OK. Thanks to lgogdownloader I never had to access the download links for the classic installers, so I did not get that analogy. :)

The Chat is dead, long live the Chat!

TBH, with all the changes it's pretty rare I get [or send] messages anymore outside of the occasional Mafia notification. Curious if you've looked at usage stats.

I suppose as a precursor I should first be curious if you have usage stats. ;)

I hope they keep in mind that people actually want to use their website from mobile device. I know it's hard to code, but it just that they seem to forgot about mobile.

Well, since they are actually working on the website, if we bring this mobile usage issue to their attention hopefully they will see it as a demand and it will be put into their roadmap somewhere along development plan.

I think a more practical solution is an actual GOG.com mobile app. I don't think they will ever get desktop/tablet/mobile views working in harmony using the website.

A dedicated app built from the ground up though may be better. Quite frankly is amazes me that this still hasn't happened, the free publicity from Google Play and the Apple App Store is enough of a reason to have an app there.

True
That's the ideal solution.

It's way likelier that somebody from the community will make one long before GOG does and we all know it.

I've done a little bit of playing around, and it looks like I can still use the laborious workaround to access chat with someone: find a post they made on the forum and select the "Start Conversation" option from the post. The easier, highly limited option is gone, sadly.

If that's not a bug then I don't understand what the second user list in the chat window is good for. I'm not going to add users to that list again and again every time I open the chat window.

After having received a few messages, I can tell you that the column to the left is not meant to be used as a permanent contacts list like the one we had in the previous chat version. That one is gone for good, and chat works based exclusively on filters, which, as is the case with the game catalogue and one's library, have a temporary effect, i.e. they clear as soon as you close your chat.

So, from my experience, the purpose of that list is twofold:

- 1. When you receive new messages, the users that have messaged you are automatically listed in that column on the left, each one with a blue dot next to their avatar. As you read (and reply) to your messages, the blue dot clears, but they remain there until you either remove them manually, or close your chat, i.e. that space will be empty the next time you open your chat if you haven't received new messages in the meantime.

- 2. If you open your chat and have no new messages, the list to the left is empty, and you are presented with what Johny. called the "suggestion list". You can scroll through it, or type the username of a specific someone you're looking for, more or less how you could/did in the contacts list of the old chat. But, if you want to check the exchanges you had with someone, then you have to manually add them to the list to the left; it's the only way to make the messages appear. Of course, they'll drop off the list as soon as you close your chat, and get themselves added back to it when they message you.
Same goes if you want to contact someone, and for any reason didn't click on the "Start conversation" in their forum avatar drop-down menu.

With the difference that in other parts of the site I do not have to use the filter and can see all entries when I do not use it. And in the opposite to the chat page the other filters are not in my way.

I do not see any reason why that couldn't have been done with one user list and requires two user lists now. But I do not use the GOG chat too often, so I also can live with this more complicated mechanism.

I'm just telling you how it works, not that it necessarily works better from a user PoV.

On a side note, you couldn't see all entries (contacts) with the previous version of chat either. The contact list was limited to 200 users, and every user that clicked on your "Start conversation" got themself on your list, kicking off an existing one from the bottom of your list.


I'm not privy to more info, but here's what I think.

The so called "suggestion list" is ordered from newest to oldest communication*, with the seven most recent being immediately visible, if you don't have any unread messages. The search/filter box can practically be used to bring up any registered user, whether you've chatted them before or not - at least that was my experience from a little bit of testing.

The permanent contacts lists in the previous chat version had two major shortcomings:
(1) Any user could add themself on it, without even having to utter a single word to you.
(2) It was limited to 200 users, and with point (1) being in play, you could easily end up with a pretty useless list, or at least a bloated one with people you didn't know or cared to communicate privately with, while people you wanted would fall off, and you'd have to add them back by clicking on their "Start conversation" on the forum.

Since the current chat version has been live in the client for quite some time now, it's also possible that the old one didn't work all that well in it, or was used more in the way GOG intended from the beginning (see next paragraph), hence the change.

GOG moved away from the more traditional, if you want, private communication that was the old PM system, to a more_like_an_IM system with chat, i.e. "chat now, chat briefly, move on", when the NAS rolled out; it's been my impression ever since that this is the way the chat's intended to be used, and I don't think I'm wrong. The redesign makes this more prominent, and at the same way (i.e. ditching the previous one) solved the above mentioned issues, possibly others too. And that's it.

Regarding the suggestion list - a better, imo, implementation would be to make it collapsible, and start it collapsed when one opens their chat without having unread messages, or triggered to pop-up when clicking the plus sign. I don't know how difficult that'd be, but eiii is right that it's too much in your face, more so with so much blank space around it, plus, it's not immediately apparent who and why is on that list, and what purpose it serves.


* Sorry, but in typical GOG tradition, that suggestion list and the order of users on it is anything but reliable. Scrolling through it revealed that people I hadn't exchanged a word in years are listed (even WWTDead, one of the very early alt accounts of scammer wakalo from back in late 2013, for crying out loud), while others I've had exchanges with in a lot more recent times are prominently missing (when they were present in my contacts list of the old chat).

And I'm not sure if all the messages exchanged with each user are still here. That is the ones made after the NAS was introduced, and those that survived the transition from the old PM system. The rest have been purged for good, in spite GOG saying for months after the NAS was rolled out that they'll look into restoring them.

Luckily I always was far away from that limit. But yes, there shouldn't have been such a limit, even more when it can be abused.

That indeed sounds like a better solution.

It didn't necessarily be the result of abuse. One may have clicked on another's "Start conversation" just to see how it works or by choosing the wrong post accidentally, or changed their mind before sending the message, unaware that they'd end up on another's contacts list with a blank message. Given that the old PM system didn't work this way, and correctly so, I was unpleasantly surprised when I found out that this happened in the previous chat version.