RCU should really have an active MSN or Yahoo group. IMHO.... if it already does have one what o what would the addy be ?

It would be a blast to actually converse with all yous guys

This is something that has been discussed many times in the past, however it's not something that RCU is going to pursue at this time. The problem with setting up "chats" like you suggest is that there is no way to archive what is being said. One of the greatest features is that you can still read every post made on RCU all the way back to the very first post. These posts are searchable and people find lots of information from these posts. There are some members that have created chat groups outside of RCU, however it's not anything officially sanctioned by RCU.

Ken

No problem thanks for the reply

It has been our view that the conversations are best when they can be historically archived in posts so future readers can search or browse to find them and benefit from others sharing of information. IN a realtime chat that is not possible. That said we never rule it out somewhere in the future

We had a Java Chat client on Rockcrawler.com, but it ended up being the least used part of the site that cost the most amount of money to keep active.

We may do some sort of intra-site chat at some point. Again my fear is alot of questions and answers might take place there instead of in the posts which are browseable and searchable for years to help others find solutions. In a single post here on rcu you can post an answer and have 10,000 people find it and solve the same problem. It is very efficient. Do that in chat and the answer is gone forever in that fleeting moment

That is a fantastic point. I do use the "search this forum" button often myself.