# Chat Room



## JBryden88 (Aug 9, 2011)

Any chance of a chat room? I'm searching far and wide for fantasy chat rooms just cause the silence in my house is deafening right now >.>


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## epublishabook (Aug 10, 2011)

Am brand new here. Does that mean you are online now?


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## Telcontar (Aug 10, 2011)

This'd be nice. I've been on several forums where they had a chat room - sometimes built in, sometimes just an IRC channel - and it's cool to speak to people in real time who you usually only read in blocks.


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## Argentum (Aug 11, 2011)

I tried putting up a Three Things Thread in the Chit Chat forum so members could have a thread for just random conversation. A chat room would be nice too, so long as people used it. There's a lot of time when all my friends on the other side of the world are off sleeping. I get a lot of time to be alone. It's nice, but not good for conversation. Nothing's worse than looking for conversation in forum chatrooms and no one's on.


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## epublishabook (Aug 15, 2011)

@Argentum, you are right of course, but writers are often night birds, and they do live in all time zones, so there is bound to be some up at all time. Though they might not be available to chat


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## Aravelle Angel (Aug 16, 2011)

I agree, I am a member of another forum (not writing based) that has a chat room and some of the most invaluable information and contacts for me have been found in the chat room.  It takes the pressure off trawling through tonnes of posts and you actually get to know people, their sense of humour etc which can be missed in a formal post.


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## Kaellpae (Aug 17, 2011)

I was just thinking how nice it'd be to talk out some things in a chat room for Mythic Archipelago. Saves me from checking forums on my phone every 15 minutes (home page). I would still post of course, and check up on new topics. Nothing could stop me from that. Apart from a dead battery or no service.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Aug 23, 2011)

This sounds like a great idea to me. I'd probably drop in regularly, in the evenings.


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## Ravana (Aug 23, 2011)

I doubt I would ever use it–I normally hate chat (consider the average length of one of my sentences…  )–but that's no reason not to have it available for everyone else.


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## Codey Amprim (Aug 26, 2011)

Telcontar said:


> This'd be nice. I've been on several forums where they had a chat room - sometimes built in, sometimes just an IRC channel - and it's cool to speak to people in real time who you usually only read in blocks.



Exactly why I think this would be a fantastic idea. Hell, even a ventrilo server would be awesome. There, you could give realtime responses with an actual voice, which is more comforting than words and easier to get your thoughts out. Hell, you could even start a fantasy writing counseling/help channel for those looking for assistance with work.

Possibilities are endless. I'd actually like to get to know some other fantasy writers on a personal level. Sure beats feeling alone.


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## Xanados (Oct 16, 2011)

I really would like to see a chat client integrated for these forums. Real time chat with you folks would be great.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Oct 16, 2011)

Xanados said:


> I really would like to see a chat client integrated for these forums. Real time chat with you folks would be great.



Oh man, like I'm not distracted enough already with just reading the posts here a couple of times a day


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## Hans (Oct 18, 2011)

It would just need someone going to quakenet, or any other free IRC provider, and open a channel. Like #mythicscribes. And then tell the name of that channel here.


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## Johnny Cosmo (Oct 18, 2011)

@Hans: I was thinking that, but it'd probably go unnoticed but many as just a link in a post on this thread.


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## Black Dragon (Oct 18, 2011)

If you guys really want a chat room, we can add one here on a trial basis.  We can try it for a month, and then decide whether or not it's something that we want to keep.

How does that sound?


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## Black Dragon (Oct 18, 2011)

Well...  I experimented with a few chat solutions this evening, and didn't have any luck integrating anything with our site.  We also have been having issues with our server being pushed too hard during peak hours.  We may have to hold off on this addition until we have the funds for a server upgrade.


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## Paul (Nov 9, 2011)

*Importance of a chatroom*

A chatroom would be of great importance to  because it will facilitate communication between members in the long run and also help us to know each other better(i'm already tired of reading numerous posts/threads and opening my email every five minutes)
  So i'm looking foward to a chatroom.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 9, 2011)

Wow. Paul _really_ wants a chatroom. ;-)


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## Black Dragon (Nov 9, 2011)

Once we have the funds to upgrade the server, we will give this more consideration.  As of right now, it would be more than our current server can handle.


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## Kelise (Nov 9, 2011)

Hrm, I was wondering about server issues - quite often the site times out when I try to get on it as it is.

Also, how about moderation? As we already have issues with the nature of some posts, I wonder if there would be issues with nastiness going on in there also.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Nov 9, 2011)

There's definitely a manpower issue, as well. I honestly don't think that there necessarily needs to be an official MS chatroom; there's a million ways we can make an unofficial one that's use-at-your-own-risk, just a place for folks to hang out.

