new thread
I am wondering when do you all go to the chat room? Every time I go there, no one is there. I want to chat so bad LOL
Birdman
Well it must be that we are all having such a good time out in the "real" world and all the different wacky time zones we live in. Perhaps we should organise a group chat one night!
"...Perhaps we should organize a group chat one night!..."
That is a great idea John....in all the years I have been involved with MLHH, I have never been in "The Room"...
Perhaps we should try an informal "suggested" meeting time....say 6:00 PM (1800 hours) no matter what time zone you are in.....therefore folks in other time zones simply need to check the chat room "on the hour" to see who is signed in from around the world....
Thoughts everyone??
Walter
Assuming that's 18:00 Pacific time.
That would be 02:00 Johns time and he should be back from the pub by then. (hick)
(grin)
That should be a lively conversation I would think. LOL
You up for it Mr. B?
Oh yes...hick....what a good idea and I just back from the pub and now enjoying a nice glass of rose. But no one in chat room...boo hoo :-(
"...Oh yes...hick....what a good idea and I just back from the pub and now enjoying a nice glass of rose. But no one in chat room...boo hoo :-(..."
Oh , but I tried.....missed you by an hour......sat there alone with the coffee jitters....twang !!
Hey, I'm jealous of all of this and have missed everybody. Perhaps I should have a nice "glash" of milk and play in my sand box? LOL :-)
Don't feel bad I leave for work at 7:00 ish central time so I miss out too.
Perhaps I could chat from work on my Blackberry.
I would suggest we have a set time each evening. Since the biggest cluster of our users is in North America, the second biggest is in Western Europe and the UK, and the third biggest is in Australia, I would suggest this, using California time since that is what the board and chat room show:
Sunday-Thursday:
7:00 p.m. (10:00 p.m. on the East Coast)
Friday & Saturday:
2:00 p.m. (5 p.m. on the East Coast, 10:00 p.m. in the UK, 11:00 p.m. in Western Europe)
This time would also be at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday in Australia (and 11:00 a.m. in New Zealand)
The Australia and New Zealand times would be two hours earlier in the summer (their winter), and during spring and fall, times may vary by an hour out of North America because areas set their clocks at varying times. If anyone wonders what time California is on, all they need do is enter the chat room.
Note that during the week, the window is too short between dinnertime and bedtime to pick a reasonable time for those outside of North America, so the weekend times are shifted to accommodate them at reasonable hours.
Sound like a plan?
Bill
Is the lower west side becoming the new meridian of time?
The "lower west side", isn't that in New York? Well, we have to pick some time, and no one has suggested THAT one! (Yet) I suggested we use the board time (a post I made just a few minutes ago to this thread explains why, and I won't retype it here).
The board is on the time of the 120W meridian, if anyone cares to know that. But that is just in the wintertime. It is on the time of the 105W meridian most of the year. Do our users really care? The most famous meridian is the Greenwich one, but despite its fame, very few people are on it in the winter, and almost no one at all is on it in the summer. Despite its fame, heavily one due to history, few people know how to translate their time into it. Because most people live in places that shift their time for winter and summer, picking any fixed meridian is complicating a matter we want as simple as possible. The sun also wobbles about 16 minutes either side of due south at noon, and there are an infinite number of meridians if you really want to get technical about it. Let's not get that technical. It will fascinate the engineers and autistics on here, and it will bore silly, and also frustrate, everyone else.
The times shown on posts and the time stamps in the chat room are a real time that everyone can compare to his own time and then show up when they want to. It also shifts with the seasons as most of our local times do. No complicated math required. Less complication means more participation, and that is what we want.
Bill
Hmm, that would be 9:00 central time right?
Paul
Yes. Let's all try to chat tonight!
Bill
Yeah, I missed it Bill. Sorry, I got on too late.
Paul
I'd like to chat too.
Unfortunately, I think that the relatively small number of active users on the MLHH, and this rather rudimentary forum, coupled with different time zones, makes it quite difficult to organise a chat. Other forums usually feature a "online users" list, international time zones, and many other intuitive features that better facilitate chat. Not a criticism, more of an observation. Maybe I have a silly bit of sentimentality for this place, cause it is real old school style message board/forum. Infact, during my 3 year return from being away from the board I expected a major overhaul of the forum platform. It is still very functional though, even after all these years, and thanks for all the effort you gate keepers of the MLHH put into the website!
