A java chat area?

Joe,

We have this discussion about once a year. At one point, we had an off-site chat room, but no-one was ever there. It died, slowly and alone.

Really? Wow, I would think that such an active forum would be there if it was on site.

It requires so much policing, though. There are plenty of chat rooms you can go to that allow people to say just about anything about anything and it all descends into flame wars. GN is a family show, transmitted before the watershed; your children can surf here and the worst that will happen to them is they'll click on a link to me or Vic singing.

If you want to talk guitars on a chat site, that's fine, but IMHO we'd rather not have people discussing politics, religion, or deviances round here on a guitar site.

A :-)

Was thinking that a java chat applet would be cool.

Yes, I agree, but the site ain't mine, and the issue has been addressed.

Although it has nothing to with guitars, and would be all about friendhip or this 'family'. I would like a place onsite, to say "Hey y'all, my dog just died and I'm sad" or "I took my kids to a Disneyland and here's some pics!"

Alas, it's just not meant to be, like the series of Blues Talk, Fender-Talk, Gibson Talk, Ibanez Talk, etc. etc. forums, where there is a lounge and a catch-all place for all types of healthy discussion for diverse (unrelated) topics, I've read.

Except, my personal feeling is that those catch-all areas of a forum, are about life, and what makes us human beings. Something about our own family, our OTHER interests, our jobs and experiences, and more. I think it would add something interesting.

I belong to some Mustang (car) forums where you can talk about your dog, your job and your Mother-in Law? :lol: It's about performance, tuning, who gets the most from a gallon of racing fuel, better time slips, or a late dinner, weeds that grow on the lawn, and a leak in the roof?

I understang the policing issues and the possible need for moderation, but strangely, still - not surprisingly, those other sites don't have problems? People just say their thing, it is either accepted or not, you may respond, you may not, but it keeps the wheels turning. Just my two cents.

We tried a "Coffee Shop", where most of the posts were off-topic. It slowly descended into a morass, which needed constant policing.

Paul's basic precept is that you behave as if you were invited to someone's house for a meal with them and their children. If you wouldn't do it there, don't do it here.

Everybody likes to go off the rails, now and then. When you do it in real life, do you do it at home? Not usually. Normally you go somewhere where no-one will bat an eyelid if you go a little crazy. When you feel better you go back home.

Or, at least, that's the way you do it if you're married and want to stay that way........................

I think alot of those things are being posted in the News section, and have nothing to do with or about guitars. Hearing about peoples recovery over bad situations, or triumphs when they have a room full of women playing music but get NO PICTURES :twisted: :twisted:

I read those and get the human element. And I think it helps me to know the people on here a bit better.

As far as the policing the chat room goes, I didn't really think about it. I figured it would be kind of like on the forums, but then again, I don't see the stuff that DOESN'T get posted because it's been modded out. So I agree.

Graham's right. I went to the chat area a few times while we still had it. I was always the only one there. Gets boring talking to yourself (I do that enough at home!!).

And, as Graham said, the "Coffee Shop" went downhill so quickly we even had members asking us to take it down. It turned into a "If you don't agree with me, then you're just plain stupid" sort of thing. There was slamming and flame wars that would have NEVER been allowed in any other forum! I, for one, was glad to see it go.

And, we're really not that harsh when it comes to certain "off topic" things. I mean, if your dog died and you felt the need to post about it, I don't think anyone would come down on you, but you can darn well bet that someone will post back that you need to write a country song about it. But, if you wanted to post about your date last night with that really hot chick and tell every single little detail, it would definitely get deleted.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if you're going to make an off topic post, be sure that it's something important in your life. Like Bish's battles when his grandchild was born, or Roy's ear problems, but we don't really care if you had chicken for dinner last night. See what I mean?

Anyway, a bunch of us started using MSN Messenger as an outlet for that sort of thing. We could all chat, and nothing was off topic. Might try that again!

Awww....the "Coffee Shop"!The memories. How I'd rather forget them. MSN/AIM is much better for talking about each others outside interest and can be quite entertaining at times. The good 'ol days. :D

Hey I just had an idea about revisiting something like the Coffee Shop again. I understand all the issues related to opening up these forums to a more free form format but what i was thinking is to use something similar to the way you are now controlling new posters.

Create a coffee shop forum that only allows users who have say 500 or more posts to enter maybe even 1000. This way you won't get the fly by night posters starting flame wars and never coming back but if someone has been around long enough to have posted 1000 times I think it's a pretty safe bet they aren't going to start a flame war.

If I look at the "regulars" who've been here for a few years I can't forsee any problems with a forum devoted to non-musical things. You can still limit it in someways, making say religious and political posts off limits but most other things should be fine.

Example, I don't surf the net much and other than this forum don't post anywhere else but I know there are alot of people involved in IT work as their main occupation. I currently have run into a problem with some viruses on my wife's computer. I'd like to be able to post here, where I know the people that are going to reply to some degree.

cnev, just PM the people on here you feel you know well that are IT buffs and they'll more than likely answer your queries,
if not then more than likely you're on their FOE list ( :lol: ). (btw I hope your wife is doing well, I read your post back over a year ago that she had not been well)

sorry cnev, I've just read a thread from this year where you mentioned your wife is still ill, I hope very much that she will get stronger and have full remission ( my Mum passed away a year and a half ago from leukemia, but they didn't find it in time and she also had a lung condition - she was not a smoker or drinker, I mention that because you mentioned also that your parents had passed away, I remember reading your thread about that over a year ago and wanted to say something but I'd got too nervous, I get bad bouts of nerves at times - sometimes I feel like I'm buttonholing people, well I don't mean to - I'm starting to ramble so will get off now :)

Violet, thanks for the kind words. As of now the wife seems to be doing fine ( I say seems because it seems like you never really know one minute everything is fine and the next bam trouble again)

But so far so good. She was diagnosed in Sept 2006 so it's been about 3 years now. Unfortunately she was ina fairly high risk category being Stage 3 and they had found cancer cells in all of the lymph nodes they removed. It was pretty scary for awhile especially at same time my parents were ill.

Thankfully she seems to be doing well now so I keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way.

Your welcome cnev, I'm glad she's doing well now, may she stay in good progress, God bless,
Violet aka Allison