live chat

Moderator: Mike Everman

Post Reply
lucky rookie
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:44 pm
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: droitwich worcestershire uk

live chat

Post by lucky rookie » Mon Dec 04, 2006 8:44 pm

would it be too difficult to have live chat ......sometimes when i am working on a design some one to chat to about it would be agreat help
i WILL get this pulsjet running even if my wife says i wont

Tom
Posts: 603
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 12:55 pm
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: UK

re: live chat

Post by Tom » Mon Dec 04, 2006 11:59 pm

I seem to remember we had something like that in the old days of the pre-phpbb forum. Did we ever have an IRC channel?

Tom
Experience speaks more then hypothesizing ever can. More-so in chemistry.

Mike Everman
Posts: 5007
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 7:25 am
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: santa barbara, CA
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Mike Everman » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:23 am

I'm getting ready to roll up the forum software to most recent. Any mods wanted, it's a good time...
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
__________________________

Irvine.J
Posts: 1063
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:28 pm
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Irvine.J » Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:36 am

Live chat would be very cool... I look foward to it!

larry cottrill
Posts: 4140
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 1:17 am
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: Mingo, Iowa USA
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by larry cottrill » Tue Dec 05, 2006 1:40 pm

I would hate it, and would try my best to never use it.

What I DON'T NEED is a forum where I can (and am expected to) respond in knee-jerk reaction to something that has just been said. Doesn't anybody think things are bad enough when personal insults and accusations flying back and forth have already driven some good contributors from our midst? I, too, have been occasionally insulted by the comments of others (intentionally or un-) - the LAST thing I need is feeling pressured to respond quickly!

This idea has been brought up before - I voted against it then, for the same reason, and I feel even MORE strongly against it now. It is 'bad medicine' in a place where civil discourse is the desired norm.

We need to be especially cautious in a venue where English is usually the language of discussion, but is a second language for many. Unintentional wrong usages can be severely misinterpreted when there is little time to consider what has just been posted.

L Cottrill

Anders Troberg
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:38 am
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: Central Sweden
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Anders Troberg » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:31 pm

I'm afraid I'm with Larry on this. It would be nice to be able to chat away and get quick responses on questions, but people need to learn to calm down first.

What might work, which I use at my site, is voice chat. I use TeamSpeak, a free software with clients for Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux. I've found that people tend to be more civilized when they are actually speaking to each other. Not that my users ever use the voice chat, but it's still a neat idea.

If there is interest in it, I could set up a separate TeamSpeak server temporarily some time for some international discussions on pulse jets. We just need to come up with some snappy name for it.

I'm active at a couple of other sites, and on two of them, people can be tearing at each other's throats in one discussion, while the same people are carrying on a perfectly friendly discussion in another thread, and no grudge is held. I think that's a good indication of a good discussion climate. I think we really need to pull together and make an effort to change the climate around here, even if that means that sometimes means biting our tongue and keeping quiet, even though someone is rude to us.

This is a place with an amazing collection of knowledge and a lot of people who burn for their jet passion. That burning passion is a good driving force, but it sometimes need to be kept in check or it will go out of control as opinions clash. It's sad when bright people leave because of petty bickering, and it's time we start trying to actively win some of them back.

One thing I use at my site when a thread goes out of control is something I call a thread cooldown. When an argument becomes too heated and personal (over a subject worth salvaging), I lock the thread for one day. This gives everybody a chance to cool down, consider all arguments, and formulate a reply that's not written in anger. When the thread is reopened, I expect the discussion to be about the matter at hand and not about personal issues. As the thread is not permanently locked, a thread cooldown can be issued at the first sign of an ad hominem attack, so it's a very effective way of preemptively striking at conflicts. So far, it has worked nicely, and I have not had any complaints yet.

Mike Everman
Posts: 5007
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 7:25 am
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: santa barbara, CA
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Mike Everman » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:39 pm

Points well taken, guys. Thanks, Anders, for the cooldown idea. I don't really like chat like I use on Skype. There's no record, but I suppose for some conversations, that's a good thing. Come to think of it, it forces you to be more polite when there's going to be a record...
I'm thinking it works great as it is...
Mike Often wrong, never unsure.
__________________________

lucky rookie
Posts: 51
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2006 7:44 pm
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: droitwich worcestershire uk

re: live chat

Post by lucky rookie » Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:44 pm

when you put it like that i think your right it has been mentioned that i do sometimes say something without thinking of all the facts
i have enjoyed reading on this site so much i thought it would be cool to talk to you guys

this site has inspired me to build my own pulse jets and now to build a vehicle powered by my own pulse jets something which i would of never thought possible 12 months ago
thanks ......i wont mention live chat again
i WILL get this pulsjet running even if my wife says i wont

Irvine.J
Posts: 1063
Joined: Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:28 pm
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Irvine.J » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:07 pm

After further careful consideration...
I would agree that a live chat could be a negative thing too, but I like the thread cooldown idea, Anders its really good infact...
I think it promotes sensible thinking if a thread becomes way too heated. One should feel obliged to "turn the page" when the thread is unlocked.

I believe larry has a good point about being pressured to respond quickly, simply because one does not have the time to consider all the factors in a question, and if we were talking about saftey factors... (which there are many in operating any liquified gas or combustable material) well the results could be... not good for the newbie pulsejet enthusiast if something was left out. I think just the fact you know they are sitting there waiting for you to respond puts pressure on you to type and think quickly, which means alot of very good information would be left out.

At this point I have to say I love the site, I do like it the way it is, the idea of a live chat was entertaining, but I figure that there would be "bucketloads" of good information exchanged that would never be stored here on the forum.

Anders Troberg
Posts: 334
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:38 am
Antipspambot question: 0
Location: Central Sweden
Contact:

re: live chat

Post by Anders Troberg » Tue Dec 05, 2006 6:16 pm

I would agree that a live chat could be a negative thing too, but I like the thread cooldown idea, Anders its really good infact...
I think it promotes sensible thinking if a thread becomes way too heated. One should feel obliged to "turn the page" when the thread is unlocked.
Exactly. I don't like to think that anyone actually goes into a discussion in order to start a fight (except Ivar, of course...). But, we are all human, and sometimes it's easy to get caught up and quickly get to a point where it becomes difficult to back down. A thread cooldown avoids that "heat of the moment"-argueing and gives the participants time to think about what they are really trying to say instead of getting in every rhetorical blow possible.

In my experience, when the thread is reopened, the participants have usually has had time to think and formulated their thoughts in a solid and polite manner. Surprisingly often, they also discover that they have been argueing more or less the same point, they just saw it from different perspectives and therefore didn't see that their differences are small. Best of all, once they start to turn the "foreign ideas" over in their heads, all sorts of creative and fantastic cross pollination of ideas takes place and the most unexpected new concepts and ideas take form, often ideas that wouldn't even have happened if the thread had been polite and ordered and never locked.

Post Reply