I was just asking once again because i am soo tired of communicating with members via PM's and emails when we're online at the same time. So, i'm going to once again ask why?... we (i say we because i think there are many many members that would use it ) as adults interested in modeling, all fellow members of the the best damn modeling site on the internet cant't have an open chat room for the use of members to discuss modeling and pass along info and ideas in "real-time communications" between one another?

And I would like to hear any other members comments on this subject. I don't want to hear the same ol' same ol' excusses from staffers that don't want to have this option on the site because we all know who you are...and personally I am very tired of your lame reasons for not having it.

Jim (staphjim not newsjim), is there some kind of software that is needed that other sites have that we don't?

Is there just a fear amoungst the forum mods that they might be talked about in the chatroom and don't like to be talked about when their not there?

I'm sure i'll get the "wrath" in emails from members that shun the old chatroom antics. THAT WAS THEN...THIS IS NOW !!!

For god's sake let's have THIS as an option for serious builders to use and share ideas in "real-time" with one another.

In the "old days" members would say ..".BRB...i have to glue some PE in place on my tank" and then we would discuss the PE kit or types of weathering techniques we were using on a kit while we were online...

It's really a great option for the members to have at their disposal on some nights. Personally, I'm getting ready for the scratchbuilding build and will be in constant communications with a few members and would really love to be able to be on Armorama and in a chatroom with my fellow Armorama members. I don't want to go to the "other" modeling site's live chat room to do this...I like THIS site.

Just look at the pics members have posted and 75% have a computer sitting on their workbenches....surfing and modeling are going on at the same time....it is the 21st century...this is a great site....why not?

WHY NOT?

anyone else have an opinion?

I'm sitting here awaiting to hear from you all....or the wrath from the rest....

Kevin Glackmeyer Proud member of Armorama

Kevin I remember those days well. I really enjoyed the chat and miss it quite a bit. But you know exactly why we don't have chat. A few bad apples had to spoil the whole barrel. They had to rebel against Jim and his rules because they didn't respect his authority. While I fully support the idea I don't have fait that it could work.

what is your problem??? there are multiple solutions for YOUR problem.

for example: get a gmail account and ask your buddies to open one to, it is free and you can chat life online or get MSN and invite, no hassle no problem.

The decision to remove the chat is Jim his call and only his call, he has his reasons and nor him nor any staffer should or must explain them to anybody.

The reason why Jim removed the chat was explained in length and open for debate, he has put his foot down and that is it period. Do you question your boss at work for managing decisions he has made? I doubt it, have the same courtesy and don’t do it here either.

You don’t have to like it but you don’t have to bring it up every few months so you can stir the pot again (you or another member – not personally).

I guess the main decision against the chat room is it's not practically moderatable, unlike a forum. I don't think it's because people would beat up the staff. You can just as well do that via PMs. But a firefight in a chat room's hard to control.

On the other hand, real-time chat's a great tool, and Silantra and I used to exchange chatter a lot when we were in the same timezone.

The next best thing to an Armorama chatrooms's what Ronny suggests. Get something like Messenger and invite your Armorama pals to join up and chat.

Hi Kevin and greetings all,

As my main purpose in being a member is to imporve my modelling skill and pass on what little knowledge I have to other members I'd be against it for the following reasons.

If it's purpose is to share ideas then I say share those with everyone not just a few who have the technology and happen to be on line at that time.

Posting might be a pain sometimes, personally I don't think so, but it does give everyone a change to pick up on stufff and comment or add to it if they wish, which is much more democratic don't you think?

My thoughts anyway.

Cheers

Al

Ronnie, I don't have a problem. I am asking about a different type of feature that we have never had.

.


Ronnie, I have always doubted those in control. It's an American thing. We founded an entire nation on it. Jim is not my boss either. He owns a website that I am a member of and I have posted a question in the correct forum on said website. It's what this forum is for. It's the Site Forum.

"Site announcements, comments, or feedback about the site." That's all i'm doing.




Ronnie, I am not stirring the pot. Don't be offended by this request for information, ok? I thank you, Ronnie, for you comments. It's nice to know that we have a global community that cares about the site I also care about the site and want it to grow. The staffers here are allvery keen on modeling, web management and technology. I want to know why we don't have this as a feature.

As for others that keep reffering to the old MSN Chat. That is not what i'm asking about. I'm wanting to know know why we don't have an inside type chatroom like other websites.

Thanks for your patience...i'm sure the answer is out there...and i'm waiting.

Kevin Glackmeyer ( Natural born lever-puller)
Proud member of Armorama

Skype might be a decent option......... you can Type or Talk. (which could be messy)......

And... my computer is on the second floor bench is in the basement...LOL

Owow,

This could be an interesting topic but I my humble opinion, it started of on the wrong foot.

What I understand from the reactions to the opening message is that once upon a time there was a chatroom but that this was closed because of wrong use and now nobody can use this tool anymore.

That's what often happens. A few weirdos ruin the atmosphere and everybody has to pay.

On the other hand, if Jim took a drastic decision to pull the plug out of the chatroom for good reason then who can criticise this??? If nobody is able or willing to take decisions then anarchy will rule and the site will die, and this is something nobody wants, right???

However, the opportunity to have a more personal chat with other members of the kitmake rnet does appeal to me and I wonder whether Jim would not be able to find a way to enable this in one way or another.

Kevin,
[quote]
I don't want to hear the same ol' same ol' excusses from staffers that don't want to have this option on the site because we all know who you are...and personally I am very tired of your lame reasons for not having it.(/quote)

perhaps if you were a bit less inflamitory in your wording (same ol'excuses) ('lame' reasons) you would receive more constructive answers?

