Online Chat

[Johannes de Jong]

I noticed that many a post passes by where people ask if some sort CHAT facility could be possible.
No I'm not going down that road ie. I dont want to start that discussion up again.
I want to propose a middle road. Is there no way we can sort of find out the times people normally hang are around here.
For example: I'm normally hang around here during the day here, the Netherlands, normally when response on the IBM mainframe gets lousy I take a quick peek. Thats normally between 11:00 pm and 08:00 am here at the Range. Ok tonight is an exception, I got permission from the boss .
Paul I suppose there must be some sort of log available that might be has the times people are "online". How about putting that on a page? Dont ask me how though

[This message has been edited by Johannes de Jong (edited March 16, 2001).]

[Frank Carver]

I have to ask "why should this matter".
The java Ranch is an asynchronous medium, like email and not like chat. The greatest value comes from being able to sensibly look up answers to old questions, or to add a clarification or a reply to a message asked some time ago for the benefit of all users.
If you have a question, just pick an appropriate forum and ask it as clearly and politely as possible. As soon as someone able and willing to answer it reads the question, you will get an answer. I really can't see how this process could in any way be improved or speeded up by knowing who is/was online.
Surely it doesn't matter who answers a question, as long as the answer is useful. Asking a particular person for an answer is actually more likely to prevent others from giving an equally (or more) useful answer.
Or am I missing something here?

[Johannes de Jong]

Your point has been well made Frank, pse consider my topic closed.