Interested?

[JohnM]

I have noticed a couple of things

Some of you seem to log on at a regular sort of time to have chat. 
My web site hosting service will let me have a chat room.

I'm not particularly bothered for myself as I log on at irregular times, but would you like me to start it going? (It doesn't cost me any extra so it's no hardship). It would not be a pub where everyone is welcome as I can only have 20 people, so it would be more like you popping into my lounge (while I am at the real pub?). Therefore I would not be doing too much moderation, so I would expect everyone to treat everyone else with more than a modicum of respect. I guess it would be best to start off with a set time and see what develops. I would suggest that if subjects come up that would be of interest to a wider audience, someone (or two if there is a difference of opinion), should then put a precise on the forum for wider and slower discussion.

Please indicate your interest or opinion here, if there is sufficient interest I will get it up and running and pm / email the 20 with details, a user id and password. If there are posters on other forums that you are in communication with who you think would be a good guest in my lounge (the likes of GoodKnight or Malc from Thatsfrance), please let them know and pm me with their details.

 

[JohnM]

Ahh... what have I done there? The colour scheme and font changes are entirely unexpected.

[Tresco]

Hi John

That's a generous offer.

Would that be 'real' time chat?

My first thought is that now we have the Lounge those of us who tend to chat can use that area, and hopefully won't be too much of a botheration to others, specifically those who are newish who may feel excluded by 'in' style chatter and/or who are seeking just information.

The other thing that occurred to me is that while there are certain people who I do like to see bobbing about on the forum,  one of the good things about a forum with such a wide appeal, is that new people join all the time. Sometimes they ask a few questions and disappear, sometimes they ask a few questions and then join in with the less serious threads, as well as contributing elsewhere.  Both those (and all other variations of forum use) are fine by me.

A chat room with 20 people might exclude all those people who are new to Fance, or the forum. For instance, I think I'm right in saying that Vervialle joined fairly recently, but has lived here for 15 years?

These are just my initial thoughts.

[JohnM]

A good question. I believe that it is real time, I had a quick look today and it looked that way, but due to the firewall at work I couldn't do it properly. As such I would see it as being supplementary to the forum, i.e at about x  o'clock the verbose folk know that they can chat live.

The advantages are:

• The forum does not fill up with conversation that is meaningless to outsiders.
• If arguements occur, then at the close of play they disapear into the ether and there are no "where has my post gone" comments.
• The regular posters can chat away without others thinking that there is a clique (which I suppose there would be, but in another place)

The disadvantages are:

• Only 20 in the inner circle, so some people may think there is a them and us.
• The vebose posters will not boost their number of postings.
• Sometimes, useful info will disapear into the ether because people will forget to post it in the forum.

It's not really that generous of me, it's a free add on and shouldn't cause me any trouble to use it (but if it dids cause me any trouble I would close it!).

However, as there have been 56 views and only one reply, I guess nobody wants it!

[Unknown]

John

I guess its like anything new, folk are always a little scepticle (sp) of how it will work.  I'm not saying that your 'forum' wouldn't work, its just I've seen the trouble that has gone on this forum, technically wise I mean and, well perhaps some people don't want to be guiney pigs.

I personally don't use any other forums, I have had a look and didn't like the formats, or perhaps didn't give them enough time to try and navigate my way round, but I find this forum enough to keep up with.

I think your offer is generous and kind, I wish you good luck with it.

Dotty

[Russethouse]

 I think the lounge has helped people who want to chat, but I shouldn't take it to heart, I know Will tried a regular real time chat on another forum and it took ages to get off the ground and I'm not really sure if its still going .

[Will]

That's right Gay. In fact at first our chat room was well used, despite getting some rather odd people - who I suspect may have resurfaced here in different guises at various times. The novelty soon wore off and although the chat room remains on the site I don't think it is used, despite having offered it several times to users here when people have suggested Archant set up a chat room. As with John, it's not something that I use personally. Maybe John will get better support if he wants to try it

[PossumGirl]

My personal experience has been that chat rooms are not always that easy to use.  I think it takes some training to figure out who is speaking, where your response fits in, etc.  I've been "interviewed" on several over the years and always kind of dread it!

Responding directly to a message is actually a lot easier for most of us, I think.

PG

[JohnM]

OK. Twas just a thought. Looking at the software it is quite old fashioned so I guess the MS Messenger and the like have taken the place of chat rooms. No matter, I've enjoyed looking into it.

