Chat feature

[CKorfmann]

I was wondering...  Would it be possible for the site to include a chat feature?  It might be nice for people who are online at the same time.  Would anyone be interested?

[canada steve]

Always a good idea this but has to be a non-moded area so everyone would need to play nice.

[CKorfmann]

I can see the concern here...

[Gantry]

An old idea from when the site was first started.  Agreed that it would be nice, but the problem with real-time chat is that typically people show up, ask a question, it gets answered, they disappear, and the answer fades into obscurity.  It would reduce the incentive for people to post in the forums, and also reduce the effectiveness of the forums as a permanent searchable resource.

[CKorfmann]

I hadn't thought about it that way.  I can see where that could be a negative thing.

[Scott]

I've seen this implemented on a much larger site where there was a tremendous amount of enthusiam and demand for live chat. It got used for a couple days and then faded into obscurity. People seem to forget that the world consists of multiple time zones and we're not all on-line simultaneously.

[Tobias]

I've seen this implemented on a much larger site where there was a tremendous amount of enthusiam and demand for live chat. It got used for a couple days and then faded into obscurity. People seem to forget that the world consists of multiple time zones and we're not all on-line simultaneously.

Yeah. Chats are time-zone dependant, and I would vote against it here if it came to that.