Bill,
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Did you have any intentions of putting a real-time chat on here? I was just wondering because I thought it would be a nice way to communicate.
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Thanks for your interest in LoveShack.org! This community actually started out as a real-time chat on IRC. LoveShack.org was created as a companion web site to the channel, to serve as an answering machine of sorts. We'd like to continue that tradition in the future and are working on plans to integrate a chat feature with the rest of the site.
Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of IRC is its reliance on client software, which not many are willing to take the time to download and install, not to mention learn how to use. Other solutions are costly, requiring a server and special software to run that would cost quite a bit. Over the years, however, we've noted that a forum environment is far more useful to visitors to the site as opposed to a chat room. People are able to post a message and receive many different replies throughout the day. This is not possible with chat since our visitors are not all browsing the site at the same time. You would get a very limited number of responses from a very limited number of perspectives. This certainly is not ideal.
We do value your suggestion however, and we are considering a chat solution that would allow us to host scheduled chat sessions on a variety of subjects in the future. Look on the site over the next month or so for news regarding this. Best wishes!
Paul
Hybrid Mode
