Spinner, you really should try and find something nice to say about the site from time to time!

The ignore feature covers your example perfectly. I think any other user on the site would have put them on ignore. I can think of no possible reason why anyone would want to talk to someone through pm when they are deliberately putting them off in the game chat window.

And I've got to be honest here, nothing said in the game chat window has ever put me off, the occassion private message window opening up just before taking a shot is the only thing that has. And that is why we introduced ignore pms when competing.

Apologies if i have been taken the wrong way Simon, as you know i have been a strong supporter (and always will be) for many years.

This is the one, indeed only, issue that i simply dont understand... If we are simply to ignore people when they chat during games, why have a chat system atall!

Its not a criticism as such, indeed i'd like to think that by sorting the problem it would encourage more people to play..

Regarding PM's being distracting, i simply cant see that atall i am sorry. they are totally seperate from the game, its like saying something on your TV put you off! While playing a shot, just concentrate on the game window and read/reply while your opponent plays.

Simple.

Wasn't you the one who said he couldn't play the game because of lagg?

Only on this comp, hence why i'm on the forum again! LOL!

Sorry if I was short in that reply spinner.

The reason I think private message windows are distracting are because they are obtrusive, ie they open up in front of the table. Any text in the game window, does not effect your view of the table or view of the shot. I guess people are sometimes going to say gg when I have 4 or 5 shots to play so just look at the table and don't look down at the chat window.

However, if the player did continually write stuff in the bottom, I would put them on ignore.

I still cannot see or think of an example of why you would want to talk to someone via PM's when you want to ignore them in the chat window....

Its not so much i want to talk to someone i want to ignore. Its just i cant see why anyone would ever want to chat in the game window when you can use the windows instead!

In the incident i mentioned however, were chatting perfectly normally, location, lifestyle etc, indeed the social aspect of funkypool is perhaps its greatest asset. They decided to use the game window to distract because they wanted the win, so i said my polite goodbye and conceeded.

They didnt break any rules as such so i cant complain about thier behaviour. It wasnt as if they were being ignorant and using the game window instead of proper chat..

Regarding the phenomenon of PM windows popping up over the game window, i play this game regularly on three different systems, and have used firefox as well as IE, and have never seen this. I have always assumed people who mention this are simply making excuses to lash out abuse..

Edited at 18:45 Fri 5/05/06 (BST)

I left this thread over the weekend to see if anyone replied saying they had seen PM windows pop up in front of the game window, but no one has..

So what gives? Have i managed to play against the only 5 or 6 people who have seen this?!?

Hmmmmmmm......

Since you brang this old thread back up, PM windows do pop up in front of the game and it is very annoying.

Thankyou guess_who, but i still dont understand why some people have this problem. I have played this game for a long time now and have never seen it happen.

i agree, if they were to appear in front of the game window that would be very distracting, just like chat in the game window, but like i said i thought it was just a myth...

Edited at 23:33 Mon 8/05/06 (BST)

No, they definitely pop up in front of the game window...Do you play with the game screen maximised? That's the only reason I could think of why they Wouldn't pop up in front of the game window. I just went and asked a few people, and Everyone that I spoke to had this problem.

They always pop up over the table for me, and i play with a maximised game window.

That was kind of unclear what I posted...What I MEANT was, the only reason I could think of for the PMs not popping up over the table, would be if you DIDN'T play with the game window maximised.

I just had some very helpful members PM me using both scenarios, and every message popped up over the game screen.

Cheers for the help guys.

EDIT: I think you might be talking about the game screen minimized completely, right? Then there is no game for a message to pop up on.

Edited at 13:10 Tue 9/05/06 (BST)

I play both ways, maximaised on the laptop and in a window on the bigger monitors, and honestly cant say i have seen this happen. The PM window appears blue in the taskbar, nesting behind the game window untill you click on it.

What gives?!?

I'm realising now why some people prefer to use the game window to chat!

Are you using any kind of pop-up software, which keeps the message to the taskbar?

Ah, i do have the google toolbar one activated, but that doesnt explain how it also works with firefox...

Maybe Nick or someone will let us know if the PM's are coded to pop over or under.. If java allows it, (I know javascript does, so cant see a big issue), why not have that as the standard method.

I'm sure it would ease a lot of blood pressure at times!

Firefox has pop-up built into it. The initial window comes over the game play for me; once i minimise it stays down when a response is made.

A few friends of mine who are newbies have reported some very high profile members (no names!) who type jibberish in the pm to distract them just as they take an important shot...so if the blue flashing was the case I think it would be prefferable. I've never experienced it, probably because they know I'd do something about it if I saw it!

AHA! i always wondered why some people typed all that rubbish in the PM window!

go on name names magic hehe

see...they dont think anyone'll find out! anyone who wants names can pm me...the pro in question is a forum junkie, the controversy would be to much!
He done it to a friend of mine and I was actually watching him play and giving pointers! Its the low of the low, when I was a newbie it happened ALL the time!