Hello. New guy here with a question. I was simply wondering if there was a system in place or in the process of being added that would offer realtime conversation between writers. At times I will be reviewing a piece and simply get tired of color-coding my messages and providing (hopefully) insightful questions for the author to ask him/herself. With my current schedule, I often don't have lots of time to meticulously sit and critique. A chat feature (or something similar) would be convenient for people seeking immediate review late at night (when most people let their "genius" free). In addition, it could be a nice place for people to chat for a few minutes when free about recent books. I know this somewhat contradicts what you're doing with the forum, but I think that realtime communication also has its place. Like all my opinions here, the suggestion is subjective. I just like throwing little things into your brain and seeing what comes out. Thanks for reading my babble.
No, we don't support any instant messaging feature, nor are we at all likely to do so, but members can swap IM info if they need to discuss siomething interactively. The site does provide profile support to include instant messaging contact info, but I personally recommend agaist using it. Anyone, including guests and spam harvesters, can see and collect that information. Better to say too little and have to swap it in private message than to say too much find yourself the target of spammers and stalkers. But the critiquing process is persisted and visible to all members for a reason. The Review Room is a workshop for critiquing, in which most members learn more from the critiques they give and the critiques they read than from feedback for the pieces of writing they post. Often, one member's comments will be expanded upon by another member. An open critiquing process requires more clarity in how you express your critiques, which makes you focus more closely on the issues you raise.
we did have a chat once upon a time, think it is gone now, but it never got used more than someone going in and hoping to catch someone else in there, which never actually happened. You'd just end up chatting away to yourself, and that was just creepy...
I've been to other forums that have had the whole chat room thing. Torana's description held true for all of them. And even if it were a used area, as Cogito has already mentioned, any informational exchange would be ephemeral and not of any good to future members.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you for the explanations. It makes complete sense, and I'm glad to read that it was previously implemented and tested.
I don't know how much different this is from the methods you guys are discussing, but a "Shoutbox" is what I've seen on other forums where you can just post things and it appears on the bottom of the website where people can see your question / comment or whatever you happen to "Shout" there and respond to it in real time.
