Should the chatbox go back up?

[DarkSky]

Ok here's the deal.

1: There HAS to be posts continuing in the forums. Every time the chatbox has gone up, people have been posting valuable links and storm discussion there - content that would be better served posted in a thread where it stays permanently for other visitors to see.

2: I don't have much free time, let alone enough to babysit bad behavior in the chatbox. We had an incident a month or two ago that required me to spend an hour going back through the chatbox log trying to find out who was breaking the rules and what was going on. An hour I didn't want to spend looking through chatbox archives. If anyone abuses the chatbox in the future, there will be *NO* warnings. Accounts will have to be removed.

3: Those really wanting the chatbox re-instated will have to hold responsibility for it. If someone abuses the chatbox, anyone in favor of re-instating it will also be removed. If you REALLY think all the users (not just yourself) will abide by the rules and I won't ever have to go through what I went through a couple months ago, by all means, vote in favor of it. I had it up before, people started flaming/hacking/insulting each other in it, I had to spend an evening repairing the damage. Then I had to send countless PMs back and forth to the members who were banned re-explaining why they were banned. So I removed it. Now there's been a lot of talk to put it back (when *I* am the one who has to spend the time fixing things and banning people and trading PMs back and forth when it's abused). So this time, anyone voting in favor of it will be held responsible for the behavior in it. Simply put, if I put it back online and it gets abused in the future, I'm going to be REALLY upset with those who twisted my arm to get it back online.

The chatbox also uses significant system resources sending out updates to everyone every 5 seconds. If it starts slowing the system down, it will have to be removed.

CHATBOX RULES:
- No insulting other members
- No profanity
- No jibberish talk that doesn't make any sense
- KEEP POSTING IN THE THREADS! If all the storm discussion is happening in the chatbox, it's just killing the forum.

So if you want it back online, please reply saying so. If not, or you don't care, please don't reply. Anyone who replies to this will be the ones who will be accountable if things go amuck again. My apologies, but this is the only way it's going back online. No discussions any further (public or PMs) as I, like other users, come on here to discuss weather, not how the site is run. I spend enough time doing it behind the scenes fixing passwords, creating user accounts for people with having tech problems, doing backups, creating graphics and other site admin duties. So if someone wants to have something online which could create me headaches and frustrations in the future, that person(s) will have to be responsible, because my personal choice is to leave it offline and not have to deal with the problems it causes.

[davefootball123]

I would love to see the chatbox put back online. It is great for small talk. I will post any information that I have in a thread as well.

[DarkSky]

Ok davefootball123 is now a ChatBox moderator and will be in charge of making sure there's no abuse.

If there's anyone abusing it, please remove their msgs, PM me with a list of what they said so appropriate action can be taken if warranted. Please copy/paste any useful content into thread posts. Thank you.

(PM me about ChatBox moderation options if they're not showing up for you)

In the ChatBox drop-down menu you'll see a "View ChatBox Archive" option - on that page you'll have edit options.

[davefootball123]

Sounds good to me

[Smokin Joe]

I have an idea. What if we just open the chatbox during days where we fall into either an spc/ec risk area or a watch or warning is out? If we do that we can still promote starting threads days in advance of weather to get discussion going, and a thread will already be started to post links, photos, vids, statements etc. Perhaps banning links from being put on the chatbox will promote starting threads as well. Just a thought, don't want to complicate things just throwing it out for thought

[Derecho]

Just to point out, I was under the impression the chat box was initially created to promote less posting to prevent mega-threads. So, I posted less on the forum and more in the chat box. Even until I read your thread just now I was still under the impression that even without the chat box, engaging in multiple paged threads was still discouraged.

I'm indifferent to the chat box being opened again, but I just wanted to clear up that I was under the wrong impressions about posting.

[DarkSky]

Originally Posted by Smokin Joe

I have an idea. What if we just open the chatbox during days where we fall into either an spc/ec risk area or a watch or warning is out? If we do that we can still promote starting threads days in advance of weather to get discussion going, and a thread will already be started to post links, photos, vids, statements etc. Perhaps banning links from being put on the chatbox will promote starting threads as well. Just a thought, don't want to complicate things just throwing it out for thought

That's how it ran up until yesterday. I was hoping to continue running it like that - put it up during times of severe outbreaks, then take it down after. But right after I took it down yesterday people were complaining about it. So now the person who posted that it shouldnt' be taken down, is in charge of it

Originally Posted by Derecho

Just to point out, I was under the impression the chat box was initially created to promote less posting to prevent mega-threads. So, I posted less on the forum and more in the chat box. Even until I read your thread just now I was still under the impression that even without the chat box, engaging in multiple paged threads was still discouraged.

I'm indifferent to the chat box being opened again, but I just wanted to clear up that I was under the wrong impressions about posting.

No prob. Yah I don't mind big threads. There could even be dual threads such as:

Aug.24, 2011 - Chat Thread
Aug.24, 2011 - Storm Thread

All the non-important chit chat into the chat thread, All the good information such as EC statements, pictures, videos, etc, could be posted into the storm thread. Then after it's all passed I could simply move the Storm Thread into the 2011 forum for permanent keeping.

We could even keep a thread specifically for chit-chat only which could be used all the time. The difference with the chatbox is that it auto-loads new replies from others every 5 seconds. This also really slows down the system when there's 400 people online and it's sending out updates to 400 people every 5s. That slowdown doesn't happen of course when it's all in a thread, because new text is only sent out when someone loads a page.

Anyway, it's back up. Davefootball123 is in charge. Meaning, if there's a problem in there, ask him. But also meaning, if anyone misbehaves and I catch it, the person(s) involved *and* dave will be removed from the site. The one stipulation about putting it back online is that there would be *no* problems or time involved on my end. Not after all the problems I went through with the 2 or 3 users abusing it before. So this time the responsibility lies on dave's shoulders So for his sake, please everyone behave in there. This is a site to discuss weather. If anyone wants to discuss other things, there's other sites on the internet for it. Thank you.

[davefootball123]

Well if you make a thread specificaly for chit-chat then that would eliminate the purpose of the chat-box. Im fine with that to. Its just boring when you cant talk about smaller less important things.

[DarkSky]

Originally Posted by davefootball123

Well if you make a thread specificaly for chit-chat then that would eliminate the purpose of the chat-box. Im fine with that to. Its just boring when you cant talk about smaller less important things.

Oh I fully agree the Chatbox is a great way to just pass the time, especially as people get to know each other. And if people were 100% courteous to each other (and the site as a whole) it would be fine. As long as we don't get a repeat of what happened before, and all the good information goes into posts for everyone who visits the site to read, all should be good. But on some days we're getting 10,000 visits, and it would be a shame for people coming here looking for information and links about a storm that's currently going on, to miss it all, because that info only lasted 1 minute before scrolling off the chatbox window. But like I said, as long as people keep posting in here as well, and people don't start fighting while chatting, all should be fine.