A chatroom?
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2019 11:15 pm
What do you guys think of having a chatroom built into the site? Is it feasible?
We talk languages
http://forum.language-learners.org/
http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11875
eido wrote:I don't know the details of the technology involved, but I'd say this is more a question of "should" rather than "can."
Chatrooms take a lot of work to run and maintain. The mods on the forum already work pretty hard keeping the site clean for the rest of the users.
If we added a chat, that would probably require a whole new set of mods, and they'd have to be dedicated to checking the logs quite frequently. I don't envision a chat connected to this site blowing up and becoming the next craze, but if it did get a decent amount of activity, it would still be a lot to keep after.
And the chat would have to abide by some kind of community standards that matched the ones the forum runs on, without contradicting them or adding too many additional rules that made it a hassle to deal with.
I could see the appeal of adding such a feature. Chatting in real-time allows you to solve issues faster and connect easier with people you are interested in pursuing a relationship with because of your shared hobbies and personality quirks. But I think as of right now, the slow, miserly pace of an old-school forum like this works quite well because it allows people time to adequately express their thoughts and do so in an adult manner that most of the time leads to productive, mature discussion.
I've been part of various Discord servers based around various subjects, and I won't condemn their very nature just because of the age group that tends to congregate there (I'm just as old as they are!), but all that young energy and the flexibility and openness of a platform like that can quickly wreak havoc on any intelligent, meaningful discourse. You can go from, "Ah, yes, I do believe that immigrants are being treated unfairly" to "kill yourself" --> "no u" in about five seconds flat. I don't imagine we have too many youngbloods cruising our site, but the point I'm trying to make here is that I don't have much faith in anyone to have grown past the adolescent and young adult predilection to jump on people you don't like and set off a flame argument that goes on for 30 minutes, with 400 messages exchanged about your mom and why she sucks, but also why the guy attacking you's mom is [censored].
That versatility that chats bring is just as much a saving grace as they are the downfall of many a fledgling area to talk deeply about a topic. And I don't think that we necessarily need to improve on our strategies at the moment, because I feel that the type of stuff this forum is all about takes time to digest and shouldn't be thrown at the wall in an Internet chatroom like a fresh--yeah. The set-up would have to be meticulously thought-out.
I do stand to be corrected, though. My experience is just one of many, and I might have a few holes in my reasoning here... so please help me adjust my thinking if need be.