But then, I don't know whether that's something we actually _should_ have. My main concern is that chatrooms are a huge time suck; I already spend a good hour a day on MS. Chatrooms, being real-time, tend to attract you toward a sort of constant presence, which can kill productivity.


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## Black Dragon (Nov 9, 2011)

starconstant said:


> Hrm, I was wondering about server issues - quite often the site times out when I try to get on it as it is.



I've been experiencing this as well.  It's getting worse by the day.  The cause is actually a positive thing: we're getting far more traffic than we used to.  So much traffic, in fact, that it periodically overwhelms the server.

I was hoping to hold off until December, but I'm going to bite the bullet and get the process rolling for the server upgrade.  



> Also, how about moderation? As we already have issues with the nature of some posts, I wonder if there would be issues with nastiness going on in there also.



Very good point.  To maintain a quality chat room, we would needs mods.  A whole lot of mods to babysit the place around the clock.  That sounds like more trouble than it's worth...  at least for right now.


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## Devor (Dec 5, 2011)

Black Dragon said:


> I've been experiencing this as well.  It's getting worse by the day.  The cause is actually a positive thing: we're getting far more traffic than we used to.  So much traffic, in fact, that it periodically overwhelms the server.
> 
> I was hoping to hold off until December, but I'm going to bite the bullet and get the process rolling for the server upgrade.
> 
> ...



Now that the server has been upgraded, was there going to be an effort to set up a chat room?  There are definitely a few things I was thinking about collaborating on, and a Mythic Scribes chat room would really help me do that.

If you're worried about Moderators, you could just have the room moderated maybe twice a week with an open invitation to all members.  Anybody who would want to use the chat room during other times probably knows who they're meeting with and what they want to talk about anyways.  Depending on the chat program, I suppose people can still report each other or post transcripts.  And without a Mythic Scribes chat room, I will have to chat with people off site, and that wouldn't be moderated anyways.


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## Steerpike (Dec 5, 2011)

I think a chat room would be nice as well. If you meant to moderate it at all times, I do not think it would be feasible. If you had one for members-only, with notice to members that it was not moderated but subject to the forum's general rules, I think that would work.


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## Philip Overby (Mar 8, 2012)

I was reading through posts and interested in this topic again.  If it's not possible to have a Mythic Scribes chat room at the moment, perhaps we could set up an alternate way to chat?  I think having "branching" sections of the main website would be cool.  Like the Facebook page.  

So perhaps if we can agree to a good place to set up chats that would be easy to use, we could chat while still viewing the main MS forum.

Thoughts?


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## Kelise (Mar 8, 2012)

I think the main issue is what to do about moderating it. We're had the issue of people being berks and not discussing things like adults before, and then also issue with certain kinds of spammers. Chat rooms can easily get out of hand, and if it's going to possibly have the Mythic Scribes title on it, it could be an issue.

What would be a good way to keep it a safe and nice environment for us, and yet not too tightly controlled?


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## Devor (Mar 8, 2012)

starconstant said:


> What would be a good way to keep it a safe and nice environment for us, and yet not too tightly controlled?



Maybe you click on the "Report" button and it sends a recent excerpt of the chat to a moderator?  There are more moderators now than before, so somebody should be able to take care of it.


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## Kelise (Mar 8, 2012)

Devor said:


> Maybe you click on the "Report" button and it sends a recent excerpt of the chat to a moderator?  There are more moderators now than before, so somebody should be able to take care of it.



If that's possible then that would be awesome and solve everything, I think.


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## Devor (Mar 8, 2012)

starconstant said:


> If that's possible then that would be awesome and solve everything, I think.



I don't know what would be built into chatroom programs, but I've definitely heard of programs where pushing a button will submit a screenshot.  At worst it would be two separate programs, chat and reporting.

I'm sorry I don't have software names or links.


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## JCFarnham (Mar 8, 2012)

While it by all means doesn't happen on all or even most forums I have bared witness to a website's activity and productively being effectively killed by a chat room. People spent all their time in chat, rather than using the forum for what its meant for. This is my main concern, that discussions could migrate to chat instead of the subforums and we'll see a dip in mainstream activity which could possible put off new members.

I am however all for easier and faster ways for us to communicate, and I have only seen the above scenario just once or twice. Well run chat is wonderful for community spirit 

Chat rooms can be self-policing as well by the way. Sensible members (of which we have plenty ) can help keep the tone.


