Why no chat?

[stitics]

I have a couple of guesses what the answer to my question is, but I'd like to hear an official ruling.

Why is there no (real time) chat feature on PPCT or possibly across the Thoughts Media family of sites. I think it'd be fairly interesting to chat with some of these people in real time.

Guess #1: People asking their questions in the chat (where information is fleeting) vs. in the forums (where information is archived).

Guess #2: People getting more fired up and flaming more with a real time chat than a situation where time is not so relevant, and one has a chance to "think out" one's response prior to "squeezing the trigger".

Any insight into the official reasons (if there are any) would be greatly appreciated.

Note: If this has been addressed previously, I apologize...my search didn't return any similar threads.

[Kati Compton]

The two reasons you listed (and #1 in particular) are probably the main reason. Though a #3 could be that there are so many PPCT people, it'd be a very full chat.

[Anthony Caruana]

Even though it's not built into the message boards/forums you can always press the button on a post. Then you can intiate a chat via MSN or Yahoo chat if the person is around. I'm up for a chat if people want to sue the facility.

Also, at the bottom of the Forum index is a list of registered users that are currently active on the site. You can click a name on that list and then kick off a chat if they have provided an MSN address.

Regards

[maximus]

or perhaps through IRC, that will be fun. Either on Dalnet or EFnet, for maximum coverage.

#pthought or #ppc ....

[Janak Parekh]

As to why we haven't set up one, I'd guess the reason is lack of time? Jason set up a chat applet on PPCT many years ago, but I think it had died of disuse. I also don't think I'd have much time to spend in real-time chat; MSNM/AIM with my friends and coworkers eats up enough of my time as it is. ;)

--janak