It will only be a day or 2 before the pc hangout is near the bottom of the list going by how active that site is so i don't know why you are so worried.
Just in-case people are thinking the hangouts are dead, don't forget to check the old hangout. A lot more people have been going on that one recently (especially after the recent trolling). Hangout MK1 (older) Hangout MK2 (newer)
@McGreed: Unfortunately Google does not offer much support or versatility with hangouts. I don't believe there is anyway to provide administration or even a password to hangouts.
I guess there are only three options. Wait out this wave of hangout snitch (might just be a short term thing, the person will probably get bored of posting it up there eventually), create new hangout links (which probably won't make a difference if someone is posting the current one up there), or look for alternatives to hangouts (might look into alternatives later today if I find the time).
It's quite an annoying situation, but I'm sure it will pass in time. Places like hangout snitch seem to be gaining popularity, so Google will have to do something eventually if they want people to keep using Hangouts.
Me and Joe just tested this out with his Google business account, but it's really expensive to maintain. To have a restricted hangout, everyone who wants to be part of that hangout must be registered to the organisation running the hangout. But every additional member of the organisation costs +$5/month.
Me and Joe just tested this out with his Google business account, but it's really expensive to maintain. To have a restricted hangout, everyone who wants to be part of that hangout must be registered to the organisation running the hangout. But every additional member of the organisation costs +$5/month.
yeah, this was another reason why the 15 member hangouts didn't take off.
fucking sucks that this shit is happening. it really does... the stupid thing is, that someone probably posted it up on that site because they're unhappy with a crit, or not getting attention, or whatever...
having been spoken to, and spoken with a couple of the hangout regulars, it appears what happened was this:
Bryce Szandros, an Australian kid who was (i guess) new to the hangouts, had come in and been ridiculously racist, and all round not nice in the past. it seems that he was asked to leave, and when he wouldn't voluntarily he was majority kicked (this is a process whereby someone blocks him, and the rest of the users are asked if they would like to as well, if the majority decide to block him, he's removed from the hangout). since he was removed, and blocked by one or more users in the hangout, he couldn't enter again, and moments later the hangout was invaded because of the hangoutsnitch website.
if anyone would care to either refute or elaborate on these events, please do so.
it is in my opinion, an offense against polycount as a community, not just the hangout users, for this kind of thing to happen. and should enough proof be brought, i would hope that the administrators will take notice, and appropriate action.
Personally being a blatant dick in the hangout should be enough for a ban, but to also actively attempt to ruin the hangouts for others is extremely childish, immature and petty. Speaking of, can't seem to join the hangout at all. Time for a new one?
I think I may join one day soon when I really sit down and work for awhile. Are people talking and whatnot? Or is it mostly just people working with screenshare?
I think I may join one day soon when I really sit down and work for awhile. Are people talking and whatnot? Or is it mostly just people working with screenshare?
depends sometimes people are quiet and work and sometimes people are talking and work
Experiment update: I created a new hangout window and posted here to see what would happen. The admin of the site (that from hence forth will go nameless online) joined...
I think this app pulls hangout urls or something. The guy mentions Polycount, but it was hard to tell if people "report" hangouts or if it just crawls the web.
Why don't we use something like a url shortener? It's likely that it's searching for hangout links that contain specific key words in the url such as https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/xxxx
He is the same person, I believe, who got fined $873million for spamming Facebook users back in 2008 or some such. Never turned up and obviously never paid.
@Polygoblin I did a brief search and he turned your experiment into a video for his blog. I didn't bother watching but I got the gist.
Does not making a hangout that continues indefinitely show up on your profile? If so, changing to a tinyurl posting or private mail system would not work. I suspect if its the above that guys bot is just searching G+ names.
Anyhow, I'm in hangout 1. Its the same as ZacDs link.
@Polygoblin I did a brief search and he turned your experiment into a video for his blog. I didn't bother watching but I got the gist.
What a douchebag. I helped his "business". Oh well.
My thoughts are as long as the PC hangouts are full of devs, you'll obviously have to deal with less trolls.
I should mention it's not all bad. Sometimes people join who are generally interested in what we're doing. One guy today even started doing his music work with us. Maybe the ratio will get better...
Ok it took forever to find, and I'm sure some wont like this. But the best idea I could think of is using a captcha type url shortener. There are very few available, and you will get the crap CLICK HERE ads. Just ignore and click on the captcha ad.
So if we make a new hangout (tried earlier, sorry for all that got messages about it). Post on here. We can at least see if its a human here that is putting them on that site, or the guy using a bot to somehow see private events on G+.
On the hangouts last night (my local time) it was suggested that we should put the link in a text file attached to the first forum post? then that way only polycount users can access it
that won't work. as soon as you join a hangout it shows up in your g+ profile. and even if the link isn't shown, i'm pretty sure it's embedded into your profile, so anyone who can somehow access that (which is probably how they're gathering links) will be able to use it.
