Suggestion: Chat

[leah]

I think a chat should be added to Fourtrees Resurrected.
That way we could talk to eachother about non-Warriors things, or whatever.
I just really like chat features. :3

[Lady Ten]

We currently have two boards for non-Warriors discussion, underneath the "Other" category. As for a chatbox or some form of instant messenger, I deliberately chose not to add one of those while designing the site, so as to force people to post on threads rather that let discussions spill out, get watered down, and get lost underneath more recent messages, never to be seen again. A cbox makes more sense on a roleplay forum, where people need an outlet for quick ooc discussion, but here the whole forum is ooc discussion.

The only other things that a cbox might be appropriate for is casual "Hey, how are you?" kinds of smalltalk. Rolo, too, suggested that we get one, and we do have a big enough member base now for it to be useable (we've been growing so fast; it's exciting). However, cboxes are more difficult to moderate and encourage more of the types of conversations that -- while by no means "bad" -- are not what Fourtrees Resurrected is about. There are already so many places for that, from the FoF cbox (a great place) to the roleplay neoboards (not a great place, but still fun) -- and our mission here is to create someplace a little different.

However x2, I do not have the final say on this, and if more people want it than don't, it's easy enough to set one up. You're also free to post your IM info for AIM or skype or whatever else, and I don't mind anyone asking for mine.

Chat's a cool thing, nothing wrong there. Basically, I'm worried that a cbox here on FR would become a distraction and end up detracting from the strength of our discussions.

[leah]

Oh okay, that makes sense. I understand. (:
An off-site chat could always be made somewhere, and we could have the link to it.
Or maybe not, it's just a suggestion. I've just found that off-topic chats seem to be the best way to get to know others online.

[drheiter]

If wanted, I could create a chat for us on Xat. I have an account on there, and I'm fairly certain you can put Xat chatboxes on any website, but they can also just be hosted on Xat's own website. It could be a cool thing for light small talk.

[Rolo]

Ahhh Ten, advertising the FoF c-box. You're too kind :3

I'm still very much in favour of a c-box (not a Xat, I'm afraid, because their interface is counter intuitive). I understand your concerns, Ten, but I believe there are a lot of benefits to having a c-box, even on a discussion site.

First off, by suggesting there are 'other places you can chat', you're encouraging people to go and join in in other communities. This is all fine, but it nurtures the other community, not yours. Although it's perhaps not as important for all of us at Fourtrees to know each other like it is at an rp site, giving people a means to chat at a group in real time allows people to make the community an actual community. Without that, people have to result to finding out individual screennames and the like to get to know people here, and once we're more established it'll make community feel harder to get into.

In addition to this, Fourtrees is very serious-discussion-centric. Most of the topics we discuss rely on us writing a lot down to add to the discussion. This means that people burning out is a real possibility, and there may be times when people want to participate but not write a hardcore discussion or create an OOC thread. A c-box would be great for that, and would keep people involved in the community with minimal effort. If there are exciting discussions going on, people will be lured to post.

Additionally, the c-box is likely to become a tool that helps generate discussions. People might be talking about warriors and stumble across a discussion idea. Basically, the c-box doesn't have to detract from discussion, it can help it.

However, as you said to me, I think it is a good idea to keep without one for the first few weeks, but after that I think it'd be very useful.