HawaiiThreads Chat?

[TurquoiseDuck]

Why is there no chat room ? Just wondering.........

Turquoise Duck

[helen]

The sister site HawaiiStories (http://www.hawaiistories.com/) has a chat room feature.

[TurquoiseDuck]

The sister site HawaiiStories (http://www.hawaiistories.com/) has a chat room feature.

Helen,

Thanks. Am on my way over there right now.

Da Duck

[1stwahine]

I just came from there. It's fun! I talked to myself! :confused:

Like finding a new toy!!!!!! :D

Auntie Lynn

[TurquoiseDuck]

I just came from there. It's fun! I talked to myself! :confused:

Like finding a new toy!!!!!! :D

Auntie Lynn

I talked to myself too and for once no one answered. Ha !


da Duck

[manoasurfer123]

PZ -

I was in contact with someone who knows these boards pretty well and they were mentioning that you might upgrade HT features that would include a "Chat" function.

My two cents....

This Board is great the way it is.... Looking at the costs to add something like that... I'm not real familiar with it...

However, I would say that I'm just happy the way it is now!

Besides... if a "Chat" Feature becomes available....many of us... including me... will not be able to access from work when were not busy!

I love this Board other than that...

Manoa

[Konaguy]

I second manoasurfer123's comments. HT is just fine the way it is :)

[lavagal]

Me, too. Prefer the boards, don't ever chat.

[tutusue]

I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. theory. And that applies to me...not you, Ryan! I don't wanna learn anything new! I'm just getting the hang of HT! :D

[admin]

The question comes up occasionally, but there are no plans to have a "chatroom" here at HawaiiThreads.

HawaiiThreads is a message board, a discussion forum, a place for threaded conversations built with messages that are (ideally, at least) well composed and effectively static (after the edit window passes). Members can participate in current topics regardless of when they're able to get online, and past topics are archived to serve as a searchable resource for members and visitors alike.

A chat room is ethereal, dependent on participants being online together (back in my IRC days, I'd hate conversations that began with, "Oh, you should have been online last night..."), and quite vulnerable to abuse (spammers if you're lucky, flame fests, TROs and libel suits if you're not).

Even with great help, it's a challenge at times cleaning up these forums after a spammer or troll barrels through. You'd have to have considerably more resources and free time to monitor a chat room twenty-four hours a day. Sure you could have disclaimers and warnings and the like, but how much fun is that? In short, "live chat" isn't the kind of experience I'm looking to provide here.

That's not to say I don't see the appeal of a chatroom. Sister site HawaiiStories has a very, very rudimentary chat feature (http://www.hawaiistories.com/chat/). And I've experimented with various packages (including the one zztype has tested at Walaau.org). It's just that if I ever did contemplate "live chat," it'd be something distinct from HawaiiThreads.

[kimo55]

"HawaiiThreads is a message board" and it works well as a 'chat board' just as it is.
as they say:
"slow down... dis ain't da mainland"

[Linkmeister]

You know what I really dislike about IM and chat? That I'm not rude enough to be able to quit the conversation easily. I may need to go cook, go to the bath, go do something else, but I just can't find a simple way to do it.

[helen]

Chat doesn't appeal to me like forums does. And if you feel the need there is always the chat feature in HawaiiStories.

[tutusue]

I'm probably one of the very few people who has never been in a chat room, has never had the desire to check one out and wouldn't have the slightest idea how to go about it even if I wanted to. I've never even sent a text message from my cell phone...no desire...no idea how to do it! My lack of experience with MySpace is in the MySpace thread! :o

The Untechie Tutu strikes again! :D

[kimo55]

You know what I really dislike about IM and chat? That I'm not rude enough to be able to quit the conversation easily. I may need to go cook, go to the bath, go do something else, but I just can't find a simple way to do it.
peeps do a
BRB
in that case.
not considered rude atoll

[zztype]

Yeah, I was futting around with one at walaau.org, but I never actually was able to enter the room and chat when another person was there. The room was littered with "Hello? Anybody here?" messages from lone stragglers that would wander in.

It got nuked recently and I haven't put it back. I just don't think that anyone found it useful.

If you want to chat, send me a PM and I'll come up in iChat on AIM or Gmail chat for you.

Blaine

[OahuGirl]

Hi!

I was just wondering if this site ever had a live chat room? I saw that there are private message options but, I just thought chatting would be nice to have.:)

[Lei Liko]

It'd be easier to set up a chat room on AOL or Yahoo messenger if people really wanted it.

I've been on several vBulletin message boards that had the chat feature, and honestly? They sucked. The look, the features (and lack thereof), etc. it was just boring. A know of admins who disable the feature completely because it's a PITA.

I think HT is just fine without one.

[OahuGirl]

Thanks.

I am on military ones and it is so nice because that is how we get info on prospective duty stations. Thanks anyhow.

[admin]

File this one under geeking out... and please ignore if it's not your cup of tea.

There are some chat options that can focus on a website's community but exist independent of it. A few were discussed before (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=11277), including Gabbly, which creates a chat pop-up with a simple link (http://gabbly.com/hawaiithreads.com).

So, I'm experimenting with one now that uses an overlay rather than a pop-up or sidebar. Uses Flash and AJAX for a pretty slick presentation, but still only exists for those who invoke it. It's invisible, otherwise. It seemed... different enough that it didn't feel like yet another chatroom, but I concede that "different" doesn't always mean better.

In any case, if you want to play with it, you need to be logged in, and click the "Firefly Chat" link under the "Quick Links" menu. You'll see why it's called "Firefly" pretty quickly, if you in fact happen to have it activated at the same time as someone else. If not? Have fun talking to yourself.

I still don't think HT needs or even lends itself well to live chat, mind you. The HawaiiStories room is gone and no one missed it; the chat options that have come and gone since this thread started haven't been compelling, either. But the geek in me just had to try it. So, this is a limited test, subject (as is anything here!) to my fickle whims. If it's gone in a few days... or even a few hours, my apologies in advance for the ridiculousness.

UPDATE: Well, already discovered a basic problem. Firefly links the chat layer to the page URL that invokes it. So, there's a chat layer for this thread, for every thread, the homepage, search results, etc. I was hoping for a site-wide chat layer. I'll get in touch with the developers, but this is not quite ready for prime time. Will leave it in place for the curious, though!