Experiment update: I created a new hangout window and posted here to see what would happen. The admin of the site (that from hence forth will go nameless online) joined...
I think this app pulls hangout urls or something. The guy mentions Polycount, but it was hard to tell if people "report" hangouts or if it just crawls the web.
No, a paid google hangout won't work as it costs $5 + per user per month, and every user who might want to join needs to register and and be added to the 'organisation'. It would end up costing a small fortune. Other alternate services cost similar and upwards per month per user.
I suggest we post the link through a URL shortnener and make sure not to advertise the hangout on our profiles. Despite what Lee said, I don't think it shows up on your outgoing personal + page. It only shows to you internally.
At least let's have a section of the initial post that tells people to make sure not to publicly announce it.
Replies
https://plus.google.com/hangouts/_/0218401a610867ed1ecbf004f7cedf42d936b4a8?hl=en
Yup, last to leave and someone blocked me.
http://www.hangoutsnitch.com/
Looks like someone regular in the hangouts posted it there... Not interested in a witchhunt, but that's pretty grimy if true.
Hangout MK1 (older)
Hangout MK2 (newer)
I guess there are only three options. Wait out this wave of hangout snitch (might just be a short term thing, the person will probably get bored of posting it up there eventually), create new hangout links (which probably won't make a difference if someone is posting the current one up there), or look for alternatives to hangouts (might look into alternatives later today if I find the time).
It's quite an annoying situation, but I'm sure it will pass in time. Places like hangout snitch seem to be gaining popularity, so Google will have to do something eventually if they want people to keep using Hangouts.
All I saw were a ton of random teens video chatting
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&hlrm=en&answer=2677329
seems to require premium though which sucks..
yeah, this was another reason why the 15 member hangouts didn't take off.
fucking sucks that this shit is happening. it really does... the stupid thing is, that someone probably posted it up on that site because they're unhappy with a crit, or not getting attention, or whatever...
ugh.
having been spoken to, and spoken with a couple of the hangout regulars, it appears what happened was this:
Bryce Szandros, an Australian kid who was (i guess) new to the hangouts, had come in and been ridiculously racist, and all round not nice in the past. it seems that he was asked to leave, and when he wouldn't voluntarily he was majority kicked (this is a process whereby someone blocks him, and the rest of the users are asked if they would like to as well, if the majority decide to block him, he's removed from the hangout). since he was removed, and blocked by one or more users in the hangout, he couldn't enter again, and moments later the hangout was invaded because of the hangoutsnitch website.
if anyone would care to either refute or elaborate on these events, please do so.
it is in my opinion, an offense against polycount as a community, not just the hangout users, for this kind of thing to happen. and should enough proof be brought, i would hope that the administrators will take notice, and appropriate action.
This is his polycount profile: http://www.polycount.com/forum/member.php?u=56176
Proof: http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=104869
Personally being a blatant dick in the hangout should be enough for a ban, but to also actively attempt to ruin the hangouts for others is extremely childish, immature and petty. Speaking of, can't seem to join the hangout at all. Time for a new one?
can't join as they're full? or another error message?
depends sometimes people are quiet and work and sometimes people are talking and work
Same issue i've had for a month. Finally went into my registry and deleted all googletalk-shit and reinstalled the plugin, voila, it worked.
Room 1
Room 2
:thumbup:
*little experiment to see if the hangouts are being forwarded from this thread. Join if you like
I think this app pulls hangout urls or something. The guy mentions Polycount, but it was hard to tell if people "report" hangouts or if it just crawls the web.
@Polygoblin I did a brief search and he turned your experiment into a video for his blog. I didn't bother watching but I got the gist.
Anyhow, I'm in hangout 1. Its the same as ZacDs link.
What a douchebag. I helped his "business". Oh well.
My thoughts are as long as the PC hangouts are full of devs, you'll obviously have to deal with less trolls.
I should mention it's not all bad. Sometimes people join who are generally interested in what we're doing. One guy today even started doing his music work with us. Maybe the ratio will get better...
Example:
http://www.redr.us/834r
So if we make a new hangout (tried earlier, sorry for all that got messages about it). Post on here. We can at least see if its a human here that is putting them on that site, or the guy using a bot to somehow see private events on G+.
No, a paid google hangout won't work as it costs $5 + per user per month, and every user who might want to join needs to register and and be added to the 'organisation'. It would end up costing a small fortune. Other alternate services cost similar and upwards per month per user.
I suggest we post the link through a URL shortnener and make sure not to advertise the hangout on our profiles. Despite what Lee said, I don't think it shows up on your outgoing personal + page. It only shows to you internally.
At least let's have a section of the initial post that tells people to make sure not to publicly announce it.