We could really use a chat room to get together on this sight!

I second that suggestion. Chat rooms can be great, as long as moderated properly. Self regulation by the members is the best way. An ignore button makes it easier to filter out the crap and then the moderator doesn't have to be on 24/7.

Hmmmmm. Interesting idea. I'm picturing some heated discussions, and poor Sting's Karma plunging into the depths!

Yeah, I have thought about it. I think the only way one would work here though is if it had set hours. Like 8pm-10pm. The trouble with chat rooms.... I mean aside from all the general written communication problems. z.b. People getting pissed off because they take things the wrong way. People getting pissed off because they take things the right way. People saying things electronically that they would never say to someone's face, etc. etc. These problems are all worse in chat rooms because everything is more immediate.

Yes, some of that can be fixed via self moderation. But, that anger carries over into the forums sometimes. That I don't like. People have complained about my lack of moderation here. What I try to provide is personal responsibility. Here, if you say it in anger, your words are going to be immortalized forever. If you end up looking stupid --and I am willing to bet you will, I'll be damned if I am going to erase it for you.

But, what I really meant to say before I launched off on that digression is the problem we have here is scale. We have about 50 really active members. So, if the chat room were open 24 hours, it wouldn't have anyone in it most of the time. Its not like Amazon.com here. The only paid staff IBC has is an eight year old doberman. She does about as good at moderating as I do, but she spends most of her time sleeping these days. So people won't likely be able to pop into the chat room and get a quick question answered, because it is unlikely there will be anyone there, or anyone there who knows the equipment you have.

And, I also object to chatrooms on the grounds of none of the information is saved. So if questions get asked, and problems get answered; Within a chatroom, once the room closes, that information is gone forever. This is even worse than the names I have been called for moving us to new forum software. Oh, the travesty, all that information is lost.... except for the google cache of course. Oops.

Of course chat rooms favor the fast typers.

So, I understand the novelty. I understand, and I might even be more willing to to set one of these up for a short time if you wanted. Like a couple of days, just for the fun of typing directly to the Tallcorns, Cornys and the Stings and some of the other iconic members of this community. But I don't like the idea of having a chat room as a long term feature.

--ja

I have been a chat room moderator, very tough job. People end up hating you because you have to enforce the chat rules. On the chat I was on we had 80 moderators for a 24/7 chat room and it was still un-moderated at times. Current chat software will allow logging of everything though.

The ignore button really works. If you have someone just stirring the pot and not adding to the current talk, if enough people put them on "Iggy" they will disappear, they will soon see that no one is paying attention to them or responding and go away.
It also stops personal attacks, if things get to heated.
I guess some in the Global Warming area would just put everyone on Iggy and post and post and post....................................uups....almost a personal attack.

Yeah, they will be ignored in the chat. But here, chat is tied to the forum, which is tied to PM. So I am afraid it will just bleed over.

--ja

Me either Slow typer Thought that's what this is

Free chat hosting chat hostingthere are pay packages that add features but it is relatively cheap for low bandwidth like this would be.

jabbott wrote:


Yup that would be a problem, a BIG problem.
Other than that I would promise to type slow for those that can't read fast.