The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

There's a new site feature: Blast!

A Blast is kind of like an IM popup. You can Blast anyone on the site, and they'll get a little popup box with your message. There are a few guidelines/restrictions to Blasting:

Could you put a link to blast beneath the avatar in the Online Friends area?
Thank you for this new update.
This is a much better way to send messages about reboots and the like.

I just thought of something.
Are new members limited on how many times they can blast?

This is amazing. I saw the link and I was like, "hmmm... what happens if I do THIS". Anyways. Wickedly awesome idea.

I'll be adding some more usability links throughout the site over the next hour or so.

For right now, new members are not limited on Blasting. We'll see how it goes. If there's any abuse, I'll just change it so that you need to be level 2 or 3 to Blast.

This is really cool. Now, if only society masters could send blasts to their members, like you can blast the entire site.
Seriously though, I didn't expect that pop up I didn't know what was going on lmao.

Will it be possible to blast back within the Pop Up Box at a future date?

I love it :) I can even minimize it he he lol

I agree with WallFlower it would be nice to be able to Blast our Coven ^_^

yeah, the blast rules!! I thought it at first it was some kinda weird advert, but then seen my friends message .. it kinda surprised me .. anyways, I think its an awesome feature, thank you :)

Valentine,

Not without a redesign. I know it looks like a separate 'window', but it's not. It's a DHTML trick. A new page needs to be loaded to send a message back.

Blasts should not be thought of as a 'reliable' method of communication. Like I said before, Blasts auto-expire after 10 minutes. There are many circumstances under which Blasts you send will never be received or read.

Use the Message Center for important stuff.

Use Blasts for frivolous stuff or for fun.

Also will blast be getting its own graphic for the graphics packs?

Would this new feature cause me to be logged off suddenly, repeatedly ?

I think I am going to have a "blast" using this new feature between me and my nromal message buddies instead of us just messaging each other back and forth. Thanks for the new tool.

No need to complain, this is pretty cool and can be very useful. If you're premium, turn it off. If you're not premium and don't like it, premium is very cheap.

Truth is, it's a feature you can turn off. If you don't care to be blasted by members it's as easy to turn off as biting or stalking- simply reply and choose turn off.

Very aces idea Cancer! Despite the complaints, I think it is a wonderful feature. Sometimes it can be a pain if you are in the midst of rating and what not to stop and go check messages however if someone has something important to say and knows you're online they can blast you and you will know that they need to talk. Very clever indeed.

You said site admins will be able to blast the site. Is that including dominars, sentorans, and procurators? If so how would we go about using that feature if ever needed?

I'll be honest, it annoys the shit out of me.


The concept itself is good, though.

I think it rocks, and if you don't... all you have to do is turn it off. You never have to worry about it again. There's no losing in that.

I think its a pretty good idea and some will love it and of course some will hate it but i see it has uses and would be a good tool to have around

Awesome feature. I know that it will come to good use with many on VR.

Fabulous. Much quicker than messages and a good bit of fun while staying useful ;]

I can't wait to try it........goes off to stalk..er um....blast....a certain Rat and Cat...... :)


Good Job Cancer!

This is a pretty cool feature Cancer. Thanks for the new toy ^_^

very cool:) I was wondering what it was....:P

i have to admit it is a pretty niffty way to chat back and foth.. lol
cool beans in the over all. :)

I love that feature... Blasting friends is great. LOL...

Lovely idea and it sure is really great for admins,
thanks for making this site even better!

Ohh. Maybe we can have a Blastathon Contest.

How many Blasts a Premium member can do in a Hour.

It's great for when you're ready to induct someone ;-)
Lovin this feature already!!

I like it but, think it would be better suited as an administration tool.

Better suited as an administration tool? I think a lot of people will use it as a social tool. They already are :)

I am using it to talk to many people in a faster manner than just going to the message center.... Plus I just like blasting people :P

If two members blast a single member, do the blasts get stacked as the come onto the screen?

And I presume only UPPER Admins can blast the site?

This is a great idea, really gets my attention, however I can see it getting annoying if I am blasted by many members while I am trying use VR. :)

Yes, only Upper Admins can blast the whole site.

Two windows won't pop up on the screen if you're getting them from separate people- I just tested it. You get one at a time, a new one each time you click to a different page. And again- if it is annoying to you, just turn it off the option and you won't have to worry about it.

Imagesinwords is correct.

If you have several Blasts waiting, they're shown one at a time, from oldest to newest, until they've all been shown.

