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Chat?

ZaylZayl Veteran
edited February 2011 in NewBuddhist.com
Does this website have a chatroom? I think it would be a good addition, personally. It would be nice to meet and to talk to a lot of you in real-time (more or less) and it would help us to get to know each other much better. If such a room already exists, then disregard this post.

also: look, a tree!

Comments

  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    There isn't enough antacid in the world for me to add a real-time chat.
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    *hopes and dreams crushed*

    Not even if I give you ALL my Tums? :bawl:
  • missnikkimissnikki
    A real time chat would be nice, I'm sure there is a way...
  • DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
    I am with the real time chat!:)
  • JeffreyJeffrey Veteran
    It worked for my homebrewing forum. But it was a different setting where the clientelle did not like to argue. And all were mature at least in the sense of social discourse. And smaller, maybe 15 core who participated and a few who drifted in. The core normalized the social expectations in the room.

    As this forum is I think it would be like an aol room where there are regulars but a lot of people who come to argue. And personal squabbles among the regulars which on a moderated forum are taken care of.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    edited February 2011
    I think people should take Lincoln's comment as a 'no' and have done with it.

    There are other ways to chat.
    Post your MSNs to each other via PMs and have it that way.

    simple!
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    I think people should take Lincoln's comment as a 'no' and have done with it.

    There are other ways to chat.
    Post your MSNs to each other via PMs and have it that way.

    simple!
    That's too easy, we demand something more complicated and intricate!
  • missnikkimissnikki
    LOL at Zayl.

    Would someone like to organize an msn group chat?
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    That'd be kinda sucky. I don't even know anyone who uses MSN. Lots of people use AIM though...
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    I use MSN though rarely, logging in generally gets me an assload of people talking to me at once, and it's hard for me to keep track.
  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    I use MSN for email. I can't stand the advertising on yahoo. :p
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    edited February 2011
    Gmail rules you all. :D (for e-mail anyway, not for chat)
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    I can pretty much guarantee that it wouldn't work out anyway. Forum chatrooms need several moderators on 24/7 to prevent them from degenerating into constant flame wars.
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    See how religious people ruin things...lol...we supposedly can't even have a chat room, cuz all the religious people will come in and start preaching and arguing. If religion was simplified to "let it be" I would be happy.
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    TheJourney, it has nothing to do with religion. On a forum you have time to reflect on whether you should say something or not.

    Having said that, there's no reason why you can't star an 'unofficial' newbuddhist irc channel on dalnet or something.
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    @ShiftPlusOne

    Why can't we have an unmoderated chat? Just list it as "WARNING: THIS CHAT IS UNMODERATED AND PURE ANARCHY. PLEASE BE KIND, REWIND." and/or have a mod pop in once in a while to clean things up. If there are constant flame wars, so be it. If people get offended, they can leave the chat.
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    Exactly. Like wtf this is the internet why are we like limiting ourselves lol why does everything have to be so controlled? Sure, moderate this forum, but why can't we have a forum where we can just say what we want.
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    edited February 2011
    MindGate, 'cause then it wouldn't have anything to do with Buddhism. There are plenty of general purpose chat rooms out there. And like I said, if you want a chat room with this particular community, you can make one one dalnet. I don't know if the mods would let you advertise it here though.

    TheJourney, you can... go on 4chan /b (don't... ever).
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    Obviously he's not suggesting this so he can just talk to random people...the point is to chat with you guys...
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    It's not just a matter of flame wars, there is also the issue of spambots and hackers. If you leave a room unmoderated, sooner or later, it's going to be filled with trolls and spambots. Seriously, if the webmasters of newbuddhist wanted to start a chat room than they would've. Instead, they chose a forum. A forum gives people time to think about what they'll write, time to look up information and time to consider whether what they're typing is right speech or not. More importantly, the information stays up for anyone to search and learn from. As others mentioned earlier, if you want to have a realtime conversation with someone, use MSN.

    I don't understand what the issue here is.

    If you want something done, do it yourself. You can start your own chat room, run it however you want and invite whoever you want. Just learn how to run an IRC channel and you're set.
  • CamCam
    I think it'd be a blast to have discussions over a voice client, like ventrilo, teamspeak, mumble or skype.

