[sldev] 1.19.0 Group Chat

[Jonathan Wolk]

    Just thought I'd pass along some info as to LL's decision to remove 
some "features" of group chat in 1.19.0.  The main reasons for this was 
to make group chat (and conference chat) opt-in instead of opt-out as 
there are countless complaints about "group IM spam" and frankly, I 
agree with the complainers about this one.

Current behavior
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The current behavior is as follows:

When you double click a group IM session to "start" it one of two things 
happens.
    1)  The group chat session doesn't exist, so a "new" session is 
started in which all online group members are looked up and added to the 
session.  This group member lookup is the cause of much DB load and 
there is currently no way of opting out of this.  You get the IM 
regardless if you want it or not.
    or
    2)  A group session exists and you are just added to it.  No members 
are looked up, you can potentially join a session with 1 other member in it.

    The user currently has *no* way of knowing what scenario will happen 
and this is very inconsistent.  The user has no way of opting-out of 
group IM.  Even if you get a group IM and close it it is possible that 
you will receive another group IM later (if there was a session that 
just ended and the code goes down path #1 again, you get the IM regardless).
    Also, when you log in, you are added to any existing group chat 
"passively" in the sense that you do not have to open your tab to 
receive an IM (or a little group voice chat pop up).  Doing this adds 
minimal load to the system but is also opt-out.  You'll receive any IMs 
to the group after you log in regardless whether you want to or not 
(unless you open and close the tab, but even then you may still get a 
group IM if a "new" session starts up and all online members are looked 
up.....sigh).

Future Behavior
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    Changes were made in 1.19.0 to remove the group member lookup on new 
session start in an effort to decrease DB load, to make the group chat 
opt-in rather than opt-out, and to make the behavior more consistent.
    In 1.19.0 (or at least when the servers go out) when you start a 
group IM, you are always added to an existing group chat regardless if 
it exists or not (though the group may be empty.  The inconsistent 
feature of "IM all online members of the group" is replaced with "IM all 
online members of the group who chose to opt-in to group chat".
    A change was also made to remove the auto-login in an effort to make 
group chat opt-in rather than opt-out.  I am working on a way to make 
the auto join on login a simple checkbox (as mentioned in this list 
previously) though the previous way of having these be "passive" will 
not work (though there may be another way of making them passive).
    I hope this clears a few things up.

-Jonathan Linden