Blast was never meant as an IM tool. I should have chosen my words differently when I started this thread. I've always been against adding an IM to VR. VR has the Message Center and the Chat System. We don't need an IM system. The Chat System allows for real-time group private/public chat, better than most IM systems.

Blast is an alert tool. It's just a quick and easy way to pop a message up on someone's screen.

great idea for an addition to the site.

Good idea but I'll just stick to the receiving admin blasts and I have turned off blasting, cause I don't want random members blasting me :) but yes it is great for admins who want to blast the whole site.

Love it! I'm having a ton of fun with it, thanks Cancer :D

A fabulous idea!
Will be great for speedy messages and limit regular messages to sort through! I LIKE IT!!!

Hmmmm, do Blasts count as pages viewed?

good way to get someone attention quickly...
thanks!
~Wolf~

Yes, as an administration tool. It's my opinion and I'm entitled to it.

*imagesinwords edit* Again, you can turn it off and not have to worry about it. No reason for complaints if it won't even affect you.

.. heck, it'll be interesting to see, at least. why would anyone complain, unless they're just a malcontent?

**Grins**

I think it is a great idea. Thanks Cancer!! :)

that sounds like a good thing to do in here

I love it, though there are a few problems with the whole receiving of them. They don't always go through, and it's a bit annoying.

But, I love it anyhow. =]

Coolio. I think I will have a little too much fun with this ;)

this is pretty cool. i got on and i was confused about the "blast!" under the avatar's name. lol. but i figured it out pretty quickly. thanks Cancer.

A couple of my friends have told me they haven't been getting my blasts or my blast backs...... Help?
I've tried logging out and logging back on and even restarted my computer in case my computer was the problem.

Currently, if 10+ minutes elapses between the time you send and the time they receive, they will not get the Blast.

Also, a Blast is only shown once. So if they're flipping pages fast, they won't see the Blast. It will pop on one page, but not the next.

great feature for the admins and those whowant to use it

Another tweak for vr, what a humble device, indeed.

Excellent addition! Thank you! Hope that won't create any bugs in the system.

Cancer

With the ADMINS able to blast everyone at once. Will those who have blasting turn off still receive a blast from a upper ADMIN system Blast?

The 4th bullet in the initial post from Cancer: Premium Members can turn Blasting off. If off, they will not receive Blasts. They will however receive Admin site Blasts.

This is a great feature, the only thing that bugged me about VR was the lack of an IM type of chat.. I will have to try it =) Thanks! Love this site!

blast is awesome, thanks for putting it on here

Sweet love the new addition to the site Cancer. I was rather surprised with the first one. but you are right it does make things easier when having to deal with server issues and letting the whole of VR know what is going on.

LOVE IT! Makes messaging fun.

well I love the tool it is aquick way as said to send a message, it is great

I am having trouble receiving messages from certain people and they have beentelling me that for some reason their blast will not go trough even when the blasted person has blast turned on.

Love the concept however havent used it as yet as only just been able to get on since the Blast concept happened.

Is there any plans in the future to enable Coven/House Masters to use a like method to post messages to their ACM's that would come in handy.

Love the updates

this is going to be so much fun.

What an awsome and smart idea

I agree... really kool idea im lovin it

Inrteresting feature to say the least...
I got blasted a few days ago & was stunned for a moment before i figured out what was going on

wow sounds fun, thanks!

Thank you Cancer! Something that was really needed..I did like the idea of adding a link under the user icons though, very useful.

Sounds interesting but will there be guidelines on people who abuse the priveledge?

its fun!
to a certain point

Like the sound of this, great new feature.

I think it is a create idea and have been using it quite often.

Too bad the blast close when you go to a new page it should follow you until you close it.

Well it's because the Blast Window (child window) is programmed to close when the Parent Window (the VR page you're on) is closed or navigated away from.

I'm curious as to how many blasts can you have at once and I was also wondering if a "Characters Left" feature can be added. A few lines of code slapped it would help as you type away.

Only one blast window at a time as stated in posts above. You will receive them in order if you have several coming in, each, individually.

So far I like this new Blast feature. It is faster than receiving messages and I don't find it complicated to use :)

FYI - It is not supported by Maxthon browser.

So far I have had no trouble with my Motorola Droid. I am just waiting on flash 10.1 to be released for my phone so I can enjoy the flash content of the site.

I think this is a great idea. There are days I am trying to get a multiple message out to all on my list that has to do with my page or whatnot and now I can. Thanks alot for this feature....

For the societies out there that schedule coven/house chats at certain times- this is a great way to round up your members. Many send out messages but not everyone is quick to check their System box when they are online (because there is no system message alert like personal messages). There's a lot of good this can be used for.

