6 replies to this topic

[benbakelaar]

Guys and gals, seriously, there are like 6 of us sitting on this board posting at the rate of 2-3 a minute... why don't we get a live chat feature going on here? It doesn't even have to be realtime, it can be near-realtime, server-refreshed HTML, but I say, why not??

Anyone else think this is a good idea?

[Hans van der Maarel]

I wondered about that as well. There's bound to be some simple, java-based chat-options available. Best would be something that integrates with the board software of course.

[Nick Springer]

There are many chat options for the board software including one from Invision themselves (although that costs something). If enough people are interested I can look into it. Of course you can add your IM handles to your profile, but that's a bit personal. I also wonder if any knowledge will be lost if chats happen about interesting cartographic subjects and aren't shared for all to read.

[benbakelaar]

The "near-real time" feature I was referring to is often called a "ShoutBox" on other boards. I think what we would want is a Shoutbox on steroids - close enough to real-time to not be a pain, but in standard HTML, which means it's archivable.

[Nick Springer]

Archivable, but not categorized and threaded necessarily.

[benbakelaar]

Well I'm imagining it automatically categorized or "chunked" by time-period. But anyway, yes I understand your concern... in the chaos of real-time chat, it is certainly possible to lose good information.

[ELeFevre]

I also wonder if any knowledge will be lost if chats happen about interesting cartographic subjects and aren't shared for all to read.

I wonder about this as well.
Also, if only six or ten of us are chatting it might get old really quick. Besides, the time we spend chatting could be spent writing posts. How bout a test run or a poll to try and guage how many people would actually use it?