yegads!

So by way of introduction, this room will be open for a short or long while, for OT talk that clutters the main room, while people are interested, and especially for use while the main room has on-topic conversations going on.

Let's try not to get flagged or banned.

The Be Nice rules apply here.

The Be Nice rules apply everywhere.

yes but sometimes it needs re-stating

This is like trying to have a conversation at two opposite ends of a room at the same time. Won't work.

Not that it isn't a good idea.

Kit has indicated to me that sometimes the PTB at SE don't like chat and feel it's a problematic waste of resources and when chat rooms get all off-topic then they get a hankering to just shut it all off. Which is why the last year or so she's been asking people to change the subject in the main room.

So maybe this room can be a sort of overflow valve.

We'll see if it works.

@Arrowfar You usually do pretty well, overall.

@Arrowfar eh, sometimes they enjoy it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 aw man!

I know eh? friggin' rules, always holding us down

Wait, what is off topic on the main room? Everything?

yes, but specifically, things that start heated arguments

It's not a hard and fast rule.

more of a guide-blur

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Stack Overflow have identified three purposes for chat, and one is socializing. They consider it helpful for community building, as long as it doesn't interfere with the purpose of the site. So if a chtroom is 80% collaboration, 20% socialization, that is probably fine. I wonder if trying to create a social ghetto (this room) will simply result in it getting closed because it's 20% collaboration, 80% socialization instead of the other way around.

@MετάEd Yes, but certain topics can dominate the chat and devolve into arguments.

The other thing is that they run the risk of alienating their core community if they try to kill socializing. See: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/5771497#5771497

Another SE site had a bigger problem with it and their chat was shut down

("A Group is Its Own Worst Enemy", a great article that Reg found)

So we've been trying to keep our chat more civil and sometimes that means stamping out certain topics when they risk getting out of hand. It's done on a case by case basis.

What we need to be ready to stomp out is offensive behavior. As you say, keep it civil.

Maybe you are thinking that some topics are inherently alienating, such as religion or politics.

Yeah. Well, some topics generate offense easily, such as religion.

jinx

So hence I asked to move the discussion here, where it won't interfere with the main chat which was trying to solve a problem for a user.

And where the egregious lack of use of the reply button was making it impossible to follow the conversation.

Tricky, though.

yeah did you ever try Google Wave?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Yes. The performance was terrible.

It was also hard to follow.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 threaded reading of Usenet. Every web app badly attempts to get there.