Board Game Arena

Why can't comments be seen when replaying a game?

One good reason is that anyone catch watch a game replay, and the chat messages should be kept private to those who played the game.

Another reason is database space.

Game moves (and therefore the replays) can be condensed to a few bytes (and expanded to full text on demand), whereas chat logs would require much more space. Consider the chess move K:Q2, vs "Jest Phulin moves his King to Queen's Rank 2." As a side note, this allows replays to be translated to any supported language.

Also, the synchronization might be problematic. "Good move" is meaningless unless it is displayed at the right time.

Liallan wrote:One good reason is that anyone catch watch a game replay, and the chat messages should be kept private to those who played the game.

Chat in the game isn't private as any spectator can see it. I think chat messages should be kept for some time (e.g. 1 month).

demiurgsage wrote:Chat in the game isn't private as any spectator can see it.

Except for you can see if anyone is around the table when you write a comment (and refrain to write it if the comment should be kept private).
As far as I know, visitors can only see comments that are written while they are around the table.

Hi,

This is not a technical question but a question of privacy. With the current system you know exactly who is going to read your message, which i appropriate.

Bye the way, these messages are kept 3 months for moderation purpose (for moderators eyes only).

chrisa wrote:

demiurgsage wrote:Chat in the game isn't private as any spectator can see it.

Except for you can see if anyone is around the table when you write a comment (and refrain to write it if the comment should be kept private).

That's a little disconcerting. I would never expect a chat to be public to anyone. Not that I use it much except for the little courtesy comments, but I do use it a lot with someone I know, and even if it's not exactly "private," I still don't like the idea that anyone could see comments meant for one person.

Liallan wrote:

chrisa wrote: That's a little disconcerting. I would never expect a chat to be public to anyone. Not that I use it much except for the little courtesy comments, but I do use it a lot with someone I know, and even if it's not exactly "private," I still don't like the idea that anyone could see comments meant for one person.

I tend to agree. BGA is a great place to meet a lot of people. Sometimes, game after game, you feel you are on the same wavelength as a given player and your conversations on the chat become more personal. It is not easy to check permanently if anybody else is around the table.

Now, I can think to another situation where I was playing with someone, chatting about the game strategy, and a third one, whom we both knew, joined the conversation during the game, which was nice at this time.

Would it be possible to have an option to make the chat private? Actually, I think this should be the default mode, and opening it to visitors should be the option.

Liallan wrote:

chrisa wrote:

demiurgsage wrote:Chat in the game isn't private as any spectator can see it.

Except for you can see if anyone is around the table when you write a comment (and refrain to write it if the comment should be kept private).

That's a little disconcerting. I would never expect a chat to be public to anyone. Not that I use it much except for the little courtesy comments, but I do use it a lot with someone I know, and even if it's not exactly "private," I still don't like the idea that anyone could see comments meant for one person.

Well, the chat of a game table is not public, since the only people able to see it are the ones that are currently at the table, and the players of this table even if they are not there for turn-based. The only non-players people that can read anything are the spectators, whose names appear clearly under the players panel and above the logs (with classical display). And they cannot see messages from before they joined, or from after they left the table.

Moreover, if you want a private conversation with a friend, you can simply do that by going to your friend's profile, and clicking on the "discuss" button. That way the conversation will be private, and not necessarily related to a specific game table (even if it's just the 2 of you playing a 2-player game together).

Nanaki404 wrote:Moreover, if you want a private conversation with a friend, you can simply do that by going to your friend's profile, and clicking on the "discuss" button. That way the conversation will be private, and not necessarily related to a specific game table (even if it's just the 2 of you playing a 2-player game together).

This is not convenient at all:
- you need to switch to another tab,
- the conversation becomes disconnected from the game while sometimes it is not what you'd like,
- the conversation is lost when the other player logs out, and you are never sure that he has seen your last comment, and can reply when he is back (I mostly play turn-based games, and the conversation in the game can be resumed later, or you can write a "personal" comment even if the other player is not online at the moment - I do that quite often).

My experience is that discussing with a player outside a game is random. If someone talks to you when you are around the table, you may miss his comment if a lot of game-related comments appear at the same time (because discussion comments from outside the table are mixed with log messages). If you leave the computer for a while and do not pay attention that a chat window appeared while you were away and refresh the page, or simply log out, you never see the comment either and your friend doesn't know it.

Private messages are not a good option either: need to go to another tab, also disconnected from the game, and you need to wait 5 minutes between two messages which does not allow live conversation.

I have no idea whether there are many people who want their conversation to be seen by spectators, but I personally would generally prefer to be able to keep it private.