Suggestions for chat room activities

A virtual reality center.

What about a holo deck like Star Trek, hehehe Couldn't resist, sorry.

What about an ask an expert chat?

I can think of people on AW who are neuro biologists, game writers, grammarians, barkeeps/cocktail experts, cooks, musicians, law enforcement people, geeks, historians, equestrians, . . .

We could ask people to think of questions in advance, ask the expert to come up with resources/references that might be of use to writers, and post the resources and the chat afterwards in AW and on the Web site.

And we all know experts in all sorts of quirky fields, too (I know folklorists, for instance, specializing in specific cultures, or practices, and historians specializing in the study of magic . . . )

I'd thought of that for the SFF chats but it never got off the ground. I'd love a folklorist chat

How about a chat centered about a book? One book, perhaps one chapter, picked apart by writers, discussing the merits, the problems etc. Aimed to develop new insight in writing. With a rule not to pick books written by AW's (if known)...

I quite liked Medievalists suggestion on experts.

Max posted this idea and I really liked it. Here are some more ideas:

*A regular, scheduled event, weekly perhaps, where the participants "speak" as their characters, not as themselves.

*There could be a prompt, like "why I hate my antagonist's guts" or "why I love my love interest so much".

*Maybe it could/should be divided by genres.

Of course totally open to new ideas. But I really think this could be lots of fun.

I like the idea of a book club, where we all read the same book and then get together and discuss the merits or otherwise of the genre, style, etc...

It would be nice to have a time when people could come in and get specific writing help. Not like "Read my manuscript!" but like, "I have a problem with x." Something like picking out adverbs, showing vs. telling, grammar jams, bit of this or that.

How about a regularly scheduled chat for all supernatural thriller fans and fans of urban fantasy and horror to just get together and chat about the topic in any way we want? I'd be willing to moderate if it was on a tuesday or thursday night. Anyone interested?

well i've tried to figure out the difference between regular forums and 'chat' , no luck so far.
anyone with a brief summary of the difference?

An organized chat is simply a date and time arranged for a live discussion on a set subject in the chatroom. It's just a way to get people to try to get a bunch of regulars with a similar interest so we can have an actual live discussion as opposed to posting on a forum and waiting for people to respond. It's just more immediate imo.

The real-time interaction you get in chat allows for discussions and brainstorming that you can't get in a forum.

Chat is not for everyone, some people don't like it at all. I do think that everyone should give it a go even if just to see what it's like.

gotcha, kinda like facebook or gmail chat facility. now, if only i had friends....

*points to user title*

Must stop getting people addicted to chat like I am. Must stop getting people ...

It's such fun - you'll love it!

It would be better if there were a machine to talk to you when you are the only one left in the channel

Unfortunately for aficionados of machine intelligences, StarChat allows no robotic channel monitors (bots).


Although, lurkers sometimes seem a lot like bots.

Perhaps this is the wrong place for this, perhaps it's the right one, but I'd really like to see the Sci-fi/Fantasy discussions get kick-started again. I am willing to volunteer time, and I'm trying to round up others who may be interested--even those involved with the chat that might not primarily focus on SF/F writing.

I'd also love to see more in the way of interviews (authors, agents, editors, the whole lot) and panel discussions.

I'm in the chat-room nearly non-stop these days, Fulk. If you want a hand with anything, let me know.

Another issue is getting somebody to be in there full-time, if the "op must be present" rule is going to be enforced. Not all of us are on US time and there's been many a good conversation ended because the room goes on mute when the last op needs to sleep.

The idea of expanding our base of channel operators is never off the table. It has long been my goal to have channel operators available 24/7. Especially since AW is a global community.

Anyone from outside the USA (or more precisely, the Western Hemisphere) who is interested in becoming a channel operator should get in contact with me. At the moment, we have two such: one in Scotland and one in Portugal. They both reside in the same time zone (GMT).

There are minimum requirements for the job, which mainly means your commitment to both AW and the chat room experience. Although several of our channel operators are also forum moderators, that is NOT a requirement.

Again, if you're interested, contact me--by PM, preferrably--and we'll discuss it.

Thanks.
Peter

'Ask a (insert genre or style) anything'

ask a freelancer anything.
ask an editor anything.
ask a poet anything.


you get it.

zerospark said:

I'm in the chat-room nearly non-stop these days, Fulk. If you want a hand with anything, let me know.

Another issue is getting somebody to be in there full-time, if the "op must be present" rule is going to be enforced. Not all of us are on US time and there's been many a good conversation ended because the room goes on mute when the last op needs to sleep.

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As you know I spend a LOT of time in the chat room, but no one can be there full-time. We all need to sleep (yes, even me, as hard as that is to believe), eat, and have a life.

Just because someone is logged on doesn't mean they are there and I, for one, am not particularly fond of the people that are logged on because their IRC client logs them on automatically. I don't really have a problem with it and as far as I know there have always been people doing that, but I would rather people not be on if they aren't really there.

It's fine if you are logged on and you take a break for something. just set your statuts to away, even if that means several hours. But do let us know you're not there for some reason. Being logged on just because is not really valuable to the chat room.

Just MHO, don't want to step on anybody's toes, yah?

And one more thing regarding having the room open 24/7. There have been many, many days where the room was opened and nothing happened. I'm talking hours of not one new person logging on, of not one single thing being said. The room starts to get active when the american folks log on, pure and simple. I'm glad I'm a european, on european time, to keep the room open when most americans are asleep, but honestly, I don't think there is activity in that room 24/7 and it is not because of lack of Op presence.

Lastly, and I hope you guys know this, I hate to break up the conversations because I need to log off. I really really really hate it.

SaraP said:

Just because someone is logged on doesn't mean they are there and I, for one, am not particularly fond of the people that are logged on because their IRC client logs them on automatically. I don't really have a problem with it and as far as I know there have always been people doing that, but I would rather people not be on if they aren't really there.

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This really bugs me too. Not to an extreme, but because it creates the impression that there are people to talk to when really there aren't any. I can always make the assumption the person is simply AFK, but I may end up waiting an hour just to discover nobody is actually there.

And one more thing regarding having the room open 24/7. There have been many, many days where the room was opened and nothing happened. I'm talking hours of not one new person logging on, of not one single thing being said. The room starts to get active when the american folks log on, pure and simple. I'm glad I'm a european, on european time, to keep the room open when most americans are asleep, but honestly, I don't think there is activity in that room 24/7 and it is not because of lack of Op presence.

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I have no doubt that there are bouts of inactivity. Some days, people just have other things going on. However, I do think the inactivity is at least loosely connected with the new OP-moderated rule. Not that it should be changed--I'm not certain of the reasons why the change was instituted, but I know it wasn't arbitrary.

It used to be that I could drop in and have small talk with whatever small amount of AWers were present in the slower hours whenever I wished, but now I have a tendency to only check during what I imagine are peak hours, because too often I join to find either no OP or no chatters. Because the presence of OPs is somewhat variable on its own (everyone has a life), it makes it difficult for chatters to gauge a time they are guaranteed to find others.

Lastly, and I hope you guys know this, I hate to break up the conversations because I need to log off. I really really really hate it.

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I believe you wholeheartedly, Sara. You've been nothing short of reluctant to close the channel when people are chatting.

zerospark said:

I'm in the chat-room nearly non-stop these days, Fulk. If you want a hand with anything, let me know.

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Glad to hear it, Zerospark. I will let you know if we get anything off the ground. As I said, we're going to need volunteers to host and moderate the discussions, not to mention participate in them.