Chat Room?

[Lugnutz]

I was wondering what the general concencus was here regarding a chatroom. I remember the days a few years ago when Dewey's was the place to be to chat. It was a tight family type of chat, not a flop house. Anything was discussed, dirty jokes were told and the bar was always open. There is still a chatroom there, but a different version I'm not really fond of, and it don't get used much anymore.

From what I was told by the headmaster, there is the space for one here, but is there call for it, will it get used.

Post your reasons why we should/shouldn't have one. I was feeling nostalgic and felt like asking.

You?

[Adam Donaldson Powell]

My own experience with chat rooms that I have run for groups of persons with diverse interests and life situations, is that they work best when there is a schedule that is posted: e.g. possibly; Thursdays 5 p.m. EST: topic -- blah blah blah. Not all topics have to be serious or writing-related -- perhaps some people just want to chat with people whose posts they read daily or weekly. But with so many different readers and writers, and so many interests, and with people living all over the world in different time zones some structure must exist for it to be workable.

[DesDownunder]

I have voted maybe.

My reason is that although I know a chat room can be productive and entertaining it can also be downright bawdy and a birthplace of procastination.

I think we had one sometime ago and if I remember rightly Trab and I spoke on it once together.

I never saw any one on it again.

When I first roamed the net I found gaychat.com, where in the public area we had a lot of fun with jokes and even discussing things of interest.

The private chat-rooms away from the public ones though, they were something else. I agreed to an invite to go into one with someone once.

Let's just say it is not for me. I still feel weird about it.

I also found webchat where you could see as well as chat. I think I left believing I had found a reason to not buy a webcam, and while I only looked, the sights I saw had me feeling I should put a sheath on the inside of the monitor.

Now don't get me wrong. I have no objection to people accessing these sites and using them in any way they like so long as they are not being mean or predatorial.

I actually spent many happy hours of humorous interactive witty chatting in the public areas of Gaychat and later on the Nifty gaychat.

Finally however I have come to realise that I am enjoying spending my time writing and reading here at AD and CW, rather than whiling it away in a chatroom.

Every moment I spent being on, or contributing to, even an entertaining chat is a fraction of the pleasure I get from these forums and actually reading or writing a story or poem.

If that pleasure was extended into a chat-room sharing lively and resourceful group discussion for our main interests here, or even just so we could relax in the company of our fellow dudes, then I would say yes, but I venture a warning that we not allow it to degenerate into a time wasting displacement of our discussions in the forums, let alone as a substitute for our stories.

The forums however seem to me to allow us a breathing space between statements and do in fact enable a more in-depth, thoughtful discussion than a chat-room. The forums permit us to submit a prepared contibution.

I would then suggest that only a group chat-room be considered without facility to go "private."

For those who wish that kind of privacy there is always YIM and the other like-services.

Purely my thoughts on the matter. I wouldn't stand in the way of whatever you all and The Dude decide.

[Camy]

I voted 'maybe'.

I'm not averse to hanging out in chat, but as Des has said, it can waste an awful lot of time.

And what's the cost? We had chat here once, and it was seldom used. I can - hand on heart - say I almost went in there once. Admittedly, on holidays like Christmas it would be cool, and who knows, I might become a chat whore ... then again I might not.

Camy

[Oliver]

Could be fun.

I always like to 'talk' about funny things and life in general.

(Or a combination of those...)

A chatroom here could work, for it is a serious community, without the fear of being asked fot the size of my you-know-what-I-mean after a few minutes.

On MSN, my profile has the same undersign for years; No webcamsex; my cam has no zoom-option.

Poeple always laugh at it, but they understand the hint.

A chatroom here will mean late nights for me in the weekends, because of the different time-zones.

I can live with that. But not every weekend.

The international chatrooms I have been in, gave me always a nice look into life at the other side of the ocean, and I had some interesting conversations. I you could combine that with writers...

Sounds like fun.

[Lugnutz]

I actually started writing because of Deweys chatroom. Me and The Carolina Scribbler were having one of our usual 4 hour bull sessions, and he told me I should write. I told him "Anything I write would look like a service manual". He fed me a one sentance setup, I called him a a$$ho' and wrote a page then, let him look at it there and then he said "I told ya so!" and I kept writing. The results are chapter one of "Mechanics 101"

That dosen't mean a chatroom would work here. Timing is one thing. How long before the lovelty wore off is another.

[Camy]

Okay, let me partially change my mind.

It would be nice if we had the facility to chat. Then we could have organised 'get to-gethers', 'write ins', and other things.

My only concern would be cost to usage. If that isn't a concern, then move my vote from 'maybe' to 'yes'.

Camy

[Cole Parker]

As usual, Des has some very pithy comments that should be given some serious consideration.

