Chat Events Suggestion

[Ami]

Hi

Just discovered the calendar function (Doh) and it gave me an idea.

With all the posts about live chat lately, making it a fish only thing, people not using it etc, I was wondering if we could maybe have specific chat events and encourage people to come and use it.

We could think of quite a lot of events during the year that I'm sure people would love to get involved with and they would encourage others to join in who wouldn't normally visit chat.

We've got people who breed specific fish for a living, who are experts in certain species, who are planted tank gods, who have done their own DIY projects, photography experts etc etc

For example, NMonks has a wealth of knowledge and has been many published articles in PFK etc, GF225 is a fantastic source of info on planted tanks, CFC prides himself in keeping huge fish and oddballs and has been an inspiration to many of us, Cian McLiam takes the best fish pics I've ever seen.


(suck up over for now!)


We could have set events each month - say an oddball chat day, a planted tank day, a DIY day etc. People could then come to chat knowing that there will be people there to answer questions on those types of topics.

It would of course not preclude anyone from talking about other things!


Expanding on this, I was thinking that we could have a pinned topic in here where people could post suggestions for discussions (guest event type thingies) and someone to monitor it and organise it. This would ideally be a mod, although I'd love to do this if none of you guys have the time.

We could then invite members to write an article for the forum, or repost articles that they've already done, and then invite people to the chat room on a specific day to discuss it and ask questions. The author of course in attendance!

We could use the calendar to log these events and post details on the forum well in advance of each event, so that everyone is aware of what's happening.

This shouldn't take that much to organise and like I say, I'd love to do it if people think it's a good idea.


Thanks for listening!

 

[OohFeeshy]

Good plan, but tbh if any more people start coming on regularly, we're either going to need more mods coming on (who are actually takinging part and are not afraid of the kick button), or whoever is the channel operator (William?) to put a few more people on auto ops. What with the numpty circus storming in lately, it only takes one idiotic individual (esp. jonny_the_pufferfish or whatever his name is, and all discus dan's cronies) to make everyone else go and never want to come back. Theres plenty of people in the 'I have no life' club (raises hand), plenty of people that could be put on auto ops.

 

[Ami]

Very true Feeshy!

What I was thinking was that, if events are oganised in advance and everyone knows when, then surely it would be easy enough to ensure there was a mod or other op'd member or 2 there ensure nothing got out of hand....

All us members of the chat crew (I prefer that to no life club - no matter how true it is!), would easily be in the position to deal with any problems.

I was kinda hoping that more people would think it was a good idea....

 

[Bloo]

I think it's a very good idea ! (in principal)

 

[Durbkat]

I also agree that there should be OP's that aren't afraid to use the kick feature and more people to get auto OP's like me maybe, when I get older or more wise. I like the idea ami.

 

[boozybears]

In theory it's not a bad idea, the difficult part that I see would be coordinating it so that everyone could join in who wanted to despite the time zones of all the users.

Also, there will always be those that don't want to join into the serious discussion going on but to have aimless banter going on around a serious chat will make it confusing and frustrating for everyone I think.

 

[onemisterchristian]

Boozy has a point. The confusion factor is huge. But nonetheless if this were a utopian forum it may workout someday. I like the idea. As for time zones, it seems that the forum is most flooded @ 11 something pm (pst?)
(pacific standard time). Don't know what that is in other time zones but last time I looked at that most members on at one time, it was something like that.

 

[Ami]

Doh, timezones! Forgot about that whole concept

Oh, well, forget I made the suggestion.

 

[PeterM]

Not that I want to put a damper on this, but Ive tried to do this kind of thing hundreds of times...

I used to work as a Community Manager and Webmaster for a Swedish media company based on eSports and online gaming. We had weekly tournements with $5000 first palce prize for the winners. Chats with people like Fata1ity, even Jube and Pappy-R from planetquake were organized not just as promotional events but also as a way for competing players to get tips and advice from the professionals. For those in the know in this area, some people make a good living purely from taking part in sponsored profesional tournaments...

Even though all the players in the tournaments had paid for their place in it, and even though we had literally the best players in the world at the time organized to give advice and tips, we had very few takes. In a tourney of over 250 people, we had three people show up to talk to Fatality (formerly the worlds best Quake 3 player). It was in their best interest to talk to the pro and get tips for the maps in the list later that night so they could boost their chance of the prize. Incidentally, one of the guys that turned up eventually won that tourney, so it just goes to show.

Even when new games were released and we had giveaways of free copies or tshirts for people that arrived at promotional chat events very few people turned up. One website I used to run for the game Dungeon Siege had 1.2 million unique hits in the month of launch... and all of 15 people in the chat. 1.2 million different people on the website with a big old banner and several links saying: join chat at midnight on game launch day and get a free gift! - fifteen people, even though there were, at that time, thousands on the site downloading and posting on the forums. We had tshirts left over.

I think my point is that Chat is spontanious. Its difficult to manange an event like this (even without timezone confusions) even when youre giving stuff away free. A great day in chat is more a factor of peoples mood at the time when they join than of an organized topic.

 

[OohFeeshy]

more people to get auto OP's like me maybe, when I get older or more wise.

 

[tttnjfttt]

I also agree that there should be OP's that aren't afraid to use the kick feature

Maybe we can get a bot to auto boot anyone who posts the bagder link

Here is another idea for improving it - give all mods the power to go in as OPs and remove/ban anyone when needed.

 

[PeterM]

Durb, the way youre going in chat im surprised youre not banned already.

How does this sound for a setup:

A bot with ops is permanatly in the chat. Its scripts, settings and such are easily accessed by a list of ops. The ops (forum moderators) set the rules and can safely leave the bot unattended.

Regular users / trusted users / users nominated by the ops (forum mods) can get voiced in the channel. The voiced users can interact with the opped bot (permanantly present) and cast votes whether or not a disruptive member needs kicking, banning etc. Say three voiced votes to take effect.

This way the channel will be permanantly policed and relatively well controlled by trusted members. The chat wont become a burden to the forum mods because the bot is permantly present and is "controlled" to a limited degree by the voiced users.

I know several bots that can be configured this way...

Sound good?

*edited* - edited because, mid post, my keyboard decided it was actually american english and not UK english so posted @'s instead of "'s

 

[Durbkat]

I also agree that there should be OP's that aren't afraid to use the kick feature

Maybe we can get a bot to auto boot anyone who posts the bagder link

Ha ha ha.....NOT!!

Durb, the way youre going in chat im surprised youre not banned already.

I don't know what your talking about because you have only been in livechat once while I was there and you really didn't even say anything and I wasn't doing anything bad.

 

[tttnjfttt]

I don't know what your talking about because you have only been in livechat once while I was there and you really didn't even say anything and I wasn't doing anything bad.

Your reputation preceeds you durb.

 

[Erised]

Durb, the way youre going in chat im surprised youre not banned already.

I don't know what your talking about because you have only been in livechat once while I was there and you really didn't even say anything and I wasn't doing anything bad.

Actually Durb, he's been in quite a lot more often when you were in, as Lard. Also, him being my other half he often looks at my screen when I'm in ... and that's quite often been with you around.

As for these ' chat days ' I don't see the point. It's a fish chat, and even though regular chat is allowed as well I think people that come in for fish questions should never be ignored. People come in when they need fish help, and that's not just gonna be on said days.

About ops, well, my opinion has been send to William already, so I won't go into discusion over here. Though I must admit I really like the idea of a voice voting rather than 1 person having all the powers at all times.