Hi Evan, nice suggestion but it has been disregarded many times before. Why not simply appoint more chat moderators such as Stefy. And almost no one (unless Genius returns) here flames.

What about IRC?  I didn't think that was hard to moderate...

Hmm, well what if you restricted it?  Like say you made a certain forum link where only the chatroom would appear that maybe only registered members can access, similar to the catagory, "Members Only."  Perhaps only put it in Members Only or something like that.  Because that way, you can be more sure who you are talking to.  Chatrooms are in no way perfect, but they are more useful for having discussions rather then flooding topics with unrelated discussions.  I know I would personally be more for a chatroom, because there have been quite a few topics I've gone through, they are quite large, but what I notice is that some of them are filled up with unrelated discussions, well, partly filled up anyway.

Yeah, I realize it is MIF, it is only a suggestion after all...

People might be able to become members easily, and there might be a lot of members, but how many of these members care to actually get that involved in unrelated discussions.  Most of the time, I see most of the same members posting continuous responses, often tending to get into unrelated discussions.  I do not see this as too unreasonable; again, this is only a suggestion...

Also, yes, chats do disappear, but a chatroom is just for that, talking, discussing things, etc.  You don't need to be on it constantly, because it isn't meant to replace the forum, it is meant for better convenience so members can discuss things with each other if they so choose.  It also lowers the flooding of topics.

The point though isn't to take that..."freedom" away, but rather finding a better way of doing it.  I like this forum too, but I don't see it as perfect.  If I didn't like it as much as I did, I wouldn't be on as much.  This forum, well, website in general, is thus far my favorite math one I have seen.  I in no way would want to ruin anything about it either, but I don't see my suggestion as doing it any harm.  My suggestion is merely an idea that I think will help, however, you seem assured that moderating it, even with making it in a members only topic, will still be too much.  Are you so sure of this?

hi

I would prefer it if threads that move off purpose were transferred to a separate area so members can carry on a discourse that is unrelated and the original thread stays on topic.  That way it would be easier to keep track.

Is it possible to split a thread like that?

If not, there's no reason why members who have strayed off topic (and I admit I've done it too) couldn't start a new thread for their 'chat' and put in a link on the original thread.

Bob

hi bobbym,

So we are left with asking members to jump their chat to another thread, so as not to burden the topic thread.

Bob

Okay, well I guess its not as good of a suggestion then, but is there no way to have a chatroom work at all?

I am one of those who goes off-topic, however it is required. Frankly, if all the conversations here were about mathematics, there would be very few posts. I like Math, hwoever a forum fully comprised of Math-based questions will not be heavily populated.

Would he mind if all of us gathered on an un-official chat room on the link I would post somewhere?

Last edited by Shivamcoder3013 (2012-10-24 00:42:26)

I chat about off topic stuff too (or at least I think I do...).  I think pretty much everyone does to some degree, but my point is that I do think it would be helpful if it could be done.  I was giving ideas because I'm not the original one to bring this up, I've seen others like Shivamcoder3013 bring it up in completely different, from what I saw, mostly unrelated topics too.

I'm not however saying that the forum should be strictly about math, if you look at how the forum is set up, it's not designed to be.  But it would also help make some topics better readable.  There's a few topics that you go into, and it's conversation is fine at the beginning, but then it tends to go into a different, unrelated discussion, and it can be a little confusing sometimes if they are even talking about the same topic.  Later on though, there's like 100 pages of unrelated discussion (an exaggeration for some points).  It seems almost futile at that point to even continue to see if there is anything relevant in the topic anymore.

Now off topic conversations are not the only reason I find a chat room to be helpful, that is only one.  However, I don't feel it's worth it yet to get too much into that, because it matters if it can be done in the first place or is even a good idea to begin with.

Would he mind if all of us gathered on an un-official chat room on the link I would post somewhere?

Couldn't you do that exact same thing in something like IRC, create a mathisfun channel?

Yes.
And heres a point.Wouldnt all the members from the forum go to the chat and the forum would lose attention.Right?