suggestion

[frikin_bike!]

I have a suggestion... I think it will blow your pocket book admin... but you never know... how about a chat room like java chat or a HTML chat... I have my profile set so that I get an email whenever theres a new post... and I got 5 at the same time... now thats crazy... I would think it could cut down on server space too

[Admin]

Others have expressed an interest in a chat, and there is one installed. Don't get me wrong, it's a good idea, however at this time I don't want to use it.

Reasons
1) A chat is temporary, posts are forever
2) Unless the chat is organized, very few users will use it unless there are lots of them online. Even then, a chat is temporary, posts are forever.
3) A chat won't help me with search engine results because it's temporary data, posts are archived forever and are static to help with search engines and bookmarks.
4) Chats can use tons of system resources. They can use lots of CPU usage that needs to be kept for other sites on this server and for this site itself. The server needs to run fast and efficiently so that search engines can query it nicely and easily and so users don't experience lag.
5) 1.2TB of bandwidth per month (for those not familiar a TB is 1000GB) and an 80GB drive to run websites that take up less than 4GB. Server space isn't a problem and shouldn't be for a very long time to come.
6) Cost isn't an issue for a decent chat script.

Solutions to your dilemma. In your control panel you have it set to send you an email for each reply to a thread. Change that to digest and it will notify you once per day only.

Now, as for chats I was thinking we could have moderated chats once in a while. If we could get a company rep come to the forum and let users ask them questions (moderated) they could answer them about specific topics.

For example we could have a rep from Blata (Robert) come for an hour or whatever and let everyone interested ask him questions on products he sells. The questions are moderated by myself and he only has to answer serious enquiries.

After the Q&A period the moderation is lifted and it's general chat for a while.

Another possibility is that we could set a chat up for a specific time weekly (say wednesday at 8PM CST or whatever) and anyone who wants to join can hop on in for a couple of hours.

So, a chat now, not really. A chat in the future, absolutely.

[frikin_bike!]

is there a way we could link a user chatroom from yahoo? or would that be a copyright and other law issues?

[Admin]

It could be done without issues.

You have to understand my point of view as well. My job is to make people come to the site and see the info we have here and join the forum and participate and click on the ads if they see something that attracts them.

I don't want users going to another site, unless I own it too. When users go elsewhere I lose traffic and potential profit from ads.

I'll be doing something more with the chat soon.

[frikin_bike!]

ya I just thought that a chat room would stop some of the no topic chit-chatting in someone elses thread

[Admin]

Off topic chit chat will always be around, unless you're a drocanian with the rules people will continue to do it.