(quote)Jim (staphjim not newsjim),(/quote)

Again, not all readers are in tune to your "Staph" (as in infectious bacteria) Jim Vs Staff (as in administrative staff)Jim references being humorous (?) and could consider this as inflamitory and disrespectful.

(quote)Is there just a fear amoungst the forum mods that they might be talked about in the chatroom and don't like to be talked about when their not there?(/quote)

Challenging the moderators has proven to go nowhere in the past, but again this type of cheap shot could be considered as an attempt to rekindle a flame war

I understand your question but I think the whole posting could have been done is a less advisorial manner.
That said, I would imagine with the easy availibility of Yahoo Messenger and other like services it seems like a waste of bandwidth, time and effort on Jim's part to include the same type of service within this website.
Simply my opinion.
All you need.......

The original Nowhere Man,
Charles

Well Charles...you may have hit on the crux of the problem...Bandwidth. If that's the thing then, I completly understand.

My referring to Starkweather as StaphJim is something that I have always done...I believe he knows that it's meant with tounge frirmly planted in cheek. He knows that I mean no dispespect towards him. As for the other Mods on the site, they have voiced their opposition to the old MSN Chatroom and I am asking about something completely different. Let me make that point clear...an in-house live chatroom. I think you understood it when you mentioned the Bandwidth thingy. I am also not challenging any staffers. I am mearly taking into account their opposition to the former chat room. I completly understand their frustation with the old room and am in agreement with them when it came to people being talked about behind their backs. That's not what I am wanting on this site for our members to use. Perhaps if there was a way to make it a premium offered to "A" Guard members.

Thanks for your imput Charles.

Cheers mate,

Kevin Glackmeyer (Also a Beatles fan)

I don't think that it is only a question of bandwidth, it seems also to be a bad exerience in the past which stands in the way.

But hey, Armorama and the kitmaker net are currently undergoing an enormous reorganisation. I think that we can't imagine whet efforts and time this is taking from Jim and the other staff.

To request now for even more does not seem very realistic to me. Lets wait until things settle down before discussing extra bells and whistles.

Why not ask now while the iron's hot? If their doing alot of changes, then maybe this is when a request should be forwarded.

I'm not trying to make any enemies here with this question. So, don't get yer tight's in a wad.
I, that's me, Kevin Glackmeyer by myself, was just wanting to know if we could expect to see this as an addition to the many great things this site has to offer for it's members. If not, then I wanted some imput from you fellow members.

I'm also not trying to start some kind of flame war thigy. So please don't critisize me for asking about a "LiveChat forum". It's not something that is unheard of on many other types of member site for a host of other organizations.

Thanks for listening,

Kevin Glackmeyer

We had an in house chat room in early 2002 when the site was a few months old. Several of us sent Jim money to pay for the chat program. It did not work as well as a stand alone chat site like AIM or the MSN chat.

We had our first problem there. He was the first guy we ever banned, but he's been banned from most modeling sites. That chat room was not used much, probably because we did not have a large membership then and that it did not work well. It had a feature that showed who was in the chat room on our homepage. I think he did away with that chat room because it did not work well and was not worth the added expense.

We donated money for a second similar chat program later in 2002. I think that one was canned becaused of bad behavior in the chat room.

Then Jim started the MSN site in 2003 and it had a free chat room that very worked well. This one was taken down and set back up at least twice for similar reasons before Jim recently killed the site.

All of these chat rooms were unmoderated. The MSN chat had several staff member hosts designated (symbolized by a gavel icon), but was unmoderated unless a host happened to be present.

A few of us set up a few MSN rooms after the Armorama room was deactivated. It is totally unassociated with Armorama although most of us who used to be in the old room have migrated to the new room. We are in there maybe 2 nights a week at best. If you are interested give me a PM.

We also have impromtu AOL/AIM chats where we invite whoever is online at the time to join a temporary room. If does not have a permanent link. If you are on AOL/AIM give me your screenname and we'll invite you whenever the room is formed.

Kevin,
I hope you take this in light it is intended, but as far as the moderators on this site go, I think you would honestly have to hit most of us in the head with a BFH to hurt our feelings. Well, me any way.
Most people couldn't hurt my feelings with a ball bat.

Shaun

/Don't know if this added anything useful
//I am sure there are real live customers and employees talking about me in real time right now
///And maybe one 18 year old step son

Hi,
As an oldtimer, I remember some good chats in those days. BUT! There were some characters that ruined that for the lot of us. I feel if we do have another chatroom here, it should be closely monitered and anyone who misbehaves should be banned from this sight permanently. I know personally about having something ruined on this sight by miscreants.

Sharing with responsible builders would be a good thing.

Chris- trying a hand at painting German M44 uniforms

I think as long as there is no practical way to moderate a chatroom in real time, you won't see one here. I don't think it's a big deal. As has been said, posting's a far more useful method for everybody as the content can be read by others later, unlike chat. Sure, chat's great if you have a burning problem and need immediate relief , but you never know if the right person's gonna be online at the time. So why bother?

Since there are services available for on-line chatting (MSN, SKYPE etc.) I fail to see any reason why Kitmaker has any need to provide a chatroom...

I also, in particular, would refer to the comments made by Ronny (Roadkill) who summed-up the opinion of many regarding chatrooms and the (lack of) desire to see a new one started...

Now, I don't want to be nasty here, but, IMO opinion, there are a lot more things which would be useful for the site, and to the benefit of all users. I see a chatroom as a positively dangerous move.

I don't think anyone needs reminding of what happened a few weeks ago. Or do they?

There are plenty of IRC bots that can moderate a chat room.
I think an Internet relay chat room with the moderater plugins running should be able to handle 95% of miscreants (most of them where written to deal with 15 year old computer gamers - lol)

Personally I don't know how much I would use it though - probarly once or twice for the novelty.