[vervialle]

I think now the Lounge is available in the forum,anybody that does not want to get involved in day to day chat does not have to, I think it is a good answer to the problems of subjects going away from the original thread.I have been looking at the forum for a couple of years, but never really got involved until Miki got banned, I always enjoyed reading posts from the regulars as well as Dick and Miki, they were so much part of the forum,I cannot understand anybody being unhappy with that, they did not dominate the forum, the pair of them are straightforward and if we had had the lounge Miki would probably never have been banned.Dick has not posted so much on this forum the last week and there is something missing he is a central character to the forum, I look at all the posts that interst me, but if Dicks name is missing, I think there cannot be much going on, I am sure I speak for a lot of people, he is kind of like, head boy,I like his honesty whether I agree with him or not,he is far to intelligent for me, but I love his posts with a passion. Yes the forum is for information about France but it also has to have the appeal to make people come back , otherwise it would not flourish and why people come on just for an argument baffles me.With the best will in the world . I do not think another chat room is needed the common denominator here is we all have France  in our best interests whether it is for four weeks a year or whether we live there,it is natural that people will become friends through this forum , and that is why we all felt so strongly about Miki, he wasn,t just a poster we all felt we knew him, and people will move to the other forum because of him,that I can promise you.I think the lounge is a great move by the forum and I hope it is the answer to problems of the past.

[vervialle]

Can I thank everybody for their PM,s in support of my above post,I was very touched and it is nice to know  that many of you miss the two lads, I am sure the forum administrators will be pleased to know that the new section "The Lounge" is a good move,lets hope it brings lots of great debate and conversation without any  insulting posts after all, thats what most of us want. Thanks again for you PM,s.

[Tresco]

Well I'm happy about the Lounge. It's clearly not about France, yet it doesn't have to be 'Lite either. Fine by me.

Still. I think topics have always gone off  erm, topic and they still do!

As long as peoples serious questons are answered, what's the problem?. It isn't one, two or three posters who come in with the quirky comment, it's loads!  I truly believe people have no conception of the fact they are doing it. They are 99%  innocent respnses in the way each persons head takes them.

Policing that is going to be hard to be consistent about.

I'm not going to decamp totally to the other forum, I like this one. It's quite interesting being nearby at a virtual 'birth' but there are elements there that are not right for me.

I just hope that after the initial one month ban, an accord is reached, and that Miki returns and posts here, too.

[Unknown]

Tresco

What is the other forum you all use?

[Catalpa]

www.thatsfrance.com, Dotty. There's a forum tab so click on that.

I've looked but not touched. It is, as Tresco says, interesting to see the birth of a new forum but with three members who've been banned from this or other forums taking the already vociferious lead, I don't think it is going to be a particularly pleasant or tolerant place. TU is there, though, and she was really sweet to a newcomer who was clearly out of her (I think it was a her) depth. But I saw Val2 comment that she was (and if I'm misrepresenting you Val, please correct me [:)]) tired of the septic tank questions and wanted something different. If you are decamping from here, Val, I think that's a genuine loss to this forum. For a lot of people, the fundamental knowledge of how France works is what makes this forum so valuable. On present showing, thatsfrance isn't going to be that.

But. This is just my view and as I don't usually use the forums as a form of debate, more to get (and occasionally give) information, my view may not be either representative or valid. [8-|]

[Tresco]

Val2 posted here earlier today[:)]

 

[Christine Animal]

I'm still here lounging about.   [geek]

 

 

[Owens88]

A good offer, possibly solving more than one problem.

I have indeed said that the 'near real-time' conversations that go on amongst a few soulmates/enemies in here are like 'MSN for adults'. IMHO best not to intrude on. For many of us these momentary excursions into 'what page of the paper are you reading now?'  are often irritating if part way into an advice thread. The Lounge goes part way to addressing this, and indeed perhaps far enough.

Threads going off topic are more difficult. An occasional one-liner , perhaps even as a 'close off' to an on topic rely, is part of conversation, but when people latch on to big time it can be irritating. This is compounded by the fact that the topic headline keeps emerging in the active list yet the latest posting might be on a different planet. At the risk of boring admin, it was less of a problem when we could see 'posts since last visit' in overview of forums.

Veering off topic now. Many years ago there was something called MS Comic Chat (or similar) where one adopted a cartoon character (from a pre-determined set of options)  in a cartoon strip format - various 'rooms' existed as well. It was fun but weird.