Live Aquarium Clinics On Tff

[steelhealr]

Following up on the next live chat poll. Here is the other poll link if you missed it:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showto...Aquarium+clinic
SH

 

[Bloo]

I chose the first option of each.

1) We have a large number of newbies (or new to fishkeeping rather) and think the first topic would be very useful.

2) I don't think there will be mass attendence (I'd be pleasantly surprised if there was), so 1-2 mods would suffice

3) Great idea

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

yeah its a great idea

 

[lljdma06]

I picked planted tanks, but I'm just slightly biased.

This is a great idea, keep us posted. I would make an appearence regardless of the topic, just for learning purposes.

 

[Bloo]

I'd like to add that I'd be interested in all topics - and would endeavour to attend any/all.

But I think as a first off to "pull" people, my choice is still the basic first one

 

[steelhealr]

Noted...once some more posts are in....I will bring this forward to the mods and see if we can give this a whirl. SH

 

[Ethos]

Interesting...
The chat needs to be somewhere obvious on the main page so its easy and accesable to newbies.

 

[andywg]

Interesting...
The chat needs to be somewhere obvious on the main page so its easy and accesable to newbies.

It appears in the top right of every single page on the forum, I'd say that's fairly obvious...

My only problem is how do you stop the usual madness of chat (especially once a number of people are there) from interfering with the clinic?

Do you make the room moderated to allow only the mods to reply to PM questions and risk alienating those that go to chat to chill out (especially as that was the mods' answer to the Genereal Chat forums dissappearing) or do you allow the "regulars" to carry on regardless and occasionally scare aware a newbie for fear of talk of cheese and pies?

I don't propose to have the answers, just a couple of problems

Also, what happens if someonecomes in for advice on something "off-topic"? My advice would be to create a seperate chat room for the clinic.

 

[Tolak]

I chose the first on all 3 questions as well. I think the beginning, basic aquarium maintenance, is probably the best beginning for a series of clinics. It would be nice if a transcript of the clinic could be posted for the benefit of folks who can't participate but are interested in the subject being covered.

A seperate room, or a link to a seperate room in the usual chat would be a good idea. That way the clinic could stay more on topic, while the regular chat could continue as usual. If someone pops into the regular chat with a fish related question, it could be answered there, or they could be directed to the clinic chat if the subject being covered applies to their situation. Mirc has a million channels, from nosing around I've found that most are empty.

 

[steelhealr]

Noted...I think we have a plan here. andywg's comments are well noted and this is new territory here. The only way to learn would be to find out how it goes. I think it's time to have a mod discussion on this and see if we can give it a try. SH

 

[Squid]

Interesting...
The chat needs to be somewhere obvious on the main page so its easy and accesable to newbies.

It appears in the top right of every single page on the forum, I'd say that's fairly obvious...

My only problem is how do you stop the usual madness of chat (especially once a number of people are there) from interfering with the clinic?

Do you make the room moderated to allow only the mods to reply to PM questions and risk alienating those that go to chat to chill out (especially as that was the mods' answer to the Genereal Chat forums dissappearing) or do you allow the "regulars" to carry on regardless and occasionally scare aware a newbie for fear of talk of cheese and pies?

I don't propose to have the answers, just a couple of problems

Also, what happens if someonecomes in for advice on something "off-topic"? My advice would be to create a seperate chat room for the clinic.

i have seen this resolved in other chatrooms before, however they were not confined to the offerning of IRC and so on..

They had a separate room to that of the normal chatroom, and it had a different structure. If numbers were high, they had a number of sub-rooms that could chat amongst themselves but were still putting forward questions to the overal chat. This was achieved by having a window for the chat of the room you were in, and a "stage" window that was used for the discussion topics. The moderators took questions from the different chatrooms and posted them on the "stage". This then enabled the question to be answered without interuption. And the mods just added comments from users as and when they were appropriate.

There you go.. clear as mud.

Problem is... we dont have that structure.. the alternative is to trawl the web for a free webchat hosting type thing that does provide this funtionality. I can have a google if it helps..

Squid

 

[steelhealr]

There you go.. clear as mud.

Problem is... we dont have that structure.. the alternative is to trawl the web for a free webchat hosting type thing that does provide this funtionality. I can have a google if it helps..

Squid

Go ahead Squid...see what you come up with. SH

 

[andywg]

You can easily do that with IRC. You can create as many rooms as you want, and have the (for example) #clinic room moderated, meaning only the moderators can post in there (and anyone else given voice).

This would allow exactly the setup you have described squid, with other rooms for more localised, or general discussion.

Probably can't do it with the java chat, but most IRC programs (Mirc, Trillian etc.) can easily handle such a setup.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If you'd be interested, I registered #fishchat a while ago (RE an issue that still hasn't been discussed, but nevermind...). Nice easy name, all I'd need is a list of those who would moderate, and any auto-kick, auto voice etc. people. Bear in mind (for any channel) those who are to be auto opped etc. need to have registered their nickname with Nickserv.