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## Philip Overby (Mar 8, 2012)

Another alternate is to have a locked forum spot, sort of like the Showcase, which can be open after you've posted a number of times.  People could list their various messenger tags (MSN, Yahoo, Skype, etc.) which could enable members to interact with each other whenever they want.  While it's not a chat room, if members leave themselves open to chat when they're online, then people could still at least chat one on one.  

I've already traded emails with some people via the Critique Group, and this hasn't changed our viewing pattern here on the main forum.


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## Xanados (Mar 8, 2012)

Although I would like to chat with MS members in real-time, I realize that it's not all that necessary.


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## Benjamin Clayborne (Mar 8, 2012)

I have to agree with JCFarnham; issues of management aside, real-time chat is a huge productivity killer, because you can't just go do it asynchronously whenever you have a few spare minutes, like you can with a message board. I actually think it would be a bad idea to introduce a chat forum for MS.


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## Steerpike (Mar 8, 2012)

Aren't there web services that would let anyone open a chat room at a given time? So when people on MS wanted to chat in real time, someone could open a room and post a link to it, maybe noting that the chat would be open for an hour or two hours or whatever.


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## Philip Overby (Mar 8, 2012)

I'm sort of against the idea of having an actual chat room on the site as well, but more along the lines of what Steerpike is saying.  For those of us that would like to chat in real time, have a room designated separate from MS and link to it.  Then people could go there and talk.

Or even having a scheduled chat time.  I've seen those work on sites before.  That way the chat time is scheduled and people can come in if they want to during that time period.


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## Black Dragon (Mar 8, 2012)

I'm going to try installing a new chat system which has been getting stellar reviews from other forum owners whom I trust.  This will be an experiment, so I can't promise anything.  Stay tuned....


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## Xanados (Mar 8, 2012)

Black Dragon said:


> I'm going to try installing a new chat system which has been getting stellar reviews from other forum owners whom I trust.  This will be an experiment, so I can't promise anything.  Stay tuned....


 I just refreshed and saw the new chat system. What a surprise!


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## Philip Overby (Mar 8, 2012)

I'm surprised this went up so fast, but I think it's a pretty useful feature already.  I got to live chat with Reaver, my favorite moderator!


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## Legendary Sidekick (Mar 8, 2012)

I love this feature! And yeah... that WAS fast!



Phil the Drill said:


> I'm surprised this went up so fast, but I think it's a pretty useful feature already.  I got to live chat with Reaver, my favorite moderator!


But, but, but...


(kicks pebble)

(disappoints sensei with wussy kick)


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## Sheilawisz (Mar 9, 2012)

So now we have a chat system?? What a surprise, this was so fast =) I think that we shall try this for a few weeks and let's see what happens, thank you Black Dragon!! The chat could be good for our community, or maybe it would be a productivity killer, or maybe it would help to improve communication and friendship at Mythic Scribes- Well, time shall tell.


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## Reaver (Mar 9, 2012)

I'm surprised this went up so fast, but I think it's a pretty useful feature already.  I got to live chat with Phil the Drill and Legendary Sidekick, my two favorite moderators!

Hey! Ninja'd by Phil the Drill!


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## Philip Overby (Mar 9, 2012)

I posted about you being my favorite before Sidekick joined in.  You both tie for favorite in my book!  

Ok...enough of that.


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## Kaellpae (Mar 9, 2012)

I haven't been to a computer quite yet. Is it a one on one or group chat?


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## myrddin173 (Mar 9, 2012)

both....
stupid character requirement


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## Phoenix (Mar 10, 2012)

Hey, what happened to the open chat room? Now you have to invite people. Is there a way to get that up?


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## Kelise (Mar 10, 2012)

Phoenix said:


> Hey, what happened to the open chat room? Now you have to invite people. Is there a way to get that up?



Only moderators can run the open chat room, and they won't be constantly running as there was a thought that members would post less if the chat room was installed.


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## JCFarnham (Mar 10, 2012)

This is just a trial peroid. We will be reviewing how the whole venture goes.


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## The Blue Lotus (Mar 15, 2012)

OK I must be daft but... I can't find this Chat function people are yapping about!

Anyone know how to chat???


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## Barsook (Mar 15, 2012)

I think only a mod can make the room.


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## Reaver (Mar 15, 2012)

The Blue Lotus said:


> OK I must be daft but... I can't find this Chat function people are yapping about!
> 
> Anyone know how to chat???



There should be two bars at the bottom right of the page. If not, please contact Black Dragon or one of your friendly neighborhood Moderators ASAP.


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## Barsook (Mar 15, 2012)

See this on the public chat rooms.


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