VP Chat  
my account Sign Up product features downloads games help
36 people chatting now
--------
Product Overview
Chat Chits
Ladders & Tournaments
Add-Ons
Chat Account Prices
Chat Rooms and Tours
Avatars and Gestures
Voice Chat
Home Pages
Alerts
Chat Events
------

new to chat Download

Chat Room Events | Auditorium Events

Auditorium Events
VPchat Auditorium meetings are like online town hall meetings. We invite you to come, listen to the latest VPchat news and tell us what's on your mind.
 Chat transcripts from past auditorium events:
  Get the Scoop: 02/29/04
  Late Night with Jules and Tom: 02/20/02

Get the Scoop Transcript: 02/29/04

genvc Hey welcome to the Tom and Jules Q & A
Tom Ready to begin
genvc My name is genvc, and if you've ever emailed billing, you've talked to me.
genvc So, we've asked you all hear to talk about the new feature at VP.
genvc These include Email Forwarding, Web Storage, and Private Alerts
genvc Jules, would you like to give the nice people the lowdown.
Jules Yep
genvc On Private Alerts?
Jules We'll start with Private Alerts
Jules Private Alerts have a lot in common with our existing activity alerts.
Jules With both you can receive alerts via chat IM, tracker IM, email, and/or cell phone.
Jules With both, people have to sign up to receive the alerts.
Jules The differences are:
Jules When you have a Private Alert list, you alone decide the content. It can be about an event, it could be a newsletter, jokes,, or site updates. Whatever you want AND you can send as many as you want.
Tom Don't forget contests and tourneys.
Jules You can choose to let anyone join or to only allow those you approve.You can always see who has joined your list and you can remove them. You can choose to put your Alert List in a directory or not. Chatters can join via their account, or via your site. We provide a couple of banners for you to put on your page So people can join right there.
genvc Anyone have a question about Private Alerts?
Jules send it in if you do :)
genvc Question from Summer : what are the major advantages to us to have these Private Alerts?
Jules They're basically robust, personalized Activity Alerts so you have a lot more flexibility in how you use them.
Tom You control who gets the messages and only people who sign up get them.It's a much better way to go than mass IMs, which, we hope, will be a thing of the past
genvc We're going to move on to email forwarding with Tom.
Tom Ok, regarding email.
Many times, you want to email someone you know in chat, but you may not know their real email. You can just send to chat-name@vpchat.com
genvc Question from Lady.Vesselman : if you dont want to use the private alerts and you dont want to receive them can you halt receiving them?
Tom Ok, back to alerts :-)
Yes you can
genvc Question from ForTe : does it have to be just about a Halsoft site or can it be a rivate domain to send out alerts?
Jules Yes - you can stop receiving them at any time
Tom You control what lists you get messages from and you can turn them on and off.
Jules It can be about anything you want :)
Tom Say what you want because they are private like IMs.
genvc Question from -paradise- : sometimes i think there are too many alrts ..when your trying to play a game .. amd pow its in your face
Jules Well, hopefully Private Alerts will remedy that.
Tom Instead of one big list, there can be one per event.
Jules You just sign up for the specific lists you want to receive alerts from…
Tom It us up to the list owner not to get carried away.
genvc Question from don.da.god : cant you stop getting alerts from a certain shop or even or do you have to get a alert about every contest that happens??
Jules The Public Activity Alerts go out to the same list for all events, tournaments, paint contests, etc… With Private Alerts, individual shops and rooms can get their own list.
genvc Getting back to email forwarding...
Tom With this service, someone can send email to you simply by adding @vpchat.com to your chat name. It's not a new mailbox that you have to check. We'll send the mail wherever you want …Your ISP mail, Hotmail, yahoo or whatever. You don't have to give out your real email to people.
Jules We'll get back to more Private Alert questions after a few about Email Forwarding.
genvc Where would the folks check for their VPchat email?
Tom Your email will go to whatever account you tell us to send it to. So it will be mixed in with your regular mail if that's where you send it. You don't have to go to a different server to check it or use other web pages.
genvc Question from xxx-desire-xxx : is this email available with all versions of hal or a selected few?
