Having a Chat site on the new forum???

I guess I don't see the advantage of a chat. For example, you stated: "Questions like Track cleaning,smoke oil and traction tires could be answered in real time keeping those weekly/daily questions out of the mix". If I ask a question in a chat, the responses will be limited to those participating in the chat. If I post a question on the forum, there is a much larger audience to get a response from.

I guess if the questions were simple, a chat would suffice. But if the questions were more technical, it would be better to draw from a larger group.

Earl

Earl has a good point. Threads where problems or questions are brought up and answered in following posts are there for all forum member to read. Many more might be helped just by reading the thread.

Chat might be good for a buy/trade/sell forum though. Everything could be taken care of in real time.

TEX
Steve

Earl,
There were so many participating in the chat that most questions got answered, so much so the regular forum turned into kind of a technical forum for more lengthy questions.

I know there are some guys here that don't type fast and they could still do it the way we do it now.

It took me a little while to get used to it but after while I really enjoyed it.

David

OK...I normally don't get involved in these kinds of threads because SOMETIMES they get a little dander ruffled...but...IMHO I don't want to see a chat option. One of the strong points of this forum is the fact that it is not cluttered with all of the personal daily goings on that I normally see in the chat threads. A good example is the CTT forum.... The largest thread there is what I call the "sip coffee" thread and it is chocked full of everything from folks telling others about their woes to what they had for breakfast!! Trying to find train related information within a thread like that is nearly impossible. When train info does get posted in that thread, one has to go through dozens of posts before they may find like responses. I am a member over there but gave up a couple of years ago trying to participate by focusing on "trains". Its like trying to weed through the gossip before you get to the facts!

If folks would like to chat, do so via personal e-mail and phone instead of airing to others what you have planned for the day in the yard, what you are going to have for supper, why you are mad at the government...etc., etc....

If this forum heads that direction, I will be exiting off the nearest ramp!!

Thanks,
Alan

Not to ruffle dander, but I don't get it. Wouldn't Chat be akin to going into another sub forum? I don't use tinplate or narrow gauge, so I never go there. They exist, but not to me. How would a chat room be different?

I can see I'm starting to fall behind all this new-age internet stuff. I don't even know the difference between a chat room and what we have now?!?!?!

Online chat is pretty much real time or as close to you can get. Sort of like a conference call but typing only

Marty...don't worry, no "dander" ruffled...just a "saying". I guess my point is that I have noticed that folks tend to go the the chat site to see what is going on because usually chat threads for what ever reason attract attention. Sort of like folks comparing daily life stories... Before long, then good train information is mixed in with these stories and weeding through all of it is frustrating. I like the current format and all I am saying is in my opinion (and I am often wrong, just ask my wife!) if folks want to chat about topics unrelated to the focus of this forum, then PM each other.

Take a look at the CTT forum and see what "topic" is the largest on there and then cruise through it. I personally don't come to a train forum to chat about my morning coffee break...

Thanks,
Alan

Speaking for folks that are in an office environment Monday through Friday: I can post a question and occasionally check out the thread, even from work. But chatting is actually forbidden, as I would imagine it is at most companies. I appreciate the "real time" aspects of a chat, but honestly I don't think I have ever waited more than 30 minutes before I got a response to a question. I also agree that a lot of chats wander way off of the original topic. Don't get me wrong, I love you all you guys! But not sure I need to know the best way to cook scrapple when I asked about where to buy smoke fluid. (Sorry, couldn't resist...it has been way too long since I saw a scrapple reference. BTW I prefer RAPA Brand!!)

Sincerely,

Wyndham

I can see where some people might enjoy this feature and I completely agree with the point that if you don't want to use it just don't. However, I seem to recall that Rich posted once that there are some features on this forum that could be "turned on" but aren't because of how some people act on the forum threads. This problem isn't going away in the new forum so I'm not sure where Rich stands on this. Whether it is implemented on the forum or not there is nothing stopping people from starting their own "chat room" using any of the bazillion IRC clients out there and posting an announcement here so "new blood" can join. Or make it "private"... whatever. The ability to do this already exists.

I don't type quickly enough to use a chat function. Also, if a chat room is not moderated, it can devolve into "discussions" that might violate the Terms of Service. Ask Allan if he's interested in moderating a chat room 24/7.

quote:

Originally posted by Virginian:
Speaking for folks that are in an office environment Monday through Friday: I can post a question and occasionally check out the thread, even from work. But chatting is actually forbidden, as I would imagine it is at most companies.

I am in IT consulting and what I am finding is that many businesses are actually pushing me to have a chat window up all the time. I used to think it was pretty pointless for one on one conversations but some software lets you keep transcripts of the sessions which is really handy in lieu of written notes. I do find the constant interruptions disruptive though.

With all of the people here I think it would get clogged up pretty rapidly. Still, I guess it is worth a try.

quote:

Ask Allan if he's interested in moderating a chat room 24/7.

I'm not even interested in moderating one for a couple of minutes. People really need to spend less time being connected online and more time being connected with their layouts.

The coffee pot is not intended to be a question/answer thread, it's a social gathering and it does exactly what it was intended to do.
Being a member of this forum for some time now I'm not sure if some of these people could handle a chat site without destroying it.

One of the many new features available to us in the upcoming NEW OGR FORUM is a feature called "Chat Events." We could invite someone from the industry to be our guest and you could submit questions for that guest. We are contemplating doing this on a monthly basis. The Chat Event feature will not be enabled or used when we first launch the NEW OGR FORUM. We want all of you to get familiar with the basics of the new forum before we start adding new features.

Participation in these Chat Events, along with Private Messaging, posting Calendar Events, access to special Blog Content, the ability to hide the ads and perhaps even our Digital Edition may become part of a premium membership that we will call the "First Class Pass" on the OGR Forum.

The new forum software has so much more to offer that we have not finalized everything about it yet, beyond getting the basic forum up and running. But we are looking to the future and are planning on making this forum a much more interesting place to be than ever before.

quote:

the ability to hide the ads

Can you elaborate please on that??

Are we going to be getting those annoying pop-up ads at the bottom or elsewhere automatically on screens that on other sites you have to take the trouble to click the "x" to get of, or else they partially block the screen?

And if we're not "premium members" we can't rid our screens of ads that block the view? Or not?

And how do you subscribe to being a premium member? Do we have to pay for that??

Thanks for the info Rich,

I did enjoy the chat feature and as some have noted it did need moderation and if there's an unwillingness to do that then it's definitely a moot point.
As I recall we didn't have very many conflicts but the other scales also don't have a Lionel and MTH camp firing across the river at each other all the time either.

The events chat idea will be nice. It'd be nice for some of us that don't attend York regularly to be able to put some of these train manufactures thru their paces and maybe give them a little insight as to what we'd like to have and get answers as to how they're trying to solve the Q/C issues that are the topic of many discussions here on the forum.

The company I retired from used this all the time.When your company covers half of the U.S, it's hard to get to the CEO sometimes to get specific questions answered in real time without the usual corporate wait as it goes up the chain of command.

This would be great if we could persuade Mike Regan to give up some valuable time to participate and possibly the Tech Dept. at MTH too?

David

quote:

Originally posted by Allan Miller:

quote:

Ask Allan if he's interested in moderating a chat room 24/7.

I'm not even interested in moderating one for a couple of minutes. People really need to spend less time being connected online and more time being connected with their layouts.

I am glad someone in this thread agrees with me. Get a life people. Sitting at a computer "chatting" does not fit my definition of a worthwhile usage of time. I am here for info on trains so I can have more and better behaved ones.