JotCast is now more interactive than ever before

Two new features will allow both moderators and participants to interact with each other in exciting ways.

Hi JotCasters,

Here’s a quick question for you to answer:

JotCast now has….

A: The ability for moderators to create quizzes

B: The ability for users to send each other private messages

C: All of the above

D: None of the above

We’re proud to say that C is the correct answer. Private messaging between users and a quiz function are both now live on our website.

Moderators can create quizzes under the Polls tab in the moderator panel. The moderator can decide if a question has a single correct answer or multiple right responses, and they can also choose to have the quiz go live in the chat all at once or to publish each quiz question individually to keep users engaged throughout the event. As users begin to answer, moderators will be able to see statistics for each quiz question showing the total number of people who responded, the total number of people who responded correctly, and the percentage of correct responses. 

When new quiz questions are published, your users will be notified via the quiz blinking to alert them. Moreover, users who stop mid-quiz will be able to automatically continue where they left off. As always, quizzes are optional and users do not have to participate. To that end, the quiz window can be minimized so that it occupies a very small portion of the screen.

In other news, users also have the option to private message each other now. If someone says something in the chat that you find interesting and want to respond to, there’s no need to wait and hope the moderator publishes your reply. Instead, you can message that reader directly. Moderators can enable this setting when creating a new chat.  As always, moderators can disable this new ability if they’re not interested in it.

That’s all for now.  Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

3 New Features Available

Pinned messages, chat subscriptions, and unmoderated chats are now available with JotCast

Hi JotCasters,

We hope everyone is staying safe and healthy in these challenging times. Here at JotCast, we’ve been working (from home, of course) to create features that will make your chats even better. We’re now very excited to share that we’ve unveiled three new features: Pinned messages, Chat Subscriptions, and an Unmoderated Chat option. Details below!

1) Pinned messages

The point of JotCast is to allow you control of the conversation (sound familiar?). We want to make it easy for you to convey the information that your readers need to know. Since it’s possible -- and, in fact, likely -- that readers will enter and leave chats throughout the discussion, if there’s important information that you want every reader to see, a pinned message is a great tool to ensure this. Moreover, the pinned message can be closed by readers after they’ve read it so that it doesn’t become distracting. If a reader closes a pinned message and then a moderator creates another one, it will reopen. This way, nobody misses vital messages *and* nobody is stuck staring at a message they no longer need. 

2) Chat Subscriptions

Fret not, JotCasters. We are still a contract-free service. The subscription option is a simple way to help increase traffic to your chats. Readers can choose to subscribe to any chats hosted by a specific moderator. With this new feature, regular readers can opt in to receive email reminders 15 minutes before a chat owned by that moderator begins. Now, readers won’t worry about missing and / or forgetting about a chat they wanted to participate in.

3) Unmoderated chats

“But,” we hear you wondering, “isn’t JotCast specifically a moderated chat service?” First, moderated chats are still available. We’re simply offering the option to directly publish messages from all readers -- not just those with “trustee” status. Moderators can turn this option on and off as they please. Moderators can allow a period of time for readers to talk among themselves if they need a break, or if someone’s looking to start a chat but doesn’t want to moderate everyone’s messages, they don’t have to. The way we see it, more options are always a good thing. 

So, there you have it. Three new enhancements for you to use -- or not, it’s your choice! As always, we want to hear how your experience with JotCast is going. Are there features you need or questions you have? Let us know! Until then, we’ll be working (from a socially safe distance) to make JotCast the best it can be.