A chat room application for researching chat moderation
All filenames (examplePost.json, exampleImg.jpg, exampleChat.json)
can be freely chosen but need to be consistent with the references to said names. Please make sure to be in the UZH network when attempting to upload the files to the respective folders via FTP or Github access.
- Add posts
In order to add posts, create a examplePost.json file in the
server/private/chatPrograms/posts/ folder. Furthermore, the corresponding images
have to be saved to the public/postImages/ folder, under the name as used in the
imageName, i.e. exampleImg.jpg, tag in the room spec. The format is as follows:
{
"title": "Post Title",
"time": "2021-07-13 20:00", // Year-Month-Day 24 hours time
"content": "Long Description.",
"imageName": "exampleImg.jpg", // needs to be consistent with above
"lead": "Short Description.",
"likes": 4, // number of preset likes and dislikes
"dislikes": 3
}- Add usernames
In order to create preset usernames, which will be used up from the beginning
of the list for each room, modify/replace the file nickNames.json in the
server/private/chatPrograms/ folder. The format is as follows:
[
"user1",
"user2",
"user3",
...
"userN-1",
"userN"
]- Add Chatrooms
In order to add a chatroom, create a exampleChat.json in the server/private/chatPrograms/roomSpecs/ folder.
The format is as follows in the example of all possible moderation features,
the usernames must not, but can match the file above. For more examples on
the moderation features, browse through the different example room spec files
in the server/private/chatPrograms/roomSpecs/ folder.
{
"roomName": "Example Chat Room",
"postName": "examplePost.json", // needs to be consistent with above
"duration": 15, // in minutes
"outboundLink": "https://example.com/survey",
"bots": [
{
"name": "bot1",
"moderation": [
{
"type": "ban", // will be banned 100 seconds in
"time": 100 // in seconds, relative to the startTime
}
]
},
{
"name": "bot2",
"moderation": [
{
"type": "ban",
"time": -10 // will be marked banned from the beginning
}
]
}
],
"comments": [
{
"userName": "bot1",
"time": 10,
"content": "Hello from a user?! in Room 2",
"moderation": {
"type": "flag",
"time": 15
},
"replies": [
{
"userName": "bot3",
"time": -100,
"content": "asdasd hello"
}
],
"likes": [
{
"userName": "bot4",
"time": -900
}
],
"dislikes": [
{
"userName": "bot2",
"time": -900
}
]
},
{
"userName": "bot2",
"time": 14,
"content": "Hmmm...",
"moderation": {
"type": "remove",
"time": 30,
"textNotification": "😃 notifications can be customized! this is the notification of removing the comment by bot2 with content 'Hmmm...'",
"textComment": "and what happens when flagging and removing too. the same styling is used as for notifications.",
"signature": "the moderators signed this action!",
"bgColor": "#009900",
"textColor": "#fff",
"textSize": "2em"
},
"replies": [
],
"likes": [
]
},
{
"userName": "bot2",
"time": 17,
"content": "Ciao!",
"moderation": {
},
"replies": [
],
"likes": [
]
}
]
}-
Upload the files to the server, preferably using FTP or Github. Then rebuild and restart the server. Make sure the server is in /srv/chat-room for the nginx setup to work, or do the reverse proxy setup yourself.
For convenience, a build script is included in the repo, filename:
server_setup_restart.sh, and can be launched right after forking the project and CHANGING THE REPO URL TO POINT TO THE FORK AND NOT THE OLD, UNMAINTAINED VERSION! To use it,cd /srv/chat-roomand thensource server_setup_restart.sh.See excerpts of the script below for convenience:
echo "STARTING SETUP; DELETING CONTENTS OF /srv/chat-room" cd /srv rm -rf chat-room/* rm -rf chat-room/.* cd /srv/chat-room # CHANGE THIS TO THE RIGHT GITHUB REPOSITORY repo_url="https://github.com/broggoli/chat-room.git" echo "YOU NEED TO USE THE RIGHT REPO URL FOR THIS SCRIPT, CURRENTLY: " $repo_url # DON'T FORGET TO CHANGE THIS TO THE NEW REPO echo "===============================================================" git clone $repo_url . npm install npm run build echo "DONE BUILDING, RESTARTING USING pm2 restart 0 " cd /srv pm2 restart 0
-
After uploading the files to the server using FTP or Github, distribute the links to the chatrooms to the Mturklers. The toom inks can be retrieved when visiting the
discussionroom.org/secretendpoint. Make sure to add the Qualtrics options for stylized links, for room with the hashabcdelike so:http://www.discussonroom.org/abcde?&mTurkId=123456 # note that the mTurkId is added after the questionmark, with a leading ampersand. # outbound link (including roomId and mTurkId): https://survey.com/example?&roomId=abcde&mTurkId=123456
- When a participant clicks the customized link in the previous Qualtrics study. As soon as the first participant enters the Room (i.e. she clicked the invite link and the page loaded), startTime is set to the current time.
he gets sent to a 'waiting room', in which a button toThere, the mTurkId of the participant is saved alongside the assigned username in the logfile. Their username is displayed to them.Start Chattingis visible, and only clickable if the chatroomstartTimeis past. - Once the
Start Chattingbutton is pressed, the participants are let into the chatroom and see the post and all automated comments, as well as the comments and likes of other participants, and they themselves can comment and like/dislike. - After the study is over, the participants are presented the followup study using a customized link, so that the mTurkId is again traceable throughout the course of the study.
- The ids and the respective usernames are logged in the logfile. In the qualtrics survey, another exitcode can be generated or the mTurkId reused for the participants to provide on completing the HIT for the researchers to verify the full study was done for payment.
- The participant submits the HIT with her mTurkId.
- The logfile of the chatroom and all actions of the participants within can be retrieved as a JSON file on the server, using FTP or SSH access.