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!   

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