    Relies on people having microphones through.
  • CloudCloud Veteran
    Gotta agree 100% with @ShiftPlusOne. Sure, "chat", but it's not going to be anywhere near as clean and well-spoken as forum posts. Even having Buddhists in it, you likely wouldn't be able to tell as it would easily degenerate unless it were strictly moderated.
  • TheJourneyTheJourney
    Who cares if it degenerates??? Should we not have a place where we can just talk and not worry about it??? Obviously the point of chat is quite different from the point of forums
  • compassionate_warriorcompassionate_warrior Veteran
    Journey, I already have trouble stomaching some of the rudeness and occasional hostility on this, supposedly well-moderated site. I'm not going to be up for a chatroom if it gets worse than what we already have.
  • ShiftPlusOneShiftPlusOne Veteran
    TheJourney, I do.

    What is it you're worried about? You're as free to voice your opinions here as you would be on anybody else's property.

    If you're hosting a dharma discussion group at your house, for example, and somebody comes in without contributing anything of value, telling everybody else they are wrong and responding with uninvited and unwelcome insults, what would you do?

    If you let them carry on fighting and bickering or join in, then you're lost sight of what you were there for - a dharma discussion. Then those who were there for the original purpose of the meeting would not show up again and only those who want to fight with each other would come. If that's what you want, that's fine, but then there's no point presenting it as a dharma discussion if it's just idle chatter and fighting.

    So, why is there moderation? It keeps discussion on topic, so that those who are interested in the topic can discuss it without lolcats popping up everywhere. Others can search and find topic and discussions they are interested in and learn from them. That's the point of organisation and moderation. Moderators don't send out warning because they want to, but because they have to in order to keep the forum on track. I am a moderator on another forum and when someone comes along and starts insulting others, I send out a warning. Normally they leave and the forum functions as it should.

    There's a fine line between a suggestion and a demand. If a participant in your dharma discussion group suggests that you talk about lolcats instead, that's fine. However, if that participant starts kicking and screaming about lolcats, it's disruptive to others. So, the mods have considered the idea of a chat and decided it's not necessary for the purpose of the site. We're in no position to demand a chat room... it's their property and they can do with it as they wish.

    The great thing about the internet is that if you can do things your way. You can start your own forum with a chat room. Why complain when you can do something about it?
  • ZaylZayl Veteran
    edited February 2011
    Every forum chat I've been on has been unmoderated and people remain kind and respectful, even if the subject matter does not always follow the forum's theme... because they all know each other. If people here are so immature that you fear flame wars, then there would be flaming in the forums regardless.

    If it's going to cause trouble, then forget I brought this up.
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited February 2011
    Why can't we have an unmoderated chat? Just list it as "WARNING: THIS CHAT IS UNMODERATED AND PURE ANARCHY. PLEASE BE KIND, REWIND."
    I've watched that done, hmm, 3 times. Guess what happened every time? :D
    why can't we have a forum where we can just say what we want.
    You can. Go make it. Good luck. (Just don't call it 'NewBuddhist').

    I don't see what's being argued here. I've declined the suggestion to add a chat feature to this site (probably for the fourth time), not told you that you can't use the rest of the Internet. ;)

    If you don't agree with my decision, that's OK! I didn't say you had to agree, but don't think you're going to win me over with your opinions (on this one), either. :) I have a lot of experience doing this, and I don't believe this is an appropriate feature for the community right now. If some of you want to chat online, more power to you, but please don't do it under the NewBuddhist banner.
  • SimonthepilgrimSimonthepilgrim Veteran
    The reality is that it is quite possible to use the "Inbox" feature as a sort of chat facility between consenting members.
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    @Lincoln

    Can we call it OldBuddhist? Or NewerBuddhist? RecentBuddhist? RisingBuddhist? YoungBuddhist? Just wondering. :)
  • MindGateMindGate United States Veteran
    Or the MSN group I made.
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    You could call it "NotAdvertisingMyChatThruNewBuddhist".
This discussion has been closed.