Tom The email service does not depend on the chat program version, it's just email. :-)
Jules You sign up for it via the web.
Tom Anyone can use it.
Jules It's completely separate from the chat client.
genvc Question from obstinate1 : ok email is forwarded to our prvt email so no one can see it, but then to reply to someone, are we able to reply from name@vpchat.com?
Tom it's possible to reply to an email without revealing your true address, but it can be tricky. So we don't recommend replying if you want to be sure that your real email or IP address is not revealed. You can decide, based on the mail, if you trust the person and want to reply.
genvc Anonymous Question : how many VP mail accounts can you have? just one per name or more?
Tom You can have as many as you need, to cover all your chat names. You can forward up to 5 names with one add-on service.
Tom or, if the question was, "can the email go more than one place?" No -- one chat name is forwarded to one place. However, if you have 10 names in your account they can forward to 10 different emails.
genvc Question from llarrah : Is there a limited size to these e-mails?
Tom Not as far as we are concerned, but your ISP or the receiver's ISP may have limits.
genvc Question from kindakute. : this eamail feature isn`t advantageous to those unless they have their own account, does this mean that the account owner will be getting the private email for someone on their account?
Jules Only account owners can buy the new add-ons. If an account owner gets email forwarding, then they can give you a forwarding address and they will not see the email sent. It will simply be forwarded.We won't see it either. We just forward it along.
Tom I think there is another variation on that answer.
The account owner can sent mail wherever he wants. So if you don't own the account, you don't control where the mail for your chat name goes the account owner controls that.
genvc Question from _Drannon_ : how about virus protection in this service?
Tom So, it depends on how well you trust the account owner. You can get your own account. Your email program should handle viruses. We just pass the mail through.
Jules No virus protection is necessary - the mail just passes through.
Tom We don't screen it in anyway.
genvc Question from midnight : how will we know if we have email?
Jules You'll get the mail along with your regular mail.
Tom Let's say you forward it to your regular email. It will just show up with your other mail.
genvc Anonymous Question : is the forwarded email private then? or is it screened like by a guide or admin person?
Tom We absolutely will not look at anyone's mail.
Jules It's not screened by anyone, anywhere.
Tom It is private and we will act like an ISP. We will pass the mail through with no filtering or editing.
genvc Question from _nikky-_ : so all these new features would be for account holder though correct?
Jules They are only for account holders, that's correct.
Tom Yes.
Jules Although an account owner can choose to forward your mail to you.
Tom Other names in the account can get the benefit.
Jules They can choose to give you extra web space.
Tom If the account owner gives it out. For example - extra web space, like jules said :-)
genvc Question from taxidriver : Will some worthless spammer be able to take all member names and add-on @vpchat.com and send spam?
Tom Well unfortunately, yes, if they guess valid chat names because we do no filtering. However, they have to guess valid chat names and that may not always be obvious. Which brings up a point ...Almost all chat names are valid for email except the ones that start with a dot. When we first started, we let people make names starting with a dot, but no more! We want the names to be valid for email
Jules Worthless spammers may indeed do that.
genvc Question from gabz : is the private alerts for only halsoft sites to use or can personal sites be involved too?
Jules Anyone and everyone is welcome :) It doesn't have to be a Halsoft page.
genvc Question from X-Triple-H-X : it saids on private alerts for 5 dollars as much as you like but you go to oerder it saids 1-2 every hour why
Jules Actually, it's up to 2 every minute. I'd hope that would be enough :) If it's says "Hour" somewhere, please let me know because that's a typo :)
Tom One or two per minute is reasonable. Since we send email, page, and text messages we don't want to overload people.
genvc Anonymous Question : is the add on stuff optional or do we have to pay for it to keep account?
Jules It's optional
Tom Prices for the basic services have not changed at all.
Jules Nothing has changed regarding prices for a chat subscriptions. We're talking about add-ons.
genvc Anonymous Question : so why did you ban mass IMs if you were going to allow alerts?
Jules Because people have to sign up to receive alerts. They only get them if they want them. When people send mass IMs, we get *lots* of complaints. People don't like them and this is an alternative. If you don't want any alerts about anything, you don't have to join any lists. Everyone's happy :) lol
genvc Question from .lookin : so to alert people about gammon tournaments and stuff we have to buy the add ons instead fo the way we have been doing it now?
