How To Send IM's To Offline People: MessageServer

[TazX2k]

Well, here is what we can do about the buddy list resource issue:

1) We can internally cycle the buddly lists every 10 sec or so, the con to this is that you may recieve the message up to 30sec after you sign on... this requires the least amount of work done to messageserver.

2) We can load balance the service by having multiple "MessageServers" onlne at the same time, the pro to this is that it would make the service redundant and faster but the con is that the interface is less user friendly and professional.

3) We can have other SN's logged onto the AIM server that MessageServer only usues for their resources, it would be an internaly handled system like the first option. The only con to this is that it would require us to change the way the core works and it might be a lot of work.
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I am leaning towards option 3, i think it would be best. Although option 2 makes more sence because you are also load balancing the service when it is under a lot of load, i dont like the idea of people having 3 or 4 bots that do the same thing on their buddylist.
Tell me what you think guys... or if you have any other options voice them here...

Plasma: who makes that mouse?

A lot of people are starting to use messageserver, take a look at the stats.. in an average day it sends about 1000 IM's that thats everything from people saying hey to it sending a queued message. Its still a lot though, right now its at 41155 we'll see what it is in a few days. I also added an extra check in the core that increases the bots stability (Instead of sending a getprofile request as a ping it sends an IM to its self to check if it can still send/recieve IM's, on rare occasions the bot can still communicate with the server but it could not send/recieve IM's). This bumps up the revision to D4 from D3, if anyone does not understand the way i record the revisions it goes like this A1,A2,A3...A9,B1,B2..., so if you want to know how many revisions (small changes or additions) MessageServer has undergone since its inception just count the full letters it has gone through (A,B,C) [3] multiply that by 9 and add what it's at right now... [(3*9)+4]=31 revisions. And the revision # is also a hyperlink to my web site, check i out.

This post also makes the MessageServer thread have 4 pages

Joe Ventura

[MiniSizeIt]

About the website...

What's going to be the site's main function? Sure it'll say what MessageServer is and some stats and such... But are people really going to visit it? People who already know about MessageServer most likely won't visit the site unless there is some more exciting things on the page. The bot is pretty much self advertising itself right now, and a small webpage won't make it much bigger.

I've been thinking of making a unique AIM webpage, and I thought of a profile script that could work in your profiles which I think is a pretty cool idea, but would require CGI or PHP, and I don't know enough of either to create the script I wanted. If anyone knows CGI or PHP well, and wants to know about my idea, maybe we could include it into the AIM page, along with MessageServer, and more.

I just think a basic MessageServer page would be boring and not do much good.

Unless you want to relase MessageServer as a program for people to download... Then you could have a message board, making it much more interactive and people would be very interested in it. You could also have a main MessageServer bot like you do now, but also have an option for advanced users to download, customize, and run their own bot. Maybe you could even limit it to like 25 users or something if you're scared people will abuse the power of the bot. I still like the idea of releasing it, but if that's out of the question that's still cool.

Just a thought...

[Plasma2002b]

the website FOR NOW i think is gonna be a place for those of us that are workin on it to go to for maybe a discussion board, to do list etc..... but i dunno.... thats all we really need right now is a developers section.

Like you said, its pretty much self advertising.


>>>Taz.... you like the mouse?

[TazX2k]

Well the basic design of the site is done...
http://www.vckits.com/ms/index.html

I think plasma hit it on the nail, the site is going to be mostly for discussion, so the developers can talk and people can voice their opinions about messageserver, kinda like this thread. its also gonna have a guest book and stuff so people can sign their name and post a short message, hey maybe we'll expannd it so people can make their own sub pages (not sub profiles!) and people can find other people to chat with... i dunno we'll see. i would like it if people would make a login, and they can upload files to it, so they can either get the files later or send them to someone else via a hyperlink and an im sent via messageserver (eliminating the need for email). i dunno if that sounds dumb we'll come up with something cool. its late, im tired, im out.

Plasma: i like i like

Joe

[Hedgie]

Not sure of the overall feelings to this, but there is a solution I hinted at before. I do not know how easy it is to do, but here it goes:

Release MessageServer as a self installing program. People who have an always on server can load it and run it under whatever screenname they desire. The website can be used to post the screenenames for those who are so incline to share. Personally what I like about the MessageServer vs. email etc. is the convenience. I have always on here at work, but I shut my aim off at night and sometimes log in from home. If I had a private messageserver on my machine I could selfishly use it for myself and colleagues - that should drastically eliminate any warnings issues and the buddy list issue. As a program, it would be very hard for the average guy to "hack" the code, plus maybe there is some unabtrusive way of adding a link to the messageserver webpage to help spread the word. Multiple "servers" would also provide redundancy to keep the service up and running.