These forum pages draw me to them daily. The commets tend to be intelligent, well thought out, thought provoking and entertaining. They contain humor and insight and depth and I wouldn't want anything to disrupt that. If a chatroom would do that, then we'd all lose because of it.

When we write posts to this board, we have to stop and organize our thoughts. Well, everyone other than Wibby, of course. But that's a separate issue entirely<g>. I would think the chatroom, by it's very nature, would have much more shallow substance and topics would only be played with instead of intellectually or thoroughly discussed.

I for one write much better than I do chat. It's possible other of us do the same. I'd sure not want to see the currently written comments lost to the allure of the witty riposte.

C

[Trab]

Cole, I must say that it's nice of you to recognize Wibby's inate intelligence and abilities. "When we write posts to this board, we have to stop and organize our thoughts. Well, everyone other than Wibby, of course." It IS amazing how Wibby can post his thoughts, well thought out, without the need to stop.

I have been in IM contact with a few of us on the forums, and it is really almost like a private chat room. "Instant" truly is the point, and I'm happy to have IMd with Blue, Codey, Des, and AJ. I've added a few other IM buddy names from peoples' profile sections, but nobody else seems to ever be online in them. Frankly, blue is the only one, and if you look at the bottom section of the AD forum pages, you can see who else is online at any given time. For instance, right now it is me, Trab, and Insomniac. For a chatroom to work, it would truly need to be timed so people could make a point of being there 'at the right time'.

It is also true that the instant riposte is more shallow, AT TIMES, but I've had some very heavy and meaningful discussion in chats. The back and forth of a conversation, CAN be shallow, but it can also let each speaker reflect on what was said, and quickly delve even deeper into the issue(s). I think I'd go for a chatroom, but I'd also recommend that it remain public, and have a sort of schedule. Even if the schedule was as simple as THE TOP OF THE HOUR it would help get people there simultaneously.

[Madrigal]

I would say yes, if and only if, there is a mod present at all times. This would be impossible, of course, unless chat sessions are scheduled to the convenience of mods and members, which I believe would be a good setup.

I've been in chat rooms and things can get really ugly. Yes, I know everyone here is very nice, but having a chatroom would attract a lot of new members, and while this would be a good thing for the forums, many of those members won't exactly be 'agreeable'. Having said that, you also have to take into account that there will be people of all ages, and if you don't have mods or admins present at all times there could be an exchange of vital personal information between minors and adults. (not to mention other, more 'private' information)

Chatrooms are also breeding ground for 'chesters', because they know that minors often visit these places.

Beware, for chatrooms can be both a great thing and a bad thing. More than anything else, they can be a real pain in the ass to admins and mods.

Maddy

[Trab]

Maybe the best plan would be to have the chat ONLY open to members of the Green Room. That way we have eliminated 90% of the risk factor right away. What the heck is a 'chester'?

[Lugnutz]

What the heck is a 'chester'?

I'm guessing it's "Chester the Molester"

[Trab]

And if you think THAT clarified anything for me, Lugnutz, you are sadly mistaken.

[DesDownunder]

And if you think THAT clarified anything for me, Lugnutz, you are sadly mistaken.

It's just a form a rhyming speech Trab, nothing more.

Like "Silly Lilly"

Chester the Molester.

Chester being a male name.

Sometimes these originate in certain localities around a town or village.

Cockney origins are common.

Australians use them as descriptors for such things as

"Dead horse" for tomato sauce.

[dude]

As I told Lugnutz privately... we have the bandwidth resources... to handle chat... But the even after we had removed the chat from the lineup at the end of last year ... I got a huge $150 ding on my credit card in May or June... 'renewing' the chat services... which we had not used for almost six months. Under threat of litigation.. they refunded the amount to my card. They were a third party supplier to our board software folks, Invision.

I went back to the Invision after discussing with Lugnutz to find out what getting the chat back would cost... integrated with our board only to find they had dropped -apparently- from stuff they offer... guess for the same reason, lack of interest. Most of the chat companies are now providing customer service chat software for commercial companies.

We had a lot of fun with chat rooms back in the heyday of GAYBC Radio... where I was News Director in 2000. We had talk programming and it was a very hot item as people were listening on their computers anyway... and the listeners could chat and comment on guests, hosts.. etc while the program was on. During the music segments... listeners could request their favorite songs. Unfortunately... instead of calling GAYBC's toll free lines to carry on dialogue with hosts and guests.. people typed more anonymously into the chatroom.

When Sirius Satellite Radio began it's LGBT Channel - OutQ, GAYBC founder and then OutQ innovator John McMullen decreed... NO CHAT ROOM. Heh heh - that was a no brainer as it sapped callers and that's what makes talk radio. It is also a great time waster. And there's always the 'Chester' factor ... something we always worried about at GAYBC. Luckily not many problems manifested in the one year period GAYBC was in operation but it's always a problem... especially with a young oriented site like we are.... and many of our members are also much younger guys (and girls) who are also devotees of the even younger oriented CodeysWorld Site.

