pictures and let desire to take over. I try and watch the status…as it helps smooth the conversation for a later match. We just need to pay attention some. Great thread and advice!!

You are 100 percent right about people just logging on and messaging the first person they see. Honestly we are all here to have fun, but we all need to read and be respectful when it comes to status messages or even what's written in bios

So I don't know if anyone has touched this topic before, but I wanted to talk about the status people use in chat like "cybering" or "away from keyboard".
What I want to say is that these status serve NO purpose. I've been here for months and I've noticed 2 things:

1) People always ignore your status. I can't count how many times I had "do not disturb", and then someone messages me. And when I tell them about the status, they always reply with "Oh I didn't see". Now once or twice...I can accept that it was an accident, but when everyone does it all the time, then it starts to get suspicious. Or for example, I set "away from keyboard", then I come back to see people having have messaged me 10 times, and sometimes even calling me out for ghosting them, when I was simply away from my keyboard.

2) People using a false status. I'm starting to feel like people set a status for themselves, then forget all about it. I can't count how many times, someone has the status "ready for cyber", but when you reach out, they're either already in a match, not ready at all, or completely away. Now that person might be someone very nice, but when I see someone ignoring my messages for 2 hours, despite being "ready for cyber", only to reach out to me some time later, I can't help but think that they were ghosting me. That might not be the case, but hey, I'm only human and my mind goes places.

Now not everyone is like this, I might have been exaggerating a bit, but I think this goes for majority of the community. So yeah, I just wanted to rant a bit and ask 2 things:
1) Pay attention to the status of others
2) Pay attention to your own status

So this way, communication...which I dare say is the most important thing when it comes to chatting or setting up a match...can be easier.
That's about it, have a nice day y'all.

I will plead guilty to two misdemeanors on this. I sometimes sign off with a DND or Cybering status and forget to clear it when I log back on.

I've also approached someone without checking their not-available status, but when I see their profile in the DM, I back off with an apology and a "see you next time."

Mistakes happen, everyone does them from time to time.
Having it happen once or twice is not really an issue and is easily forgivable. What is not forgivable is repeating something over and over and over...

I can name like 4-5 people (I won't, just to say the numbers) that constantly ignore or misuse the status. Now 4-5 might not seem much, but I'm mostly in contact with about 10 people if I'm being generous, so have about half of them like this...it's not really promising.
I too must've done it a few times by accident, but at some point, there's a line between a mistake, or simply not caring enough.

Well, if it happens too often then I would suspect 2 things:

- People are just ignorant or don't know how the system works, dont know culture of chat platforms in general or chatfighters in particular. Then they must be educated. How? No idea. Maybe as community grows it will just happen by itself. Just continue spreading the good information, educating them about the chat RPing culture and eventually it should spread.

- Chat platform itself has some flaws in it's design, UI and UX, that may be leading to such behaviour. As someone who dabbles with UI\UX now and then I have to say that it's a thing that is not always obvious. You and even other people may think that things are perfectly fine, obvious and intuitive. Until you learn about how someone spent hours and still can't figure something out. Or maybe colourblind people just don't see something the way you do. And there are a ton of other variables at play. So user feedback should be very important here.

I would like to point out that I love everything this system is doing, and I think it's well designed, what I'm talking about is more about polishing things up.

I agree with most of the things you mention here.
Personally, I think chatfighters is the best site in terms of it's tools, appearance and how organized it is. I've explored a bunch of other sites, none were able to keep up with chatfighters, but I think there's still much room for improvement, both for the site, as well as the community surrounding it.

Yeah, most of my experience in RP chat platforms is from f-list. It's a very mature platform and I think there are some things chatfighters could pick from there, while admitting that f-list is just old and in dire need of an update. Which is coming by the way. But f-list is a lot more general-purpose-kinky-rp-website-with-furry-focus and chatfighters is more about the fighting niche, should of course be taken into account.

Improvements and updates are always welcome, and one can never be perfect. But after jumping to chatfighters from a site like freecatfights, which is also HIGHLY popular, I realized this is one of the better platforms for doing RPs.
But if you're looking for even more, you can find more people on discord servers, Instagram communities and such.

Could not agree more - great reminder for us all!!