# Chat Room Invitations (Date & Time)



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

Gday members, I will be on line if anyone wants to chat on friday june 3rd at @ 6pm- (or 9am saturday for those Aussies here!) Look forward to getting to know other members!


----------



## GoldenFrost (May 27, 2005)

I'd like to but I'm at work and it is hard for me to do that :no:


----------



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

I am in the chat room now if anyone would care to chat!


----------



## mojosmum (May 20, 2005)

I'm trying to figure out how to get in the Chatroom. Never done that before. Very computer illiterate.


----------



## goldencity (May 26, 2005)

OK, I found the chatroom, but the time thing is confusing- I'm in the UK, lots of you are in America or Canada and others in Australia. So My "quick look" at lunchtime [12.30-1.00 pm] and the evening look 8.00pm to 10.00 pmish depending how boring the TV is or what we are doing matches up to what time for you lot?:uhoh: 

The time at the bottom of the screen says 6.20am, here its 12.25pm. I'll have another look this evening at about 9.00pm [here] or is that 15.30?????

Sarah


----------



## golden's love (May 24, 2005)

Hi Barb,:wavey: Nice to see you here as well. I will do my best to be here on Friday.

Michelle


----------



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

hee hee, lovely to see you to Michelle! Cant wait to catch up and chat again!

Now, I dont know I could have this wrong, but just a quick guestimation-
If it is 9 pm in Australia it is
6 am ish in the states and
noon in the UK
Do I have this right?


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

This link could be helpful to sync times:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Joe


----------



## Jude's Mom (May 19, 2005)

Maggies Mum

I am trying to figure out what time you will be in the chat room. What time zone are you in? And you said 6pm right?

I have never been in an online chat room before, so I am a little nervous. But I figure there will be many people there. :hide:

It looks like it is close to midnight there now on Thursday and it is 7am here on Thursday. So when it is 6pm there it must be about 1am here. I may not make it.  Oh well.


----------



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

Meggies Mum said:


> Gday members, I will be on line if anyone wants to chat on friday june 3rd at @ 6pm- (or 9am saturday for those Aussies here!) Look forward to getting to know other members!


Okay, :wave: I am in Australia, it will be 9am saturday here, midnight FRIDAYin the UK, and anywhere between 5pm- 8pm FRIDAY in the states depending where you are from what I gather!:crossfing 
Check the link from Joe, it is very helpful!


----------



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

Well, guys Friday has finally arrived! Thank goodness for weekends! 
Its almost time for my "Chat date"...(lol)... hope to see some of you in the chatroom!


----------



## mojosmum (May 20, 2005)

I was going to try to be there but....I'm old and I forgot? Sorry!


----------



## Pepe Gardner (Apr 11, 2005)

I missed it too. When is the next chat date/time?


----------



## Meggies Mum (Apr 28, 2005)

I notice there are a few members on line right now.... anyone want to chat??? If so go to the Chat room now!!!


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

What about setting another chat day:
*Saturday, 18 of June 9 AM EST?*
Joe


----------



## WeluvGoldens (Jun 15, 2005)

9 a.m....LOL I'm almost never up at that time. My son keeps me up all night long. We are night owls. 

:wave:


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Hey guys, chatroom is kind of empty lately. What would be a best day and time to make a little chat session?


----------



## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

Hey Joe... a chat room is a very different kind of communication medium. I not sure if everyone will feel comfortable trying it out for the first time... and I'll just bet there are a lot of members on this forum have never tried it before. Also look at the large number of 'guests' and forum members who have never posted... it can be very intimidating to just 'jump' right in if you've never done it before... so let me try to increase the comfort level...

What is a chat room and how does it work? Its a place where you converse with others in real time... its like a written phone conversation (a conference call sort of). A Window opens up and you have a sidebar with the psuedo-names of everyone 'in' this chatroom. Everyone in this chatroom will see whatever you type/send. You can see what's been said (typed/sent) in a main window... it will scroll as the conversation ensues. Each 'speaker' will have their name preceding their comments, so you know who 'said' what. You will have a text box at the bottom of the window where you can type in your comments and then send it to the chatroom... that's how you join in the conversation. Most chatroom software looks about how I just described it, so if this forum's chatroom software differs from what I've described above please correct me... Thanks.

Now with this new type of communication comes new complications... in a forum, you have time to gather your thoughts, change wording, correct grammar and spelling (use SpelChek) and decide how your posting will be viewed and make any adjustments before you 'submit' (well if you are like me, that's what you do)... but since chatrooms are in 'real time', you've got to just 'chuck' good grammar, spelling, composure, et al out the window and just let go and be yourself. Because of the delay factor, many of us really slow typers (I'm always one of the slowest) get way out of sync with the conversation... by the time I compose and get it all typed out the conversation has moved to the point where my comments are irrelevant. So there is an attempt to speed things up to a feverish pitch (read this as stress), now add to that several people in the chatroom all 'talking' at once and it can get real crazy (hard to follow), real fast. Also unlike in a forum posting, long-winded soliloquies (much like this one) becomes impossible... so pretty much all conversation becomes short phrases or one-liners or even just one word responses... this severely limits the usability of the medium for normal conversation. So I'd like to now propose several things...

