Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

How about a chat room??  It's great posting replies, but would be nice to chat sometimes.

Love Sue

Hi Sue,

That is a great idea but it seems it would be difficult to do at present because (apparently), there isn't enough banwidth to handle a chat room.  It would be something worth keeping in mind though as the forum grows but just difficult right now.

Thanks for the suggestion though, it's a fantastic idea!   ;D

You could host a chat room on IRC and have a java-based IRC client on the site for people to use. That way, the chat bandwidth used is from the IRC server and not your host.

Something like this: http://www.pjirc.com/main.php

Kevin x

Sorry to put a damper on things - but you won't see me in a chat-room, I can't see the point of them.

That's the beauty of it, EJ. Those that want to use it can do and those that don't still have the forums. It's win-win!

Then people get left out!

If something was discussed in one but then referred to in the other there would be confusion.

Nah - no win about it!!

Surely just because some people don't like the idea that shouldn't mean it's a no-go?

No - I think it could be divisive.

You're already saying there's too many boards yet you'd like to have a chat-room.

However it starts out people are bound to "talk shop" there and then you wouldn't remember whether something was spoken about in the chat-room or posted on a board.

Have to agree on this one. I wouldn't want a live chat thingy on here, lots of the important stuff that serves as a huge resource that people can come back to would be lost. I regularly "chat" to forum members, by PM or on the phone (how old fashioned). I'll keep it the way it is, thanks.

i think most forums also have chat rooms and it can be great for those who want to chat, i personally wont be able to maintain a chat simply because i flip in between here and other things when i'm on but i'm sure there are those who would be happy to chat just as people do via pm et al.

I don't think most other forums have chat rooms, not that I've seen anyway. Sometimes you see 'shout boxes' but once the novelty wears off they don't get used and the end up being removed!

 We are lucky on here that we do not have a limit to the number of pm's so it is easy enough to 'chat' like that.

Do people use MSN any more? For those wanting to chat perhaps you could add each other to your MSN (or whatever the lingo is, it is a looong time since I used it ;))

I belong to several 3D forums (I make and sell some 3D animals) and a programming forum with chat rooms. The 3D forums chats were popular a while but now no one use it. On the programming forum it is still used because we discuss and solve programming issues.
We also had a chat on our site for our first game. It was quite active for about 5 years but then it died and we closet it down.
Personally I would have no use for a chat here.

Whilst I don't mind chatting, I agree with the general mood.  I run my own forum which came out of another somewhat disbanded group - at that time some of us did use MSN to chat which was fine.  The problem was the one someone (EJ I think) pointed out - some felt left out of the conversation; for whatever reasons (kids or computer or whatever) they couldn't join in and so it was always the same crowd who then posted and said things like "that was a great laugh last night on chat" but nothing else.  It made people feel like the forum itself wasn't as important for sharing info/news etc as it had been. 

On my forum now, I wouldn't add a chat feature for this reason - it's easier for everyone if there is one place to talk, it's open to everyone, everyone can be there at whatever time suits them and their lives and nobody feels like they're missing out on anything.  Whilst I have no problem with chatting at all, I don't think a chat room as part of a forum works. 

I'v never got the hang of "chatting" even tho several of the forums I have been on do have chat rooms. Mostly the chat is super trivial but what I always find trying, is that there are always bits of replies that can't really be tied into the right conversation so it all becomes a bit confusing. I have to say I would not use a chat room. I find this forum seems to work well for quick communication - probably because we are (mostly) in the same time zone.

I have to agree, I always felt an intruder if i went  to a chat room that I couldn't visit regularly but on here you can get involved in a "conversation" with anybody

Agree with the above posts.

all other forums i patronise have chat rooms, one i've been a member for 10 years and i still never pop into the chat room simply because i never felt the need to venture out off the main forums but i never have felt a grudge towards people who rub their  friendliness in, it doesn't bother me, if you feel something mentioned would benefit you you can simply ask although my personal policy in here is to not ask specific questions  because previous questions have been unanswered so i have learn't my place and pulled up my seat  comfortably. in my preferred corner. overall a chatroom would not bother me.

Aw...  Don't read too much into that CB, it happens but not for any reason in particular - very often it just gets missed or there is no answer at that time and then it kind of moves down the list without being noticed by those who may have a response.  A good example is a thread I started that got a reply fairly recently, a year after I posted it  :mwaha:

I've never used a forum chat room  as they move too fast for me - I chat with my friends on msn but even then I can only cope with 2 windows at most!

ETA oh my status has changed! I've turned gobshite the last few days  :mwaha:

If you read a lot of the threads around this forum, you'll see them end up as 'chat' anyway, straying away from the whole point of the thread.
There's also the Naughty Corner for other bits and pieces.

sarah, i'm definately not 'instant messaging' with you.

no worries H,

Happy with what we have here it works so why fix it??

In another forum, writing related, we have a chat which we use only on chatty nights... the time and date have been decided beforehand and we chat just that night. The chat should be related to the texts (short stories, poems etc) on the forum but it doesn't always. It has been very nice. I take part only a few times a year.

I don't understand why anyone would feel bad about others meeting in a chat or in real life... not hearing/seeing everything that everyone else says? Hummm... is this somehow culture related? Heresides we don't want to hear/see everything  ;D

I like it here! Never been in a chat room - always thought it would be a bit like this because when I'm posting, i feel like I'm talking to everyone anyway. You can read posts since last visit to catch up with what everyone is doing and if you want to, you can PM people. you can also view replies to your posts to see what other people have contributed to the same topic.
Also, fresholi is a really useful resource - can you get the same access to info in a chat room? for example, if somebody gave some advice a year ago about a problem you have today could you read it, and see what others thought about it etc.

Personally it wouldn't bother me but on another forum it really caused problems - some people (one in particular) really felt they were missing out on something, I suspect they thought we were talking behind their backs which we weren't - says more about them than us I imagine. 

hmm, i dont know why most people so far are against the idea of a chat room, i wouldn't patronize it myself, but i see it as a platform for those who want to get buddy to extend the exchanges. i find it tedious and time consuming  but i dont see how it would harm how the forum is run, i presume people in chatrooms chat about the weather  and the mundane things in life. i have  afriend who met his wife in a  chatroom about 6 years ago, and they married after about 5 years of  cyber dating and travelling to meet each other. looking on the bright side, we could even have the first fresholi marriage via  a chatroom.