Just a thought..Anyone? Bueller?

[Anthony]

Just how much free space do you have on that server?

[Hedgie]

Just how much free space do you have on that server?

Server might not be the right word - my work machine is always on and connected with the equivalent of a DSL line - something like 400kbs - what I meant by "server" is a machine to run a version of message server on.

[Anthony]

Sorry Hedgie, I was actually asking Taz (Your post kinda slipped in when I posted)

[TazX2k]

I have 500megs with about 50 taken up by the vckits site, why what do you have in mind?
MessageServer takes up a negligible amount of bandwidth, any connection that is always on is sutable. since it's throttled it can only send out a max of 1KB every 7.1 sec, but the packets never get close to 1KB and thats also at full load which is rare. so you can imagine how much it uses and when nobody is using it, it does not use any bandwidth. I'd have to say it uses approx 0.1kb/s or less

Joe

[MiniSizeIt]

Not sure of the overall feelings to this, but there is a solution I hinted at before. I do not know how easy it is to do, but here it goes:

Release MessageServer as a self installing program. People who have an always on server can load it and run it under whatever screenname they desire. The website can be used to post the screenenames for those who are so incline to share. Personally what I like about the MessageServer vs. email etc. is the convenience. I have always on here at work, but I shut my aim off at night and sometimes log in from home. If I had a private messageserver on my machine I could selfishly use it for myself and colleagues - that should drastically eliminate any warnings issues and the buddy list issue. As a program, it would be very hard for the average guy to "hack" the code, plus maybe there is some unabtrusive way of adding a link to the messageserver webpage to help spread the word. Multiple "servers" would also provide redundancy to keep the service up and running.

Just a thought..Anyone? Bueller?

Yea, that's what I was thinking. The more I think about it, people can't really abuse it. And you could always add a link in the script to the webpage, or to your E-mail address or whatever you want. It'd help fix the whole warning and buddy list limit issues, plus people could make their own and custom it for their family and friends.

[Plasma2002b]

w00t!

i just got dome with a damn 20 hour reformat of mi laptop!

lol... i hate those lil problems ya get and dont know how to fix em.

but anyways, now im back up and i gtes to voice my opinion again...... yea..... about that personal message server progrma idea yall got... i disagree.

This would just be way too unreliable for other people to use a service that the everyday jo blo has running on his machine. Message server is running for a LOT of people, most who dont know (or have even talked to) Taz.

What might be a possibility is to make a totally personal version thats similar to this. Instead of having many message servers for those who have broadband, instead have an executable add-on to their AIM that lets THEM send a message to their buddies when they come online.

This would eliminate the "server" about it, but it would let anyone who has an always on AIM to message their buddies when they arnt there.

It wouldnt be that hard to transmogrify the coding structure in something like messageserver to do this.

But i dunno... gotta talk to Taz bout what he thinks

[fuuucckkers]

Kinda coming late into this discussion(after 4 pages)... but yeah I would have to agree with plasma's latest point. Just make some sort of extra executable or something to add-on to AIM...and transmogrify(if thats even a word) the coding to make it work with AIM+ or whatever.
(I think my ideas are confused, but you get the point, if not just read plasma's post )

But couldnt you do something like that ?

[TazX2k]

so it shifted from opening the source to releasing a "personal version" of the executable only. this may be an option, but it still doesent solve the issues i stated earlier. all it does is allow people to run their own bot so their friends and stuff can use it. the thing i dont like about this is that i dont want a bunch of the bots going arround and none of them being stable, i think plasma mentioned this. because of this it would not be an effective load balancing technique, and it would in turn degrade the whole service. i hope everyone can understand that.

i asked my friend to take a look at the site and he has a ton of sugestions for the layout, he might also make a flash intro for it. so we'll see what will come out of that.

anything else new? i dont know, but i would like if we talked about this personal version of message server some more and also that client addition to queue messages to someone that is offline, does someone want to reccomend that to the big-o developers? maybe they can put that in, i would also recomend them to add spell checking to aim, i need that because i suck at spelling and dont wanna look dumb when i talk to the ladies

Joe Ventura

[Plasma2002b]

Taz...

its cool concepts and all, but we should probably get the BL prob solved before we get into all this ither stuff, yea?

I think the best way would probably do like we waz sayin bout the internal screennames as buddylist notifyers. It sounds the most stable anyways.

So yea....

[Big-O Ryan]

what now?