Firstly, instead of posting 'meeting times' how about just using a PM (private messaging) to invite someone who is already online (on the forum) into the chatroom. I learned about doing this on another forum... Everyone was trying set-up met times and it wasn't working... then someone invited me into chatroom one day and we had a fun conversation... the next day someone else invited me to chat and we were joined later by a third person, it was fun, then it happen yet again (a simple 3-way conversation, easy to follow, later one person left and someone joined)... FINALLY it dawned on me that this was the best way to use this medium! With only 2 or 3 or 4 people in the chatroom it removed much of the craziness and made conversation much easier to participate-in and to follow along with.

Secondly, at the very start of a chat session I always ask for the understanding and patience of the other parties because I'm such a slow typer... I likewise will be very patient about waiting for responses... and if I'm going to be long-winded, I will type in something like 'long winded response' and do it in installments followed with a "..." (because most chatroom software limits the number of characters that can be typed into the text box before being sent).

Thirdly, I know its tough for many people to initiate conversation with a complete stranger (that's really what we are here)... just remember we all have one thing in common... we like animals and we love Goldens, so start by asking the usual stuff (How many Goldens do you live with? How old is s/he? Where did you get him/her from? Where are you from? How's the weather there? etc.) It gets easier the more you do it... If you get me in the 'room', please understand I don't mind conversation pauses, there's no need for speed, and I am usually an easy person to chat with.

Finally, if your invite gets turned down don't take it personally... remember you have no idea of what's going on where the other person is... people don't always have the time for a chat. Chatting is very time consuming and a half-hour will past like in an instant... once you've done it, you will know exactly what I'm talking about. And when there is time to chat most people don't have much more than a half-hour.

So to start the ball rolling... if anyone would like to chat with me, I often have some time available in the late evenings say after 11PM (EasternStandardTime) if you can catch me online in the forum posting something, just give me a invite.


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Monomer,
if you'd like you could help out and write a page, which I would add as a link to the top header of this forum, which would explain how this whole thing works.
It would probably be a big help for all newbies, also I would really appreciate it, as I am usually swamped with so many projects I am working on.
Please PM me if you're interested and also consider being moderator of this forum, I could change your permissions. It would definitely help, especially when I am on vacations and so...
Joe


----------



## goldensonly (Jun 13, 2005)

Joe said:


> Monomer,
> if you'd like you could help out and write a page,
> Joe


Uh??????? :bowl: I think he DID write a page... and he explained it very
well indeed!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, he should be the mod here! :wave:


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I know he did. What I ment is to put it into some presentable form along with everything else which would cross his mind during the process.
Joe


----------



## monomer (Apr 21, 2005)

Joe... I've been quite busy these last few days... its our little town's "garage sale days" which is actually one of the big events we have every summer (hey, what do you expect from a town of 2000 people?... and we are county seat no less!). Anyway, Sidney had fun meeting everyone (a lot of rural folks come to town for the event) and we sold a lot of stuff (over $400 USD)... so now I have some time to visit this forum.

Thank you for the offer and honor of becoming a moderator on this forum but I don't think I can devote the time necessary to do a good job. I teach for a living and this being summer is my time off... except that I have a summer contract to monitor and visit our interns and added to that, I just got a large grant from the state of Michigan to do some massive industrial training across the state and have to now begin working putting that training program together and on top of that I have also been hired to train all the engineers and technicians in a large plastics processing plant. Needless to say I'm going to be a busy fellow... but that is the nature of my work. I can only devote time to this forum in 'spurts', which is okay as an active participating member but lousy for being a good moderator.

As far as writing a page about using the chat-room... you could start by quoting the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh paragraphs of my post and make it a 'sticky' and I can compose and add more detailed instructions on software use later.

You know, I'm now a member on two other Golden Retriever forums yet this is the only one I really read and post in... each forum seems to have its own character (I suppose that could also be written as 'characters' ) and I just like the atmosphere here best... so I will try to help out whenever I can.


----------



## cathi (Dec 16, 2005)

I would like to join in on the chat - need to know how to get into it and what time you all will be on line.


----------



## lola'smommy (Dec 19, 2005)

I would love to but have never been on there. I guess I should check it out and the times. Fri. night I will make a point to check it out.


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I have disabled OUR Chatroom for now. It had some problems and I am looking for some better chatroom software.
If anyone of you have some suggestion for vbulletin based chatroom, please let me know.
Joe


----------



## FranH (May 8, 2005)

Joe,

I think a chat room would be great. There are lots more members since the last one...

Franh


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I will come up with something I am sure.
Joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Joe...

Which ones have you looked at? I can dig around and find some options.

Just two quick ones without digging too much:

http://www.tufat.com/s_flash_chat_chatroom.htm 

http://123flashchat.com/ - though this one is very expensive.

Let me know if you want more. I can find us something.....

