w7forums Chat?

Hmm, cool, but I meant ones that are actually implemented...where you can go and ask quick questions or whatnot.

I've always been one who is open to new things. If there was massive requests and support for a "chat room", I would say yes, go for it. But there are problems with chat rooms. First, the spammers. There would be multitudes of pirated software & keys for sale. There would have to be a dedicated moderator in "the room" 24/7, just to intercept these deals. At some point, one or more of the mods would be offered a "cut" of the deals to look the other way, and sooner or later, one would give in. Perhaps due to unemployment, but regardless, a mess would begin. Somehow or the other, this traffic would have to be diverted elsewhere, "to keep things quiet". At some point, someone is going to be pissed over a bad deal, then hell would break loose. Ultimately, Ian, being the owner & administrator of this forum, would be held partially responsible for everything, it's his forum. Ian knows how to run forums, and I'm very grateful that he has this one, open for anyone to join & participate in. I would never want to see him held accountable for someone else's doings. I'm not against the idea of a chat room, but someone who knows how to run and constantly police one should be the one to do it. I know that Ian has other forums, or at least at one time he has, anyway. But a forum & a chat room are two different ventures. And it's probably best that it remain that way.

I don't think it would be that difficult to police if only forum members could use the chat. Could a chat room be setup to only allow forum members?

I believe one advantage to the forum style is that answers are there for future searchers, a search is what brought me here in the first place because I was searching a problem. It has the other advantage that in a chat room you are limited to the knowledge of the individuals currently online while when I come to the forum at any time day or night I can scan the topics of the past 24 hours or unanswered items, etc. The individual doesn't always get immediate results but he may get results he otherwise wouldn't.

If a chatroom were to be implimented it might be a good idea to post "important" discussions to the forum for future searchers.

I've only been on one once, a year or so ago, and it was wide open, I was no member of anything. I only know that I was invited, and a friend helped me get in the chat room. There was open talking of buying & selling drugs, prostitution, you name it, it was there, but I don't recall anything about software mentioned. There were guns for sale. So, if it were setup, it would have to be for forum members only. The only thing(s) about it, as TrainableMan brought up, important topics would pass us by. And it would have to be policed, just as this forum has to be. I guess it's a matter of how much extra money & resources is going to be involved in it's operation that would ultimately make the decision to do it, or not. Like I said in my first statement regarding this, I'm an open minded person. But I have no idea of what's all involved.

If a chat was to be made, I would probably apply to be a chat moderator, seeing as I am a pretty active member.

Also, a long time ago, I made a very basic php chat, which had one very useful feature: the message wouldn't be posted if it contained words or phrases that were marked by me as "banned".

That is, of course, a very basic feature, but it can allready limit the kind of posts members post.

Cheers,
Fire Cat

I was on a forum a few years ago (closed now) and we tried a chat room, a few used it but it became redundant when Admin tried a members only shout box ... that was fun !

Fire Cat, you can moderate all of that stuff you want, I don't want anything to do with it, period. A lot of useful information would be discussed, members walking other members through issues, that should be discussed here for everyone to read and learn by. After all, that's an advantage of being a forum member, to read the posts and learn through them. Lots of very valuable information, covering most any topic, is right here. You may have to do some searching, but you can find a lot here.

I suppose that there's nothing wrong with the idea of a chat room, but to be fair to everyone, it should be off-topic only. That way, no information that others can benefit from will be discussed there, and it can be more or less of a social group, that's open to all members here. There will have to be a line drawn somewhere, and this would be one that could benefit all.
Cat

Without digressing from the thread. I finf that one of the pleasures of coming to ians site, is its pure simplicity.
It is dedicated to Windows 7, a plus for me. It remains uncluttered with "extras" for the members. If you are giving or receiving help, evene a brand new, semi computer literate, has no prblems navigating here.
I fear that if we now start to implement suggestions for extra features the site will be cluttered, use more of the server resources, and, as a result, not be such a desirable visit for many seeking Windows 7 pastures.
Keep it as it is, but do the utmost to improve useful input.

Thats interesting davehc. Now that I think about it, the simplicity is why I like it here as well. Sometimes I wish those of us that are regular could have a way to communicate among ourselves in more of a real time environment. Say for instance, I wanted to consult with someone before answering a question on the forums. We could all agree not to answer any technical questions within the chat room. However, I do see having a chat room pulling our attention away from the forums and creating a level of neglect.