Jules No, you can still send alerts to the general "games" list, but if you want to send alerts about *your* tournament then you can get your own list. Current activity lists will work the same as they do now.
genvc How do we know Private Alerts are really private?
Tom Private Alerts work like IMs and we consider those private. The system does not record what you type, however, realize that some people will get email so a record of what you say will probably be somewhere :-)
genvc Anonymous Question : is receiving alerts going to cost an additional fee as well?
Tom No
Jules No - it costs nothing to receive alerts.
Tom You can sign up for as many lists as you want.
genvc Anonymous Question : is there a way to rec the `paid` alerts only?
Tom Yes. It works just like now.
Jules Sure - just sign up for those lists :)
Tom You do not have to sign up for any additional lists.
genvc Anonymous Question : So if your a TD on a ladder can we send banners to people on tracker that have asked to resieve banners for that tourney?
Jules The only thing we'll endorse is sending alerts via the current activity alert lists or the new Private Alerts lists. Of course you can send IMs to your friends, but inevitably with IMs with a larger reach and people who don't want them get them anyway. So... we have alerts :)
genvc Question from taxidriver : If someone is on your ignore list and joins your private alerts...will they still get them?
Jules If you want someone to stop receiving your alerts , you can remove them from your list.
Tom You can see the names on your list at any time and you can review that list and take names out before you send the alert.
genvc Question from Tsar Lightbringe : private alerts seem Nice,, if your the Account owner who also runs a Tournie.. but what if your a TD and want to run a Tournie and the Owner isn`t on.. can the owner Set it so others can send message?
Tom Not right now, but we are considering that and will probably add it soon for no extra cost :-)
genvc Anonymous Question : if the account owned signs up for alerts, will everyone under that account receive them too?
Tom No
Jules Only if the other members of the account have signed up for the list.
Tom People sign up by chat name, not by account.
genvc Anonymous Question : ae there things that are "illegal to put in these alerts, cuss words, degrading comments or can we say what ever we want?
Jules You can pretty much put what you want in it with two caveats. If your alerts will be adult in nature, please check the "adult content" box, so people will have some warning. If you're conspiring to commit a horrible crime, and someone tells us you're sending out info about it in an alert we'll probably come and talk to you :)
genvc Moving on to extra web storage...
genvc Question from Cas45 : when you get more web space does that also mean more bandwidth?
Tom No, you only get more space. We feel that the current limits are pretty good up to 20GB per account. It is a lot more than most places and no one has ever come close to hitting the limit at vpchat :-)
Jules our free amounts are twice the bandwidth and 5 times the storage that angelfire offers on their free account
genvc We're going to change it up a little now..
genvc Question from candace : Do you like monkeys?
Jules I love monkeys
I adore them
Tom i favor the higher primates, like chimps
genvc gibbons mate for life!
Jules especially when they wear cute little pants
genvc Question from Bit.s : what are the rumors confirmed and denied ?
Jules you tell us the rumor, we'll confirm or deny :)
genvc Anonymous Question : whats your definition of a horrible crime? lol
Jules oh, like building a bomb, selling drugs, trafficking in porn
genvc Comment from sick : lets get to the part about free chat servers...and why u wanna monopolize and/or shut them down
Jules ahhh
Jules figured that was coming
Jules we have absolutely nothing against free chat
Jules our only issue is with chats that are running *illegally*
Tom we don't want to shut down free chat servers -- just the ones using our stuff without our permission
Jules and chats that use any vp client are running illegally
Jules it's as simple as that
genvc Question from dunn0 : rumor: you shut down babbleon is that right?
Tom yes
Jules yes
genvc Question from Kdmystic : can we expect new games soon, other than New versions of ones we already have...Cribbage , Poker and mayn dominoes?
