Originally posted by Strodyn
Trolls and undesirables can post on the board and wreck havoc......if they do they are warn/banned.....surely that can apply in chat also?

I think you are alienating too many people who prefer to chat and develop a community by getting to know the personalities without having to just stick to a specific 'topic' in a thread.

IRC has dealt with trolls easily for years, it shouldnt be too difficult here.
If someone is spamming or being abusive the option should be there to 'mute' them, during which time the complain button can be used to alert a mod to look at the recent logs, from which appropriate action can be taken.

Edit - I would also encourage a few of the most respected members/mods/admins here to schedule some active discussions starting around a 'general' subject.....that would start to encourage people to be in there, and I am sure some would end up 'lurking' permanently.

Also, if it does become popular as I believe it could be, make it open for 'viewing' only by the visitors to the site. At this time there are 96 members and over 1100 vistors at the site. A decent discussion on the chat would encourage visitors to signup to engage....they would be disappointed if after doing so they could not chat tho.


[edit on 10/10/06 by Strodyn]

Your point about scheduled topics is cool, and also at least letting people view the chat without points. Some people are there quite a long time without making 200 post...and they are not trolls...I tend to agree 200 post is to much, bann the trolls as you would here...anyway, peace

dalen

I never been in the chat room yet & i am looking foward to it once i get my 200 up

Originally posted by Sth Hemisphere
I never been in the chat room yet & i am looking foward to it once i get my 200 up

Ahh your only 6 posts away. I think you'll enjoy it when you get there.

I was around when it didnt take 200 and enjoyed it. then they implemented the 200 post rule and it took me almost a year to get back in it. No big deal. Just post quality posts. Learn from your reading, and revel in the spotlight when u do get to 200 and are allowed into chat. Some members do 200 posts in a week, others like me take a year or more. As others have stated, chat is an added feature of good standing members. Abuse brought on the 200 post rule and I for one welcome it. There was alotta hoopla of crud back when anyone could get in. Now its just good ole banter and chatter with the peeps. And of course Lysergic's Hizouse talk. Luv ya Lys.

I can't get into chat yet I still need atleast 200 posts

Oh yeah. There is one thing that was not mentioned about ATS Chatroom. You see this at the bottom of the page when you log in to go into one of the chatrooms. That is and I quote

ATS Members: Use your board username and password to log-in. All normal ATS rules apply in chat.
Due to previous problems with chat abuse, being banned from chat will also result in being banned from AboveTopSecret.com.

So when you are in the chatroom, be on your best behavior please.

Hm. Can hardly wait to get into chat. how do I know how many points I have?
so, you need 200 ATS or P@ATS points. Dont you get quite a few hundred points
when you first join and become a member or are these points different?
Im confused.

Originally posted by Flighty
Dont you get quite a few hundred points when you first join and become a member or are these points different?
Im confused.

You have to post 200 times to be able to access ATS chat. Nothing to do with points.

Flighty,

You can keep track of how many posts you have by hovering your mouse over your Post Bar. It is just beneath your Points. The more posts you make, the longer it gets.

If your using IE, hovering the cursor will indicate how many you have. With FireFox you need to right click on the bar and go to Properties.

As Implosion has indicated, it is 200 posts you need rather than 200 ATS Points.

only thing that sucks is you have to have 200 posts before you can use the Chat. I'm at like 24 and I don't add my two cents unless I really have something to add.... see you in the Chat in about a year i guess

Originally posted by chissler
Flighty,

You can keep track of how many posts you have by hovering your mouse over your Post Bar. It is just beneath your Points. The more posts you make, the longer it gets.

If your using IE, hovering the cursor will indicate how many you have. With FireFox you need to right click on the bar and go to Properties.

As Implosion has indicated, it is 200 posts you need rather than 200 ATS Points.

Thanks so much for that information. I tried looking in the manual but couldnt find it.
No more confusion . Ta!!

I did not even know it took 200 post to get into the ATS Chat.
That is a nice system to be inplace! It would be a shame to be in there trying to talk to the community and any idiot off the street so to say could wonder on in and disrupt the peace. Peace? .. sometimes.

I also did not know about hovering your mous over the bar! This is my 986th post! *claps for himself!* thanks for making people who did not know aware of it.

For those who cannot make it in yet, it is great once you do, you realize what an amazing community we have here and you get to know some of the top posters here much better and more personally.

I rang the doorbell last night....nobody was home.

That was highly unusual

Did y'all hide?

Nahhhhhhhhh, we weren't hiding. We were just down in the bunker having fun.

Nobody told DG about the new top secret room yet?

**looks at chissler**
SHHHHH!!!


Omega

I still want to see a really big anoying flashing button on the main page to get people into the chat rooms! ... Other topics get big anoying flahing buttons why not ATS chat? .. Not saying I don't like the regulars! lol would not be a complete night with out the regulars, to numerous to name but some new faces would still be a good thing, makes conversation more diverse.

Personally I like how tidy the buttons are at the top of our screen. When we have a new u2u, it is clearly indicated by the flashing button. If this were to be flashing all of the time, it would become annoying very quickly. So a flashing chat button would be irratating.

But I would fully support some more recognition to the Chat button.

These graphics:



are on a steady rotation on the Forum pages. Maybe a chat link could be introduced into the mix?

Something to bring chat to the attention of the members without dominating our screens.