Now that I've tried it, not so bad! :)

I don't mind being blasted if it's for an important reason. If it's not, send it to my inbox and I'll get to it when I get to it. I rarely if ever SEND a blast. If I am blasting you, it means that what I want to talk about is (at least) important to me. So that being said...I think it's a good idea for when you need to get a hold of a friend about something important that cannot wait in their inbox. If you want to IM me, I have yahoo and yahoo will not redirect me to a different page ^_^

Blasting doesn't redirect you to a different page either. It just shows you the little message - one that you can click the X to close. You are never on a page you didn't direct yourself to go to due to a Blast.

when you respond to the message it doesn't take you back to your previous page though.

That's because you clicked 'Blast Back' and have, of your own accord directed yourself away from that page. If you don't want to be directed away, don't respond to the Blast at that moment. Carry on what you were doing and Blast them back when you are ready.

this is so kewl!!!

kool i will give it a shot sounds like fun

i like the blast thing it rocks

I thought I would share the review I wrote for it. It was given a mixed response from members, but no one gave it a decent review.

The Blast feature is a DHTML trick that creates a pop up message window when a new page is open. So you can receive a instant message from a fellow member without having to go to another page to read it. Also you have the ability to blast back, which will navigate you to the Blast page because it functions like the message center.

I was reading the Blast forum thread as I am writing this and came across the first negative point of this feature I would like to address. Lagniappe stated "For the societies out there that schedule coven/house chats at certain times- this is a great way to round up your members. Many send out messages but not everyone is quick to check their System box when they are online (because there is no system message alert like personal messages). There's a lot of good this can be used for. " With that being said their is no way to blast your whole society at once, which makes it pointless to alert your members to a society chat. This reason being some of your members might be lurking.

Also with that said not being able to blast back within the pop up window is a huge let down, and it only seems to work on Vampire Rave and not the other Dark Network websites. And the fact you can't customize the blast message window to suit your style is also another huge letdown. But the bonus is that PM members can turn the feature off.

The Blast feature is a great concept, but with so many letdowns, it doesn't really seem like a great new feature. More of an annoying way to bug friends and save time on going to the message center. Scoring a total of 3/5 BATS

I love it

FYI if you have firefox you can right click the "blast back" and open it in a new tab then click the "X" on the original blast pop-up so you don't lose the page you were on and have to go back to it. I've found it useful once I start getting or sending blasts to keep a tab open for blasts.

Wolvie :)

nothing against the blast feature but when i go premium i'll probably turn it off. i have had too many blasts when i'm about to write a message and then it seems that i have to choose whats more important..

What I said as 'Lagniappe'... I didn't particularly mean you had to blast your whole society at once. It's rare that any society has every member on at one time anyway. But you can blast who's around and wants to chat.

Anyhow, there shouldn't be any negative reviews. It doesn't affect you if you don't want it to. Turn it off.

Free members cannot turn blasts off. If members didn't need premium before, they probably won't buy it just to turn off the blast feature, either. I can see how it can be bothersome, but I can also see how it can be useful and fun.

It sure as hell should have negative reviews just like everything else in the world, and turning it off doesn't shut off all the negative that it might have.

All the more reason to get a Premium Membership. Everyone has the opportunity to turn it off. If you're a free member, buy a membership.

But beyond that, I'm sure Cancer wasn't looking for people to use this thread to talk about how much it sucks- so it would be best to leave that out of here.

It's a fair review, it just shows the good and the bad of this feature. And they did check everything before posting it. Also with a society blast option you could alert all the members who are "online" of your society at once. Not going back and forth sending blasts. Everything that Cancer brings will have faults. By pointing them out, it will give Cancer a bit more feedback on the feature. Not everything he creates is perfect.

There's a society message system that would be much more effective at notifying your society about something.

As for having to choose whether to finish a message or post it's a non issue since once you start a message or post you won't get a blast until you click send or post and the new page loads. Now if you are just getting ready to start one and get it as the post/message box page opens you can open the blast back in a new tab if you have firefox as I already pointed out. if you use IE you have to open it in a new window. Either way you don't have to stop what you are doing.

Did Cancer not say and I quote "Blast is an alert tool. It's just a quick and easy way to pop a message up on someone's screen". So what would you rather be doing:
1, Sending a society message telling your member that you are about to have a society chat?

Or

2, Alerting them that a society chat is about to start?

Well... a lot of people thank Cancer for his new implementation to Vampire Rave. I am going to close this thread at this point as we've let it stay open passed a thread's usual length, and some just want to use it for a different agenda.

If you have question about the new feature- feel free to ask an Administrator.