Tom yes, we're actively working on new games
Tom we'll do card games next
Tom spades and hearts first
Tom after that, it depends on what people are asking for
genvc Question from setTogo : Or the freebies getting to come back over and over again week after week with new name sign ins
Tom no
Jules no, no, no
Tom the chat program can tell when 2 weeks are up
Tom even if you totally delete and reinstall
Tom it just won't work again after 2 weeks
genvc Anonymous Question : why is it ok for people to wear role playing avs such as yu-gi-oh and dragon ball Z but not ok for someone to have colar`d in thier ID...
Jules We've asked that all the adult oriented role-playing take place on the adult server
Jules to be honest
Jules I wouldn't know a yu-gi-oh and dragon ball Z if it bit me in the butt
Jules lol
Jules But collaring and slave stuff - that I know, and I know that it's adult in nature!
genvc Anonymous Question : confused a lil on the webspace - right now with a 10name account i can place all limitations in one name .. that is changing? minus keeping 1g in others?
Tom No its not changing. Let's say you add 100 mg more space. You can give it all to one name or spread it around your account.
genvc Anonymous Comment : why should anyone believe you as far as who or what is legal and illegal, rumor has it you 2 stole the vp server from excite to begin with.
Jules Excite had a license for the VP server, and they went out of business. Someone bought the domain name, but Excite the company no longer exists. We have the rights to run the VP server and no one else does. Why should you believe us? Well, I suppose you don't have to :)
Tom When lawyers have gotten involved, they sided with us and babbleon is down. Enough said.
Jules Yes
genvc Anonymous Question : but do u own the license or is that a rumor?
Jules Licenses aren't owned. We license software.
Tom ---and have the right to use it.
Jules IBM owns the software.
genvc Anonymous Question : why can't you make the vampire people move to the adult side with the rest of the role players?
Jules The only groups we ask to move are those taking part in adult activities.Some vampires are very graphic and violent - if that's the case, we'd want them in adult.If you're not engaging in adult activities, you're welcome on the family side
genvc Question from ForTe : are you going to offer more hosting features such as mysql, counters, etc?
Tom We are very interested in hearing what people want now that we have added optional feature we plan more and mysql, php, cgi are very good examples.
genvc Question from analytical : how come there isnt any middle eastern countries in the list where u sign up for a account?
Tom That is a decision by the bank we use for credit card processing. They have a limited list of countries. If we were bigger, like Amazon, we could call the shots but we have to go with what our bank approves. So, we encourage people to use PayPal if they can or just mail a money order.
Jules (if their country isn't on the list)
genvc Anonymous Question : are u guys going to fix locate so it shows everyone now, like how it was when u first opened =]]
Tom The reason we put the limit in was because of mass IMs. With the Private Alerts we hope that people won't need mass IMs any more.So we will consider putting Locate back the way it was. We will see how it goes
genvc Question from troy_7_ : is the price of chat going up?
Jules No, we have no plans to increase the price.
genvc So, are y'all broke?
Tom lol
Jules Nope
Tom We're still here after 2+ years and going strong :-) And we thank all our loyal supporters :-)
genvc Question from ForTe : are they going to be larger accounts then the sybil account?
Tom That has always been an option.
Jules We actually do have several larger accounts…group accounts.
Tom You just need to talk to us about it.
Jules Just email me at support@vpchat.com, and I'll be happy to set it up for you :) Our largest account has 100 members :)
genvc Question from sinnamon-storm : on the same subject why is it that our members home pages arent considered part of Halsoft?
Jules Well, they're on the vpchat.com domain, so they *are* part of Halsoft.
Tom We don't show the directory of pages unless you are a member, so the directory is not public.
genvc Anonymous Comment : then why do ban ppl that "advertise" for other chats?
Tom We don't allow commercial activity in our service. No ads.
Jules We don't allow advertising, period.
genvc Comment from sinnamon-storm : when is full voice gonna be available not just screwy im voice
Jules We don't have any plans for room voice, sorry. Most of the companies who offered that technology are gone.
genvc Question from trina - : Its still ok to use visa card to to pay?
genvc Yes, Yes it is!
genvc Question from taxidriver : suppose i sign up for extra web space...can it be divided up between other names in account?
Tom Yes sure. -Just like the rest of the web space in your account.
genvc Anonymous Question : when will we beable to use our tracker on both family and adult side?
