i think it might be quite useful for members to have an area where they can chat with people, like IRC MSN etc to answer questions in real time... i have seen many sites which have a irc client written in java embedded into one page of the site and i think it would quite well here (without too much work). Using IRC would also mean that you can use just about any non-specific IM client (or even just a dedicated IRC client, xchat etc) it would give people a way to ask small questions without having to make a complete post and will hopefully get everyone talking to each other and bring the community together. [OT] the channel/s used for anything other than general chat could be recorded and put up on hwf for google etc to find (and by using the referer from there google search what they are looking for can be highlighted)... and obviously adverts can be put on these pages. hopefully there will be alot of content appear in these logs that would not otherwise be on the site, things that perhaps should not have been asked, ie things that people should have just put into google, but this just means that there is content on hwf to find when people do search google! (and the adverts on the page to go with it ) how much money does hwf get from advertising? (and how much more is need to cover costs?) [/OT]
I do like this idea, although, I think the chat channel would be better off for informal chat, the whole point of posting a problem in a forum is to get a response and allow others with the same problem, no matter how small or trivial, to get an answer too, I think people would take to using the chat channel to just ask questions and expect an immediate answer. Perhaps allow the channel to only be used by members over a certain postcount?
IRC channel might be a nice idea, agree with Matt on the content question, I suppose quick, trivial questions wouldn't hurt.
the sort of questions i would expect someone to ask would be very simple things, like where a specific setting is etc or things that people need answers to ASAP or perhaps it could have another use... if members could create channels then they could talk another member through how to do something without giving them an email address (MSN etc, you would be surprised how much you can find with someone's email address, myspaz account for a start). i wonder how the thankyou points would work over IRC... i guess the easiest would just to thank the post suggesting to talk over IRC (but what if someone asks for help on IRC... )
Yeah I think what would work best is if online members feel it is a question which could help someone else and provide good content for the forum then they could ask the user who's asking the question to post a thread and they'll respond there.
We had an IRC channel at one point, but it wasn't frequented that often. Sniper mentioned that when something like this had been brought up before.
that might be because a large percentage of the people coming here for help have never heard of IRC however, if something like THIS (just an example i found quickly in Google, i've seen better) was embedded in a page on hwf then anyone who is able to get to hwf should be able to use it. [OT] accounts would have to be passworded to stop people pretending to be other members, and if your using a web based client it should log you in automatically when you load the page... [/OT]
The problem with chat/IRC rooms is they have to be maintained regularly...people quickly stop going to a chat room where no one is...you would need to recruit someone willing to be there regularly or it's a complete waste of time. The novelty wears off fast if you go into the chat/IRC 2-3 times and find no one there. We tried it...and for the first couple months was doing OK...even had a thread to post in to let everyone know when you were going in...but...as I said...the novelty wears off...especially when most members who regularly used it are in different time zones ( you shouldn't have that problem here )... before committing to a chat/IRC room you would need someone to step up and volunteer to be there so it's not empty when others arrive.
there is normally a regular online, http://www.hardwareforums.com/online/ bare in mind there is an option not to show other people when your online so that list might not be accurate (i think sniper uses it?). none of us can volinteer to be there 24/7, and i doubt many (if any) can volinteer to be there at set times (if i didn't have to pay rent, i would be online most of the time)... but with tabbed browing and a Java IRC client then there's no reason why if your online then i wouldn't be on IRC (no matter what computer i was using)
