Dear Mr. Jim I'm a regular user of javaranch and their different forums and also taking part in cattle drive forum for learning java and like. I have a suggestion for javaranch that is it possible that javaranch could start Online Chatting Forum which could communicate between the users and the moderators as well. I think that this could provide us the direct communication and as well as the fast learning opportunity. Please reply. Kind regards Rashid
I can tell that as a moderator I sure don't have TIME to do chat a room. I squeeze in my forum time between activities at work in 5 minute chunks. A chat room would require someone moderating 24 hours a day. I don't know any volunteers with THAT much time to donate.
Besides, since the internet is world-wide, the chances that the particular moderator you're interested in chatting with is on-line while you are awake can be pretty slim depending on which part of the world you live in and which part the moderator lives in.
I agree with Cindy and Marilyn. Personally I've never seen much use in online chats - you get much better signal-to-noise ratio when people take some time in making their posts. (Most people anyway.) And I doubt you will find many bartenders interested in putting in the extra time for chats. But if there are any, they are encouraged to speak up here.
Yeah a moderated chat room is a big hassle usually. But what about something like irc? Ive been using it for years, and its a great way for people to get in touch with each other(plus the fact that its addictive and eventually you leave it on 24-7 ). Javaranch people wouldnt have to moderate it, as it would be a room that would be free to all to participate in. There are ops(channel admins) that control the channel(make sure noone gets to unruly and the like). Any trusted person can be on op, and there can be dozens of ops per channel. Plus its free. No worries about keeping the room up or anything. Its all provided for ya. Just a thought. Im an irc hound, as im on 24-7 so i might be a bit biased.
Instead of a chatting forum, we can have the option to chat with those people on the thread we are viewing. This can be done by having a chat-message-board fixed at the end of each thread and we can discuss the problems witth other members online at that time in that particular thread. but this will increase the downloading time (but we can find ways to use the once-downloaded-applet from the cache) or we can have a type of messenger-service(we can employ rmi for client/server so as a seperate unit but should be started by the client) which automatically updates each time we visit a forum to load the members at that thread we dont need any moderators in these cases but it is a overload on the servers.
I am not sure that you understand the impacts of the 24 hours a day issue. We get thousands of users a month, but only hundreds of posters. Limit that to those who "like" to chat and you are down to 50's of users. Stretch them across 30 forums. Now how many are going to be on the same 2 hours that you are on in any given day in the same forum much less the same thread. Not likely many. Not much of a chat. No continuity.
Well the problem with that is that it would be very unlikely that people posting to the forum would do so at the same time. It would be like a hit and miss thing. The IRC suggestion is a seperate program running(not through your browser) which you can run and minimize and still be connected all day long if need be.
As it stands you have the option to let people know your ICQ number so if ICQ members wanted to chat they have that facility. However, as things stand it just isn't feasible to have a live 24/7 chat room. Remember everyone that the moderators and administrators here all work voluntarily! We all have day-jobs too as well as most of us maintining personal sites .. having families and other projects. The fact is that as long as Javaranch is non-commercial (I expect that will always be the case) there will never be the facility for full time moderation. I doubt we would allow an unmoderated chat forum (i personally would be strongly against it). Anyway I don't really see how it could be really useful. This kind of forum allows responses to questions to be permanently stored. In a chat room it is gone as soon as you log off. Here responses are avilable to anyone at anytime .. in a chat room it is only available to those logged in at the time. No i'm definatly against the idea. I can see the attraction .. potential for INSTANT responses .. but I think the value of these reponses will be less than in this discussion forum.
Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But from the years of experience ive had, i see only good things that could come from it. I dont see a need for a moderated channel. Why not let people come and go as they see fit and converse and get to know(and help) each other? There is no need for moderation at all. And a chat room is no substitute for a forum like this. I participate in several chat rooms and their corresponding UBB's. One doesnt take the place of the other, but chat rooms let people get to know one another and seek out help if needed. But to each his own i guess. And if most of the higher-ups in tha Javaranch are usually busy, does that mean only they can help out? I mean there seems to be hundreds of people here, and i know that there would be numerous people online at a time. I know of many IRC chat rooms that are devoted to different aspects of programming. They are very popular with sometimes hundreds of ppl in there. Its a place i go to often if i need help.
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And I doubt you will find many bartenders interested in putting in the extra time for chats. But if there are any, they are encouraged to speak up here. 
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