Chat Room

[Benjamin Clayborne]

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.

 

[Black Dragon]

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.

 

[Devor]

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.



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.

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.

 

[Steerpike]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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?

 

[Kelise]

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?

 

[Devor]

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.

 

[Kelise]

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.

 

[Devor]

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.

 

[JCFarnham]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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.

 

[Xanados]

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

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

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.

 

[Steerpike]

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.

 

[Philip Overby]

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.

 

[Black Dragon]

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....

 

[Xanados]

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!

 

[Philip Overby]

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!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

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

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)

 

[Sheilawisz]

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.