Cassiopaea Chat room(s)

[Zaphod]

Ever been considered? ..

 

[Mikey]

Ever been considered? ..

The forum is international, so, due to time zones, nobody could always participate in a real-time chat.

 

[SocietyoftheSpectacle]

What about a Chat BOX ?
They can be free although that does allow spamming,
A small cost and they can be for logged in members only
displaying their usual name.

 

[Learner]

Ever been considered? ..

The forum is international, so, due to time zones, nobody could always participate in a real-time chat.

Another problem that I would see with a forum chat is that it is much more fast-paced. That makes it more difficult for non-native speakers who don't have much practice in English yet (and struggle with it) to participate. They may feel more excluded. And then, a chat often "invites" people to write without giving it a second thought. This can give way to dynamics that are not very much in line to this forum and the Work. And also, since chats tend to be so fast-paced, it will give more room to manipulative and other pathological behaviors which could then be overseen more easily.

A thread which discusses the issue of chat rooms and why this option has not been chosen for the forum:

Using live chat borads among groups?

The Sott Radio Shows have chat rooms, where listeners interact with each other regularly; and from the English Sott Shows I attended, I can say they are quite lively. For more personal issues, the Swamp area is a good place to network about them.

Hope this helps :)

 

[Meg]

Another problem that I would see with a forum chat is that it is much more fast-paced. That makes it more difficult for non-native speakers who don't have much practice in English yet (and struggle with it) to participate. They may feel more excluded. And then, a chat often "invites" people to write without giving it a second thought. This can give way to dynamics that are not very much in line to this forum and the Work. And also, since chats tend to be so fast-paced, it will give more room to manipulative and other pathological behaviors which could then be overseen more easily.

Absolutely and it can be difficult to discern the dynamics between people without the eyes of the network. Discussing our thinking and issues openly here is for everyone's growth and protection. It helps keep the Forum a safe place for all to share and learn.

This thread might be helpful, too, in understanding why we don't encourage chatrooms.

 

[Scottie]

Yup, signal-to-noise ratio is extremely hard to maintain in a 24-hour, live chat situation. It's also a wonderful opportunity for trolling and things like, "Oh my god, you like bacon too? Let's get married!"

Naturally, this idea has been brought up before, and we regularly think about what we can do to expand our network. But everything must be done carefully and in a well thought-out way.

Generally speaking, it's far better to actually meet people in person and socialize in a real, concrete way instead of "Facebooking it". To that end, we have meetups at both our US and European locations. But there again, preference is given to those who participate here on the forum or who help out a lot with SOTT, and so on.

It's kind of nice when you think about it. No one ever has to give a single penny, but if you want to "get somewhere", you must at least give time, energy, and give of yourself by trying to help others. It's the No Free Lunch thing and all that.