So with that said and a night's sleep behind me... remember I'm on the other side of the world form most of you guys.. over here with Rad and Graeme and Des... the idea of reviving the Chat Room has kind of lost it's appeal. I had hoped when we started it a year ago but it never took off. If there is an outpouring of response... of course.... as I told Lugnutz... I would and will consider it.

A lot of us... especially our authors and editors ... communicate by Instant Messenger... which seems to work for me. I -despite being busy 14-16 hours a day- usually keep Trillian running and all the IM services I belong to show me who is online and when... and also allow chatting among groups of members at no additional expense. I never run in 'invisible' mode but when I'm recording or otherwise REALLY occupied.. I often put up a busy message or flag to that effect.

So there we go. Would I use a chat room if we had it? Probably not on a regular basis. I had been to the one we had so many times to hear my voice echo off the walls when I asked .... anybody here?

[Madrigal]

What the heck is a 'chester'?

Child Molester.

Maddy

[TalonRider]

Beware, for chatrooms can be both a great thing and a bad thing. More than anything else, they can be a real pain in the ass to admins and mods.

Maddy

That's why GA admin did away with their chat room. It became too much of a hassle. Members started making personal attacks on other members. On the good side, they did have a periodic author chat's.

You can get some bad people even on regular IM services. I once had a guy contact me on ICQ who invited me into a private chat room. He wanted me to pretend he was a young boy. I told him I wasn't into boy's so he wanted me to pretend he was a young girl. I left.

I'm refraining from voting as I have a chat room at The House that hasn't been used since 'Collision' was finished.

Jan

[TalonRider]

Beware, for chatrooms can be both a great thing and a bad thing. More than anything else, they can be a real pain in the ass to admins and mods.

Maddy

That's why GA admin did away with their chat room. It became too much of a hassle. Members started making personal attacks on other members. On the good side, they did have a periodic author chat's.

You can get some bad people even on regular IM services. I once had a guy contact me on ICQ who invited me into a private chat room. He wanted me to pretend he was a young boy. I told him I wasn't into boy's so he wanted me to pretend he was a young girl. I left.

I'm refraining from voting as I have a chat room at The House that hasn't been used since 'Collision' was finished.

Jan

[Madrigal]

That's why GA admin did away with their chat room. It became too much of a hassle. Members started making personal attacks on other members. On the good side, they did have a periodic author chat's.

You can get some bad people even on regular IM services. I once had a guy contact me on ICQ who invited me into a private chat room. He wanted me to pretend he was a young boy. I told him I was into boy's so he wanted me to pretend he was a young girl. I left.

I'm refraining from voting as I have a chat room at The House that hasn't been used since 'Collision' was finished.

Jan

Yes, I do remember that. In fact, it didn't stop at the GA chat; many members used msn as an outlet (and non-therapeutic, I might add) when the chatrooms went down. Bottomline is, you can't stop people from talking if they really want to, but you can hopefully give them enough time to think while they search for another way to talk.

Maddy (:

[Nickolas James]

I don't think it's fair to base a decision about this site on something that happened at another site. I'd say that if anything, a room to have scheduled Author Chats would be kinda cool, but since I'm not really into chatrooms I'd probably never go into it anyway. (Except to chat with my readers)

[Trab]

Nicholas James, you say you support an author's chat, but you'd only chat with your readers. That limits the scope to only authors who read your stories. Are you sure you don't want to restrict it some more? Maybe between the ages of ???

Sorry. I'm just funnin' with you.

I think maybe we should just have IM accounts for anyone who wants to chat with us. Most of them allow for a group chat, if more than two are on at the same time.

[dude]

I think maybe we should just have IM accounts for anyone who wants to chat with us. Most of them allow for a group chat, if more than two are on at the same time.

That sounds very 'sensible.' Authors who frequently post in the Forums know that they can list their IM accounts on their profile page... and can even list them in their signatures... if they want to hear from readers... as if email and Feedback Forms aren't enough!

[Madrigal]

I don't think it's fair to base a decision about this site on something that happened at another site. I'd say that if anything, a room to have scheduled Author Chats would be kinda cool, but since I'm not really into chatrooms I'd probably never go into it anyway. (Except to chat with my readers)

But it would be unfair to completely ignore something that happened in such a similar scenario. It would be like feeding someone blowfish without telling them of the risks first.

Maddy

[Trab]

For what it's worth, I've posted my YIM and AIM names in my profile and the Green Room. I figured I'd be proactive.

[Lugnutz]

For what it's worth, I've posted my YIM and AIM names in my profile and the Green Room. I figured I'd be proactive.

I have my YIM in my profile too.

I've had a few chats with AJ, he's a hoot.