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Jon Boyes -> RE: Member chat? Yes/no (Jun. 30 2004 9:22:42)
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Let me tell you a story.
Once upon a time there was a thriving Internet forum (on Usenet), mainly for UK guitarists. The atmosphere was friendly, people just hung out and chatted (posting messages) and there were many regulars from other parts of the world who posted there, because it had a much nicer atmosphere than many other guitar forums. They even had regular on line virtual jam sessions where everyone would post a clip and it all got mixed together (sound familiar?) and the occasional meet up.
One day someone said 'let's set up a chat room, so we can talk in real time'. I argued against it, I said it would ony appeal to a limited amount of people (those with broadband connections who can stay online all the time), and I said that it would take valuable discussion off the forum (where everything is organised neatly in threads, searchable etc). It would also disrupt conversation between people in different parts of the world (for example, I can now have an ongoing debate with Mike or Andy who are in completely different time zones).
The chat room was set up, the forum practically died, as many of the regulars basically all moved to the chatroom.
The chat room now thrives, but of course only to those people who have broadband, and the conversation between people in different countries is practically non-existent. The valuable discussion that takes place in the chat room is lost as it is not organised in theads or searchable.
It also gave rise to accusations of a clique - basically, you were left out unless you were in the chatroom all day. You would miss out on whats been said, and have no way of catching up. Dave's remarks are not that far off the truth.
So there you go. IMO its the last thing we should do. You can see who's online with this forum anyhow, and almost chat in real time.
Jon
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