Jules We haven't done that because it kind of defeats the purpose of a separate family and adult community :)
Tom You can run two copies of your Buddy List.
genvc Anonymous Question : do you plan on havin planned paint contests?
Jules Probably not - there are *so* many paint shops that we'd have to enlist the existing shops for help, which would be fine but I suspect we'd have many battles Everyone would want to participate.So we'll leave paint contests to you pros :)
genvc Question from xerosis : is it true that tom helped develop the initial VP program.
Tom Yes. I have been working on vp since 1997 and i have been the main person making improvements to the server since 1999.
genvc Question from ---CajunRebel--- : Can I alert myself? might need a lil jolt now and then.
Jules Absolutely :) In fact, you have to sign up for your own list to see the alerts.
genvc Question from Jalisa : When people use Halsoft space to link to files on my domain will You do anything about it? I have had that problem and was told you wouldn`t.
Tom Halsoft is like any other ISP or web host. We have to obey the laws, and if someone brings to our attention that there are illegal files, we have to do something about it.
genvc Question from xerosis : what about a reseller account ....where one could purchase several accounts?
Jules We have no plans for that type of account.
genvc Question from x-Tia-x : other ways for us overseas to pay other then paypal, or having to wait till you get the post, ty
Tom Credit card work from many countries and continents, such as Europe and Australia. Sometimes, if your bank is located in, say, England, the card will work.Even though you don't live there. So, try it.
genvc Question from cherry..pop : Can a paying member of halsoft sign in as guest?
Tom If you have recently downloaded the newest version and had an old version before, then you will be able to sign in as a guest. It will expire in 2 weeks.
Tom Starting with build 172, the program handles guests.
genvc Anonymous Question : whats your favorite kind of pie?
Tom pecan
Jules 3.417
genvc buttermilk
Tom or, as all engineers know, 3.1416
genvc Question from trina - : with the web space we already have can that be all to one account or does it stay spread out over the account names?
Tom Spread it out
Jules Pfft tom
Tom Just like now
genvc Question from Prince_Texman : Can you give Family side Game laddeers a boot tool to monitor and control rude and crude types that try to disrupt ladders?
Tom We've looked at the pros and cons of room tools and we really think they cause more problems than they solve. The best answer here is help from the guides. So talk to us if there are ongoing problems, and we'll help out.
genvc Hey everyone. If you have billing issues send me an email at billing@vpchat.com.I'll take care of you...or at least answer your question.
genvc Anonymous Question : why doesn`t third party filters like cerebus and bastion work with the new version of Halsoft considering they work with the older versions and why don`t your programmers put in the code it can work?
Tom We have made improvments to the VP program that should have eliminated the need for filters and, the filters that were out there often caused problems.So, that's why newer versions of the program don't work with old filters. If there is something a filter did that VP doesn't do now, let me know…besides boot people :-)
Jules If there are filters or patches out there that no longer work, it's up to them to make them work, not us :)
genvc Question from o_CJ_o : Any plans in the future to work at updaying game heads so that users don`t boot or crash out of VP...
Tom Yes, we recently completeled a makeover of the games and fixed a lot of glitches. If there are more, we want to find and fix them
genvc Anonymous Question : will chat tracker work with some of the older versions on VP?
Jules The Buddy List is built into the client.
Tom The Buddy List works with all versions of VP. However, there are some problems with old versions of the Buddy List. When they try to sign in and that is fixed by updating your Buddy List.
genvc Anonymous Question : Will there be any new trivia events?
Tom I think we're about to wrap up after this question.
Jules We'd like to have more events, for sure. We're open to suggestions :) Drop us a line
Tom If there are more questions, send us email.
Tom If you want another event like this, we'll be happy to do it.
genvc Thank you all for coming and for your feedback. We appreciate your business, creativity, and point of view!
Tom Thank you all very much.
Jules Thanks everyone :)
Jules Have fun.
genvc All right. Have a wonderful Sunday!
  footer bar
  My Account | Members | Sign Up | Downloads | Product Features | Games | Help
Terms of Service | Privacy | Copyright Policy | Contact Us | About Halsoft
Copyright © 2001 - 2024 Halsoft.com Incorporated