Zoom tonight

[Mike P]

That was excellent.

Agreed they were both good talks and I don’t even grow Stapeliads! Quality of photography was very high.

[Keith L]

Yes they were good talks and I didn't have a sound problem.

My frustration is the chat messages. I'm not aware I can suppress them, and tried to drag them out of the way but next time they came back to the same place.

I find them distracting, and whilst some do add to the talk they do so at the expense of distraction to the talk itself - would you do this at a real meeting with 300+ people! Most people would wait until the end.

But many of them are pointless. The repeated message in last weeks Mesemb meeting to use a tripod for the camera was pointless - neither the speaker nor camera operator would see it, and if they did would it be sensible to stop the talk whilst one was found.

Many others are just because one person missed a plant name. Maybe a list at the end of the talk could resolve this.

And if there is a problem with the sound, picture or anything else originating from the talk location itself the organiser will know and no need for the audience to keep sending messages and if the organiser does nothing then it is probably a problem just for you.

The chat messages not only obscure the pictures but also last night the translations and also brought up the bottom bar.

It was made even worse last night by the competition using chat during the talk!

So if chat can be suppressed by the organisers I think that would be an improvement, and maybe at the start to say the organiser will handle any technical issues that will affect everybody and if not it is probably just a problem for you. And if a list of plant names can be supplied at the end so much better.

Zoom is inevitably imperfect but its use can exasperate it - last Saturdays Mesemb meeting was sadly so badly affected by camera movement, possibly wifi and/or poor internet connection from the speaker's house resulting in freezes and broken voice that these problems plus the incessant chat asking for names or even for the speaker to go back to a previous plant sadly resulted in me giving up watching - such a disappointing outcome for those who had done so much to make the talk possible.

I'm sure chat has its uses but during these talks I'm not convinced!

Thanks to all those who have worked so hard to make these available and I hope you don't see this as negative but a suggestion to improve.

Keith

[Mike P]

Oddly I don’t get the chat popping up. I use an iPad and if I want to add to the chat (which I did at the end of each talk) then I have to call it up from the menu in the top right.

[Apicra]

Zoom Chat appears differently with different devices, so not everyone is annoyed by it and it has some good uses. If previously allowed, one can have a private conversation with another participant. Links and small files can be exchanged via this collaborative-working channel. Without Chat, the BCSS presentations would be more sterile, like the CSSA Zoom meetings.

Zoom gives you some control over how the talk is displayed on your device - don't just accept the default, but play around to find what suits. For larger screens, I advise dropping out of "Full screen" and then Chat and Participants can be permanently anchored to one side (but this has to be repeated after every screen-share start).

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble

[MatDz]

Not fully tested, so maybe that's not "the" solution, but last night I was able to detach the chat to a separate window on a PC, that then went behind the main presentation screen.

There might also be a way to simply disable notifications, I'll have a look if I remember about this next time.

[Keith L]

Thanks for your suggestions, Derek. I had searched around the options, but didn't know they might be different if I reduce the screen display - Zoom seems to take over!

Keith

[MatDz]

Thanks for your suggestions, Derek. I had searched around the options, but didn't know they might be different if I reduce the screen display - Zoom seems to take over!

Keith

They aren't really different, just there's more space around the slides for the "clutter" of chat, control bar etc.

If I remember correctly, right click on the chat icon lets one detach it from the main window.

[Paul in Essex]

I actually find it slightly disrespectful to the speaker tbh. No different to speaking when giving a talk in the flesh. If someone has a valid comment leave it to the end. But I am not remotely interested in someone saying, as I remember on one talk 'I grow these, they are weeds' or crashing through the skylight 10 minutes in and apologising. Who cares! Just sit down quietly at the back!

[HaoBao]

I used an old iPhone 6 to watch and the chat notifications could be turned off using a button on the top right. The sound was fine for me.

Maybe a message at the start could help to tell people to turn off their cameras too? Guys picking their nose were kinda gross, one guy was asleep with a tropical island as his background haha, I thought he might be dead.

[Tina]

Wiebe did an excellent talk & such lovely photo's made me want to start collecting Asclepiad again.

Guys picking their nose were kinda gross,

ughh not again, I have my camera turned off ( I think) as zoom loads I get options for camera & sound,