Rick


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Great, I will look at those and try to implement.
Joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Joe said:


> Great, I will look at those and try to implement.
> Joe


A lot of people were talking about how great the tufat.com flash chat is.....and it's $5.00.

The 123flashchat.com looks VERY spendy.

Let me know if you want more options. I can find us more.

Rick


----------



## krbshappy71 (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm still interested in a chat room if other people are. Sorry, I don't know how people set them up. I use IRC and pop into them.


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Joe will get us set up. It's just a matter of finding the right program. I'll keep looking, too.

Rick


----------



## shaneamber (Apr 20, 2005)

I tried the old chat a few times and found myself talking to people who weren't from our forum,so I gave up. I 'll check around myself.Does the Frapper map have a chat option?
Shane


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

shaneamber said:


> Does the Frapper map have a chat option?


I can't find a chat option there. And it would still require everyone on our forum to register there. Looks like we don't even have to register to dot the map.

I think that as long as Joe knows how to install a chat room designed to go with VBulletin forums, that's the best route. That way, everyone who is registered on the site has access.

I'm still looking at other options to find us the best chat program. I've seen lots of them for PHPBoards, which is the forums I have more experience with, so I know we can find us a good one.....

Rick


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

This one here seems pretty nice....

Demo Link:
http://www.tufat.com/demo/amfichat/index.php

Looks pretty simple.....it's just a matter of whether or not Joe can integrate it with our system....

Rick


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I liked tufat, but I don't see it being vbulletin friendly. 
I need the chat which would automatically use our existing usernames and passwords to log into it.
Joe


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I think our old chatroom was this one:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=71049
But it didn't work properly... Do you guys know of any better script?
Joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

Joe said:


> I think our old chatroom was this one:
> http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=71049
> But it didn't work properly... Do you guys know of any better script?
> Joe


Joe....I came across this one while searching for information on the "Delicate Subject" thread yesterday..... Looks like there's is pretty well integrated. I will look some more tomorrow..

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/

Rick


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I am looking at Flashchat now and reading some good reviews about it. I will try it and do some tests with it and post later.
Joe


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I found another chat, spent a while testing it and just before I went to purchase it I realized it's 299$, and that is only some kind of a limited version. Wow.
Anyhow, still searching...
joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

What about donations to help pay for a good one? I could help some....

Rick


----------



## FranH (May 8, 2005)

I would be willing to help out with a donation....I'm sure there are alot of others, too. Paypal would be an easy way


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

I really appreciate this guys.

Anyone else willing to help out with donation?
Paypal would be probably the best method for me as well.

Joe


----------



## Lexie's Mom (Dec 14, 2005)

i will help as well. Let me know what I can do and how to do it. 

Thanks,

Lisa


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Hey everyone,

Chatroom is alive and kicking now 
As you can see there on the top menu bar, there is an option called: "*ChatRoom*" and clicking on it will automatically log you in using your Golden Retriever Forum credentials...
Please feel welcome to try it out.
You can also bookmark it for direct login, here is the link:
http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/chat/flashchat.php
Cost me only 5 bugs, so no need to donate any cash....but thanks for your offers.

Joe


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Btw. Chatroom has a robot, his name is "GR Robot". He logs in only if you're alone in the chatroom.
He is pretty smart and you can ask him all kinds of questions 

Here is an excerpt from my conversation with him:

_[Joe] 7:32 pm: Who is president of United States?
[GR Robot] 7:32 pm: George W. Bush.
[Joe] 7:33 pm: When was he born?
[GR Robot] 7:33 pm: A while ago.
[Joe] 7:33 pm: When exactly?
[GR Robot] 7:33 pm: Precisely. It cannot be predicted.
[Joe] 7:33 pm: Ok, when was George W. Bush born?
[GR Robot] 7:33 pm: A while ago.
[Joe] 7:33 pm: Who made you?
[GR Robot] 7:33 pm: I was created by Bot lover.
[Joe] 7:34 pm: What's his name?
[GR Robot] 7:34 pm: His name is Rich._

Funny, yeah?  Try it out.
Joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

So Joe.....what about having scheduled chat times? Can we do that?

Rick


----------



## Joe (Apr 9, 2005)

Yeah, that is the idea... Do you feel like organizing such a session?
Where is Shane btw? I haven't speak to him in a while...
Joe


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

I could do that....I'll see if I can get a list of good times from everyone. And go with that....

I really like it. It looks nice. Makes me feel better about all the time I spent talking to people when I first found it. Spent hours in their test chat site.....:lol:

Rick


----------



## daisychains (Feb 3, 2006)

Hi Im On Now If Anyone Wants A Chat


----------



## RickGibbs (Dec 16, 2005)

daisychains said:


> Hi Im On Now If Anyone Wants A Chat


Sorry I missed your post. I would've come in.

Keep checking in.....we're in there a lot.

Rick


----------



## 3 goldens (Sep 30, 2005)

I would have loved to had chatted--but at that time of night, I was sound asleep.


----------

