kingcobraRCU

why doesnt RCU have chat rooms? that sorry excuse for a website RCGROUPS has one...and that site sucks! but the chat room ideas is a good one...would be a great way for people to get to know one another better and faster way to get questions answered...

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

The problem with chat rooms is that they are too difficult to moderate. This has been discussed before, and the general consensus was that we shouldn't go there.

Taildrager-inactive

My Feedback: (11)

www.********.net has a chat room and does not really need a Mod, although they have one, try it out I think you will like it.

Rocketman612

My Feedback: (85)

AGREED


Pete

_jon_

My Feedback: (4)

KingCobra,

You're welcome to join us in #rc_chat on the irc.webmaster.com server, port 6667. A handful of guys that post on RCU chat there.

Jon

t_burley

My Feedback: (59)

NO, there is enough "chatter" about nonsense in the
clubhouse here :bananahea

kingcobraRCU

nonsense? I only asked a question. to me it's not "nonsense"

kingcobraRCU

and jon how do I find that chat room...and also thank you to everyone else who posted a reply that wasn't being sarcastic.

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

There are several of the Pro Bros chatting right now

irc.rcgroups.com port 6667 #air-fuel

Also

irc.********.net port 9000 #rc_chat

irc.webmaster.com port 6667 #rc_chat


This is one of those topics that seems to be requested over and over, but just ain't gonna happen here.

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

Chat doesn't really fit in with the philosophy of RCU. RCU is primarily here to serve as a way for RC'ers to exchange info and resources. The real power of a forum such as this is that the messages are saved and people can add to the dialog at any time that's convenient for them. Chatting is much more of a social exchange than an information exchange. Any info given out disappears immediately, and is available only to those there at that time.

The other reason we don't offer chat is that it's not something we could do well. It's almost impossible to moderate a chat with the numbers of possible participants we might have, and manage to keep to our community policies.

This has given me some ideas, though. Let me run them by the boss and see what we can come up with.

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

Why bother...there are 3 great chat rooms listed.

MikeL

My Feedback: (3)

I'm thinking something different. We'll see where the idea goes.

For those who haven't used IRC, it's not too tough but it isn't as plug and play as a web browser. Grab MIRC and follow the directions.

TomM

Am I missing something in this "PC" world.....
Is there some legal requirement to moderate a chat room?

kingcobraRCU

I just think it would be nice to talk directly with people who share the same interests in r/c planes as myself...share info and ideas!plus I think it would add a bit of personality to the people who reply to our posts. and yes, there are always the troublemakers that will come and need a good slap or two. too bad they have to ruin it for the ones that really would appreciate/benefit from a service like this. thanks, kingcobra

ChuckAuger

My Feedback: (12)

So have you tried to get on chat yet?? FWIW chat is generally based on IRC..just because the above chat rooms I listed don't have "RCU" directly in them doesn't mean there won't be the same people in them as you see here. Trust me on this..I've been in the chat rooms for a while and the same folks can be found at one or the other. They won't show up as "RCUKingcobra", just "Kingcobra" no matter which room you chose to join.

I think this is the greatest stumbling block to chat...if it don't load from the RCU webpage it might be "those other guys". To be honest the Java-based chat clients that the forums who support chat use are not very user friendly. Get MIRC or PIRCH and go check the different rooms out.

I had never used chat in my life before I tried it on RC based chat rooms..and I still don't use it a lot..but it's not a bad way to while away time while cooking or washing dishes or something that will just be burning time anyway.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I agree with Chuck.

It takes a little time to figure out, what the ell you are doing, but Mirc works pretty darn good. The ********.net room has been around for several years, and has a pretty good core group of guys checking it out. I've been a little out of touch with it lately, but have had a lot of fun there.

I would like to see RCU sponsor a chat, I think we have enough moderators to keep an eye on it.

Bill Vargas

My Feedback: (5)

The ******** chat room is a good place for chatting about just about anything RC Related! Questions always get good answers too!

********.net leads in this dept. over RCU,,, Hands down


BV
MikeL, that was a lame excuse.

airwethead

I vote yes for an RCU chat room (I know, nobody really asked for my vote).

depfife

My Feedback: (14)

A RCU chat room has been discussed several times. Here is a link to a thread from the first of the year.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...highlight=chat

I visited a couple of RC chat rooms several times a year or so back. When the topics stayed on RC I enjoyed it, but often the discussion deteriorated into name calling. The hard feelings from the chat room confrontations spilled over to the forums.

Other people have had similar experiences and that has caused many to have the opinion that the bad outweighs the good. I encourage those wanting a chat room to post their wishes in the Suggestions forum. Also it might be interesting to start a poll here in the clubhouse asking the members if they would like RCU to start a chat room. My guess is that the majority would say "no." This is a guess on my part, and I have been wrong in the past.

Ericc

David Cutler

I have acted as a moderator in various real-time forums in CompuServe for many years (running quizzes etc) and believe me, the excellent idea of like minded aeromodelling people chatting together would be taken over by non-modelling idiots with not-a-lot in their brains.

I agree it would be great to be able to get to know each other here in real time, but, well, it simply wouldn't happen due to these idiots.

Its one of the prices we all have to pay for having the anonymous intimacy of the Internet, I'm afraid.

David C.

C_Watkins

My Feedback: (10)

Moderation headaches are only part of it, though that may be the biggest concern.
There are some security risks that go along with chatrooms, too.
(Though those usually don't come to light until you tick off the wrong group of people)
Common sense and good bot-scripting skills would handle the majority of both problems.
The remaining problems are simply dealt with as they arise.
(At least a couple dozen or so good OPS would be necessary, yes.)
As for the risk of DDOS-type attacks, if someone wants to bring down the
site, they will bring down the site, at least temporarily. Chatroom or no chatroom.