Well I hear you on your points regarding chat and getting everyone together for one.But what makes you say mlhh has a small amount of active users?Based on what.You've been away from the board many years and when you returned mlhh its still up and running:)This is a well established forum with a long track record and to tell you the truth I like the simplicity of using it.Some of the greatest inventions ever made were very simple devices.Why overhaul the board when it works just fine.Anyway sorry we can't offer technical gizmos for the techies but that's what makes us unique here:)Happy hair growing!
Mark
Existence does not suffice, in terms of being largely active.
The active board population seems the same as when I left it last, or perhaps even a little smaller. Maybe my expectations are higher.
You're right though, the board certainly has longevity and I admire the way that it has defied internet trends/social networking platforms/commercialisation to provide a reliable and consistent forum platform to its users.
My e-business course has screwed with my head, surely. The adage certainly holds true!
Cheers
My husband runs a site with the same forum and chat, and his forum is just about as active as MLHH's. His chat room is busy several hours each day. People won't go into a chat room unless they are used to finding people there, though, and to get that ball rolling, we all need to try to get on MLHH's at the same time each day.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," as the saying goes. It doesn't require javascript, java, flash, or anything else. It does not set cookies. It works on everything from WebTV to the latest cell phones. By keeping it simple, we've had it work both backwards and forwards compatible. If you have the latest gadget or a computer you got in 1995, the chat room will work. You don't have to have certain software and you don't have to turn on stuff you like to keep off. Also, you don't have to remember a password. This means the most people possible can technically use it. When our problem is low usage, isn't having no one shut out what we want?
It's a blessing not a curse that we are all over the place. We just need to pick one time each day that we can all try to get on it. The time should be picked so the most people can get on.
This would require we make people sign up and then with each visit log in. It's been our policy since the site's inception to not make people do that. It discourages activity (isn't a lack of activity the problem?) and it violates site visitors' privacy to tell everyone else they are there. Once you enter our chat room, of course there is a list of who is in the chat room, and you can click on their picture to see more about them.
Many people really do not understand time zones, especially if they have to cross oceans with them. Making people translate time zones, again, shuts people out. That is why I suggested we just tell people times that are the time of the board. Anyone can go into the chat room, see it is 6:00, and realize he needs to come back in an hour if he wants to meet people at 7:00. Using the board time (Pacific Time in North America) is, on the other hand, useful for the largest group of our users, which is those in North America, because they can translate times on that continent. Also, almost all of that continent sets their clocks in the spring and fall at the same time, so times if translated once to their local time should then work all year.
The system requires only one thing, to type what you want to say. How much more intuitive can you get?
Yeah, it's old, but in Internet years we are old. The site has had a staying power because it fulfills a need that none of the newer social networking sites fulfills. I can't say an old look is bad. When people see it, they realize, "Hey, these guys have been around for awhile!" We are a LOT older than the latest social networking rages, like FaceBook.
As the guy who had his hand deepest into the software here, of course the present features are sentimental for me, too. But the needs of the community mean much more to me, and to the other oldtimers as well. Over the years the site has been honed to meet exactly what THIS community needs, and that is why we've stuck with it.
Bill
Thanks for your responses. I now understand the lack of compelling reasons to upgrade the forums, and stronger reasons for keeping it the way it currently functions.
As an IT/Business student I'm naturally curious about this stuff and am always trying to find better 'solutions' for online platforms. However, I'm still learning and have yet to hone my skills in an occupation.
The last thing I would want to see is a young/hip/trendy social-networking style forum with pop-up ads, restrictive access, and all the other associated annoyances.
As long as it continues to meet the needs of the community and functions well then it's a keeper!
Yeah no need to fix what isnt broken.
Small number of active users. Hehe, how sly. I have to agree with Hairball, based on what? You must be comparing it to some mega board like LHC. As long as we as big as the Buzz(ard) Board I'm happy.
Personally I like the simple way this board works, the LHC for instance is too complex, it's crazy. I don't even like to post there, I can never find my damn message, much less see if anyone responded.
The time slot thing chat is a great idea. I've been to the chat room many times only to see no one there. 7:00 Pacific is 9:00 where I live and that is exactly when I'm on the computer everyday.
Paul
You're right. I'm comparing it to some other boards which are simply too big. My presumption is that there are probably twice as many regular lurkers, as there are active users.
The chat solution then is easily fixed.
Incremental updates/improvements is therefore the best strategy to keep this board relevant and usable.