Chatbox rules

[adnedarn]

Hello everyone. Now that the Chatbox has been running for a while the moderating staff has been able to put together some rules to ensure it gets to stay running here at TF. These rules have been decided upon not only what we've seen happening here, but also from experiences of other forums. The examples given are not to pin point anyone but rather they were the best examples we could think of. We thought of making the Chatbox for carnivorous plant discussions only, but realize that this is not just a forum, but a community. So we put together some broad examples to explain what it is we're looking to happen through the chatbox. Thanks for taking the time to read, understand, and put to use the following rules (they have also been added to the main forum rules)

CHAT BOX

Basically the rules for the chatbox are the same as those for the forum, here are a few more details.

•Keep on topic with the forum. While the chatbox is open to a variety of topics, it is preferred that the conversation be carnivorous plant oriented or topics that any member can participate in at anytime. The chatbox is not intended to be an IM substitute. For example, the chatbox should not be used to discuss, strategize, or gloat regarding current online gaming between members, since that is a conversation between two or three members only and discourages others from getting involved. The topics of the chatbox should be of interest to the people that would normally browse TerraForums who could join in a conversation. You can always email, PM or IM about more personal topics like gaming and what you did over the weekend.

•Spamming the chatbox. Do not spam the chat box with random letters shapes or words, this includes talking to yourself. The whole chatbox should not be you telling yourself a story or saying "hello is anyone there" 15 times.

• Try to say whatever you want to say in one send, and not split it up in multiple short worded sentences.

 

[Tony Paroubek]

I would like to mention. That I usually glance through the chatbox to see what folks are chatting about. I don't respond frequently but I am not opposed to it if there is something I find interesting that I can contribute to.

However!! Lately there have been alot of very fine font sizes, light colors, or text that smashes together because of the font style. I usually don't bother wearing my glasses to read or do anything on the computer but I have put them on several times to try and decipher what people are typing in the chat box... AND I still can't read some of it. Do yourselves a favor and the rest of us too... Use basic fonts in dark colors in a decent size. I will no longer attempt to read stuff that I can't see clearly and easily.

 

[adnedarn]

Thank you tony for that! I am going through the options and checking out limitations on some of the sizes and such... (I had already removed huge font sizes a while back) If it comes down to it- all that can be restricted and brought down to black if we have to...
Great point! (Still the mod side of you hmmm? ) The idea of these rules is to open the chatbox up to more of the users here after all.
Andrew

 

[seedjar]

On that topic, I don't really think fonts and colors are necessary in the chatbox. It's textual communication - I remember the days when all you had was one text style in one color, and it was your terminal. The color telnet extensions were nice extras, but they never really enhanced the medium - and they were limited to like eight or sixteen choices that were all easily visible. You can always set your browser to display everything the same font, but that always screws up scripted stuff and other advanced features. The chatbox is nice, but like many pre-built website tools, bloated with unnecessary features that don't enhance functionality. I think the core point here is that there are free, better options for communication if things like text styles are really important to your mode of expression.
Annoying old party man,
~Joe

 

[kamiljablo]

WHats the limit? as in limits for chatbox messages?

 

[Pyro]

1500/day.

 

[kamiljablo]

-_- I dont believe i have reached that limit yet...but it says i did...

 

[rattler]

im with Tony on the small text and colors that are hard to read against a white background.....its a pain and usually leads to me going to find something else to do.....i have a hard time believing it will stick mainly to CP stuff.......some of us try but are easily side tracked

 

[Pyro]

-_- I dont believe i have reached that limit yet...but it says i did...

I'll talk to Andy about that and see if there is a glitch somewhere.

i have a hard time believing it will stick mainly to CP stuff.......some of us try but are easily side tracked

It is not so much that it has to be straight CP talk and we are fine with side tracks, that is part of general discussions. We would just like to avoid 100% or predisposition to off topic things. Like online gaming and talking to oneself...

 

[Ant]

Is it alright to use private chats to ask someone if they want to play a game and avoid the game talk? Basically just say "do you want o play..." or no game talk what so ever?

 

[adnedarn]

Do whatever you want using the private chat part of the shoutbox! No ones else sees those so do as you wish...

Kamil- I already upped the limit to 2000 are you still booted out? I am under the same limits and can post fine to it. So I have to think you have in fact used them... I'll try 2500... let me know if you can or not... I asked you to tell me if you still could not in that PM reply when I upped it to 2500 and never heard from you.

Edit: the reason I've kept fonts and colors active at this point is because I think that it helps separate out shouts... instead of them all blurring into one font one color text. If I see fonts that are hard to read- they will be reverted to typical black font.

 

[rattler]

It is not so much that it has to be straight CP talk and we are fine with side tracks, that is part of general discussions. We would just like to avoid 100% or predisposition to off topic things. Like online gaming and talking to oneself...

just making sure......some of us have the attention span of a spastic hamster..........

 

[Pyro]

Is it alright to use private chats to ask someone if they want to play a game and avoid the game talk? Basically just say "do you want o play..." or no game talk what so ever?

MAking a shout to have a game I think is fine. We would just like to avoid then having 6 hours of a minute by minute, play by play of said game in the public chat box. Especially when you consider that the only people who probably care about that are the people who are playing the game and they already know it case they are playing.

By the same token I am sure you all have zero interest in what I am doing every 5 minutes here in the lab and so I shan't be making a post every 5 minutes to update you Make sense?

 

[Est]

Is it alright to use private chats to ask someone if they want to play a game and avoid the game talk? Basically just say "do you want o play..." or no game talk what so ever?

So long as it's reasonable, I don't think it'd be much of a problem. But if I ask "Does anyone want to play Left 4 Dead with me?" A) I shouldn't ask again any time soon. B) If there are people that I commonly play L4D with, then I should contact them via some other method- if nobody else wants to play, then asking just clutters things up. C) I shouldn't talk about in-game things on the chatbox. Nobody else cares that I got the most zombies, nobody wants to hear "Oh darn!" "You got me!" "Thanks!" or any other out-of-context phrases.

I believe the point is to prevent the chatbox from being hijacked by a few people talking about outside topics.

 

[Est]

By the same token I am sure you all have zero interest in what I am doing every 5 minutes here in the lab and so I shan't be making a post every 5 minutes to update you Make sense?

Though, I could see that being amusing.

9:05 Pyro: Getting coffee
9:12 Pyro: Making bugs fight in the arena of my empty coffee cup
9:20 Pyro: Doing science
9:24 Pyro: Woops! Dropped another petri dish!
9:32 Pyro: There... there's been a terrible accident. If any of you are still alive to see this... I'm sorry... So sorry...

I love labs.

 

[adnedarn]

haha! I said the same thing to him in email... here is what he said.

It really is quite boring. For example, just now I finished plating out 190 strains. Wee fun. That took 2 hours. so that would be:

Plating strains

Plating strains

Still plating strains

Still plating strains

Still plating strains

Still plating strains

....

 

[Pyro]

Still plating strains

 

[Pyro]

Plating more strains

 

[Pyro]

Plating even more strains

 

[Pyro]