Input Requested

[Zathras]

Bob has approached me and asked if I would try to do something with the Chat Room. I have several ideas but thought that it would be better if I opened this up and asked all of you if you are interested in having live chats. If you are let me know what you would like to see done. Please keep in mind that this is something that we are trying to get off the ground here so ideas like having the room staffed 24/7 are not practical at the moment (and might not ever be).

Thanks in advance to all of those who take the time to respond.

[Joeopps]

I love the idea. I remember the IRC days where you could log on and be able to talk to people live. I often check in and read posts but sometimes it would be nice to be able to converse live.

There are days that are tougher than others and when I need that extra suport, it would be nice to be able to logon and meet with men or women going through the same or similar as I instead of dealing with the pause of posting.

my only request is that the chat room be restricted to accepted and trusted members for the sake of our privacy.

Guests or non members should not be able to view the conversations occurring, but members logged on should be able to see who is logged on at the time.

[willie]

my only request is that the chat room be restricted to accepted and trusted members for the sake of our privacy.

Guests or non members should not be able to view the conversations occurring, but members logged on should be able to see who is logged on at the time.

I agree. I would like to have the chat option but also feel it should be limited to members. Anything we want to share with the public can be posted like always but sometimes it would be nice to carry on private conversations among our "family". There are some issues that I would feel more comfortable talking about to people I know and trust and don't have to worry about comments from someone that does not have the same issues and experiences as we do.

[WolfSoul]

I would enjoy very much to chat live with you guys. I agree that it should be members only, just to avoid the jerks that would show up, just to be jerks.

[Tay]

Here here!!

Me too would love to pop in and chat.  But I agree in keeping it restricted.

I think your times will work in with mine here in Auz as well.

Cheers

Tay

[tojo]

When I had the chatroom open all the time it was restricted to mwf members only and is not a problem or hard to do.

[Zathras]

Anyone else have any comments to make? Please don't be shy, if you would like to see this opened up let us know what you want.

[foxgrove]

Interesting...  I can't see being able to staff anything 24 hours without having a massive HEALTHY staff.  That's always been our downfall..  However, if you can come up with something, I have my ears open and am intrigued to see what can be done. 

I've always had difficulty with having chat as a seperate window as I need to keep doing something and sitting on a blank window is time I'm not distracting myself.  Know what I mean..  Any ideas??

[Lucky1]

 How about something simple, an OPEN or CLOSED sign in the window of the" Shoutbox" and any member can let folks that they are logged on & ready, willing,& able to chat.  Chat in the shoutbox OR ?

[Zathras]

Posting an 'Open' sign in the shoutbox has possibilities but it depends on 1. Others being online at the same time and 2. People keeping an eye on the shoutbox.

It is the same as seeing someone online and trying to PM them. It all depends on the person seeing that they have a message.

[foxgrove]

Note also that the folks you are trying to reach have the same very limited attention span that many of us have (if not all of us)...  It would almost have to be some sort of marker that sat on your screen and blinked when someone was in there... I mean on EVERY screen..  That means programming... {sigh}  something that USED to be SO simple...

OK.. enough bummed out stuff...  I like the idea of folks being able to chat in real time.  I imagine that parts of some chats would be beneficial for other folks to see.. If someone is in a chat and something significant starts up, maybe the chat moderator could mark it and post it... IF brains are working and technology agrees to play nice...  big IFs... but something to keep in mind..

[augoldminer]

I agree that it should be members only, just to avoid the jerks that would show up, just to be jerks.

You might want to set it so the new members could not use chat until say they had done a intro or something like ? days
This should cut down on scam types and people trying to post adds.

They would be in most cases to busy to come back to bother us. i watched on another chat room one time someone trying to sell junk that was posting as a new member with spoofed IP addresses faster then the mod could ban hammer him

[Zathras]

I am in a chat room on another site and I know that the software that they use allows someone with administrator privileges to ban someone from the room if it becomes necessary. Just another thing that I need to find out about the MWF room before we get going.

[ronr]

Scheduling chats at certain times would probably be a better idea.  24 hrs./day just isn't going to work. 

You might then try to say the chat on X day is going to be about ____ and try to stay on that topic as much as possible.

[Joeopps]

One other thought is if it would be possible to use chat on a mobile device........