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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

chat forum

What about having a live chat forum once a week? Any topic we want related to garden trains. Such as electronic, trouble shooting, building construction, track and other related topics.

16 comments:

Station Master said...

Evening, Just turn on the blog, I like any idea that gets us involved a little bit more

Station Master said...

I might look into see if there is any 'Chat' program I can makw work on the blog

Ray Trainman said...

John,

I believe that Google Talk has this option. Here is a link to storing chats like gmail:

http://www.google.com/talk/chathistory.html

Station Master said...

Yes, we should try to get something working. I have use Google Chat which is a instant message screen, (my grand daughter in law used to drive me crazy with it, I had to stop signing in to it.) But I though it had to be one on one,
We want a 'Group chat' where we just type back and forth, right? Something that can support multiple users at the same time. I don't want to actually 'talk' using a mike and speakers like we have done before.

SCGRR said...

"Garden Railways Magazine" has a "Forum" button that you can click on and they have numerous topics that you can read and participate in (If you are logged in). Maybe something like that would be helpful and it would't be limited to once a week! If it's possible to have here.

SCGRR said...

John:
A live chat forum means that everyone needs to be on the computer at the same time.
Maybe an OPEN chat forum where a topic is posted and people can reply to it when they have time, would be more advantageous.

Station Master said...

Ed, I think Barry meant a live chat forum, something a little more interactive. We all ready have the Blog which sounds like what you described as the Open forum.
Thanks.

Ray Trainman said...

John,

Couldn't we just try a trial balloon on the Blog? Choose one night a week say from 8-9 PM and have a 'Blog Chat' where we get together to chat about anything concerning Garden Railroading. If people like it, the participation should grow...

Station Master said...

Chat Update - First Thanks Barry for 'stirring up the pot'. Good Going!
Right now I see 3 possibilities that I am looking into.
1. Is using 'Google Talk' To do a 'Group Chat'
2. Using 'Google Docs' To share on line with 'the Group' Everyone can update it in real time and see the new copy. (like a big comment page that we can all use).
3. 'Comments' might work for us. We could make a 'Chat Blog' and everyone put their comments on it - back and forth style.

Its early - We may try out different things and see if we like them. John

Station Master said...

Ray, You still there?

Station Master said...

That was cool. We both had the same idea but Ray beat me to the 'comment' button. I think that is a good idea because it is easy to use. If it 'updates' automatically it would be perfect! You might have to hit 'refresh' to bring back in new comments but that is not to bad. If we get a lot of comments it will become a pain scrolling down to the bottom each time, but maybe there is a way to have the latest comments appear at the top. We should try it sometime.

Anonymous said...

Try clicking on 'Collapse comments' up near the top of the comment form. Then click on a individual comment an it will expand. That would save so space scrolling up and down.

Pine State RR said...

my idea was to have something like lsol has where there is a scheduled topic and a forum goes on from there. what i have seen is the page scrolls down as the dissuccion continues. this might be a place to see how it works . sign in at the begining to see who is there and then on to the topic of the week or whatever. folks can log in or out as they need. what do you think?

Station Master said...

Barry, Can you post the link to Isol? I do not know what that is and would like to look at it. I like Ray's idea in his last comment. Lets pick a day, how about next Wednesday 8-9 and see how many people can sigh-on at the same time and try 'talking' back and forth by just leaving 'Comments' on the same blog? Maybe some of the 'Regulars' (half a dozen of us right now could try it and see if it is feasible) In the meantime we can keep looking at more sophisticated ways to do the same thing.

Pine State RR said...

try largescaleonline.com

Station Master said...

Oh yes, thank you, I do know what you mean. For some reason it did not register in my brain in lower case.
Thanks John