I was thinking about putting up a chat area.

[Kizzume]

I was thinking about putting up a chat area. I tested it out last night and it seems to work pretty good, but I don't think I like it being at the bottom of every page. There is something else I could try, however.... hmmm....

But anyway--the biggest thing that deters me from this is the idea that it could actually detract from the forum. What do you think?

[Coyote]

It does at times detract from the forum. But then again, it's an awfully fun and convenient feature.

[jq]

I prefer forums, personally, for a variety of reasons. For one, I often don't get the opportunity to dedicate 100% of the time I am on here to being on here. What I mean is, I often have something else I HAVE to do, I get interrupted a lot, and what makes forums so nice is that there is no hurry to reply. You can reply where you want, when you want, as it fits your time schedule, and it doesn't leave anyone hanging the same way that chat does.

Plus I think that forums tend to be more discussion oriented. I don't really know why that is. I think partially it is just because people operate at a different mind set when we are in chatrooms-- they tend to revise and rethink their ideas more on a forum, and often even cite more sources than they do when they chat.

I guess what I mean is, I think a lot of times discussions are "cheapened" by chat, if that makes any sense at all.

I personally really like what we have going on right now. I feel now need for a sudden change in setup, personally, because I already find this to be a fun place to spend time and discuss ideas.

[Kizzume]

I tend to agree with you. I'm trying something as a beta right now--I may remove it if it's stupid. It opens up a separate page and has a weird color scrolling effect on the whole thing. If it detracts too much, I'll remove it, and if people think it's dumb, I'll remove it. It's just an experiment right now, and it just adds an extra button that says "Chat" on it.

Let me know either way.