Another issue is bandwidth, though 2,000 users on the irc server pales in comparison
to the resources used by 2,000 users online here in the forums, I would venture to guess.
Still... I know it's an additional drain on resources, however small it may be.


I know it would be a VERY large part of the RCU experience if it ever happened here.
I know that from seeing other VERY large communities have their own chatrooms.
The chatrooms mentioned in above posts are merely tenths of drops in the bucket,
of what one could see in a chatroom run by such a large community site as this.

Yes, some of the chatroom stuff does tend spill over into the forums occasionally.
But... what's even more common is that forum arguments spill over into the chats
Lots of people like the real-time, here/now/BANG factor of chatrooms.
It's not the sort of thing that's easily duplicated on forums, though some
threads do occasionally approach an almost IRC-like update rate, at peak times.

Point is, people complain already about off-topic chatter here on RCU.
If there were a chatserver, standard topical rooms could be setup, and IRC'ers could
be able to make their own rooms for whatever bs they wanted to talk, if setup that way.
(If not, perhaps a "general off topic" room at least... for folks who just like to shoot the breeze)
Perhaps more "offtopic" chatter would move from the forums, and *everyone* would be happier.
There are a lot of people here, from all over. People who have a lot more in common
than just RC. People like to discuss other life experiences sometimes, that's all
(you know, just like you don't always talk "ALL RC" at the flying field. Human nature.)

The RCU database is slam-packed with useful info... and there are those
who would never venture into chat, and there would always be good answers here,
and there would always be knowledgeable posters here answering questions.
I doubt the chatroom would ever adversely affect that in any way.


I, for one, enjoy the chatroom environment. Especially as another "choice".
I've never understood why folks shoot down others' choices so quickly, when it's
not a vote to take something away from them, but to give a choice to others.
(Like non-drinkers voting to keep a city "dry", or something. Sheesh!)
Bah... I'm just blowing steam now. I've seen enough discussion on chatrooms,
here on RCU to know it's a moot point to bring up anyhow, I guess.

Marc has final say, and as long as he doesn't want them, that's that.

Just ranting and rambling along, as I'm prone to do, sometimes

C_Watkins

My Feedback: (10)

Not at all, David.
Kick/bans work wonders... swiftly, surely and forever, if necessary

David Cutler

No legal requirement, but an unmoderated one, all too frequently gets out of hand, when destructive 'passers by' get to know of it (which I'm afraid they will) thus spoiling it for the genuine chatters.

Its also much too transient for a forum like RCU, as any good ideas etc are immediately lost to the scrolling chat.

-David C.

David Cutler

I have had the 'power-of-kicking out' in 3 forums in CompuServe with 3 sponsored accounts for over a dozen years, and, even in the quieter days of the early 90's idiots were still too destructive to allow the desirable features sought after by people who want to chat in a forum like this.

Sorry! It's human nature for idiots to disrupt very specialist forums like this (nerd bashing some of them call it!) when they are immune to retribution. There are also so many of them out there that banning them isn't an option. Even if it was 100% effective which it isn't as you quickly get outraged people quoting the Constitution and being just as disruptive by defending their rights to 'free speech'.

Do we really want the threats of law suits in our wonderful RC hobby forum if we accidentally kick out somebody who wasn't disrupting in their own eyes?

-David C.

C_Watkins

My Feedback: (10)

"Freedom of speech" isn't a valid argument, against privately owned/operated forums/chatrooms.
Even when it's open to the public. So let them complain... elsewhere.
There are already several ex-RCU'ers out complaining, so that's nothing new.


Profanity auto-kick/bans are easy enough to implement, if that's an issue.
(Same goes for other undesirable keywords or phrases, spam/flooding, etc...)

And, just as there are ways of users circumventing kick/bans... there are ways of making it harder.
For instance:

Require valid email address, from your connection provider, for username registration.
Registration email tld must match connection tld mask in IRC. Simple enough.
No hotmail/juno/yahoo/other freemail could be used to register, in other words.
Only valid, registered RCU usernames will be given voice in the chatrooms.
Unregistered users can't change their guest12345... nicks, and cannot post to chat. View only.

Just a couple ideas, but there are even more technical ways of user verification/access/lockdown.
(Though some of them can begin to become a big hassle)


I know all about the trolls, and the general disruptors of the peaceful folk.
They're all over usenet, all over the internet, and all over RCU, if you watch closely

I co-moderate a big-8 usenet newsgroup, and I've seen all kinds.
At least they can be kept out, there. Unmoderated usenet can be *wild*.
I've also done the OP stint on IRC, and have even run my own server for a time,
though I definitely don't have as many total years OP experience as you do.
I was OP'd on several channels though, back in the mid-90's, when channel wars
were the game of the day. One might even say I enjoyed it, when it was like the wild West.
(Riding back in off a split, busting tail, kick/banning the world. Ahhh... the good ole days)

Still... ircd's and related nick/chan services have come a LONG way over the years.
It doesn't have to be like it used to be, these days. The power is there.

The mods have power on the forums here... the IRCops would have power over IRC.
It's not rocket science at all.

No, you can't absolutely guarantee that never a cross word will be uttered.
That's just nuts. I've seen some things here that would make a sailor blush, too. (recently, even)
Precious few things in this life are perfect... and that's just a byproduct of life.


Again, I know it's a moot point, and I try to hold my tongue every time this
subject comes up, but it's just one of my few hotbuttons, I guess.

No flames intended... but I think I'll have to just agree to disagree with the naysayers.
Maybe I'll even bite down a little harder on my tongue, next time... who knows




Chris