Live Chatroom

[Gadget]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.

[Zebra Woman]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.
:yeah: :clap: (Sorry but I am on dial up :blush: )

[Lynn]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.
Or have a 'Live Chat' thread for each month? There have been live chat threads before but one for each month would stop one thread getting too long... then if someone wanted to 'chat' they could do it on that thread. Or a 'live chat section' where someone could start any threads for live chat. Or putting 'LC' at the heading of any live chat threads. Just some way of letting people know that there will be lots of one-line off topic posts on that thread (they can look and join in if they want to).

I'm also on dial up part of the time and it can be frustrating to look on a thread about a particular topic to find pages of 'chat' (I don't mind a half dozen or so 'asides' from a thread).

[latinlover]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.

:yeah: :yeah: :clap:

please

[under par]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.


I'm totally in favour of this proposal too, if Franck is unsure would it be reasonable to ask for a poll maybe for a democratic decision?? :flower:

[drathzel]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.


oops i feel this is aimed at me! I do agree this could be useful! However in my defence it is only on threads thats no one else is talking on, cough, well now anyway!

I do think it is a good idea!!!

[baldrick]

Sounds a grand plan.
But when to swap from thread to chat? When does banter round a subject require one to move on? Or will it be moderated again, not that I mind exercising self control you understand. Just asking, as a major culprit.

[ToeTrampler]

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Can we have a 'chatroom' installed please? If you're on-line, you can look in and chat rather than bogging down threads, or you can PM someone that's on-line and then enter the chatroom to yap.

The live chatroom idea does have its merits, however it could also have some negative effects on forum activity as well.

It would be fine if it were always the case of two or three people having a quick gossip in the chatroom, just passing the time of day or that sort of thing, then that would definitley be a positive thing and help the forum (but as we already have a ‘PM’ facility do we need this then?)

The negative impact can arise from occasions when a larger active group of members are all in the chatroom and a relevant (or just plain interesting) subject comes up. Over the course of a few minutes (or tens of minutes), the subject can be raised, discussed, debated, concluded and dismissed by the group and none of it sees the light of day in a forum thread (and therefore the wider membership).

What I am trying to say is that if a chatroom moves away from idle chatter it is very difficult for someone to say “OK guys this is getting a bit interesting here, lets stop and pick this up in a thread”. It would be nice if this did happen but generally it doesn’t it just gets lost from the forum.

[Lynn]

The negative impact can arise from occasions when a larger active group of members are all in the chatroom and a relevant (or just plain interesting) subject comes up. Over the course of a few minutes (or tens of minutes), the subject can be raised, discussed, debated, concluded and dismissed by the group and none of it sees the light of day in a forum thread (and therefore the wider membership). Yes, that's why I was thinking of a regular 'live chat' thread instead of a chatroom. I love reading through older threads, lots of interesting information. I really like the fact this is a discussion forum, not a chat room and am not sure about the chat room coming into the forum.

There are PMs for 1 to 1 chat if that's what people want. Rather than a chat room with an interesting topic that people then have to decide whether to take it onto a thread, if we have live chat 'thread of the month' then people could say 'lets take this to live chat' if their chat is going off topic on whatever thread they are already on.

[Gojive]

Yes, that's why I was thinking of a regular 'live chat' thread instead of a chatroom. I love reading through older threads, lots of interesting information. I really like the fact this is a discussion forum, not a chat room and am not sure about the chat room coming into the forum.

There are PMs for 1 to 1 chat if that's what people want. Rather than a chat room with an interesting topic that people then have to decide whether to take it onto a thread, if we have live chat 'thread of the month' then people could say 'lets take this to live chat' if their chat is going off topic on whatever thread they are already on.

Superbly put IMHO! :clap:

I'm a moderator of a very well established discussion forum (not dance related), which "suffered" from a similar problem a couple of years ago.

We wanted to encourage banter/chat, without displacing people from the main discussion arena. So we decided to create a daily "chat" thread, and called it "The Forum Arms" :waycool:. We encouraged people to join in daily chit-chat in there, but on the understanding that it would be discouraged strongly in the other threads.

Two years on, and I have to say the experiment has been a huge success. That's not to say we killed banter in the main threads, just prevented banter from becoming chat.

We now consider our forum to be a vibrant and lively community who share a common passion, rather than a pure discussion forum. I believe we have the best of both worlds now :)

[Gadget]

It would be fine if it were always the case of two or three people having a quick gossip in the chatroom, just passing the time of day or that sort of thing, then that would definitley be a positive thing and help the forum (but as we already have a ‘PM’ facility do we need this then?)

Actually, on the "member information" page you have place for ICQ and MSNIM, Yahoo and AIM addresses, so you could have your IM open at the same time as the forum, and chat to folks you see on-line.
(a bit quicker than PM, and already set up.)


The negative impact can arise from occasions when a larger active group of members are all in the chatroom and a relevant (or just plain interesting) subject comes up. Over the course of a few minutes (or tens of minutes), the subject can be raised, discussed, debated, concluded and dismissed by the group and none of it sees the light of day in a forum thread (and therefore the wider membership).
Good point. The only thing that could make it work would be to have a moderator cut & paste relevant chat from the logs into a new thread.

But if that's going to happen, then I am being rapidly swayed towards Lynn's idea of a monthly 'live-chat' thread.

{Dz & Baldrick: sorry if it looks like I was picking on you :flower: - I had just scrolled down a page of chatter from you (with B&Mash chipping in) so it was in the fore of my mind. There are others equaly guilty; myself included on occasion.}


How about another section of the forum soley for chit-chat.... erm... how about the "chit-chat" area? :blush: