Chat Room

ovreddy · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:51 pm

Hi,

We are very thankful to you for maintaing this forum. It is very helpful for us. I recommend you to start a Chat Rooms for seperate Topics. So that users can effectevely interact with experts.

Thanks,
Reddy.

mcmillan · Site Admin Joined: 18 May 2003 Posts: 1210 Location: India

Dear Reddy,

Yes, we don't have that facility now. We are here to to serve you better.

Any comments from other users?

Frank Yaeger · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 10:59 pm

The problem with chat rooms is that only the people logged into the chat room at a particular time interact on a particular topic. Unless you have "experts" willing to be logged in all day (I don't know who has time for that), you'll most likely get very little or not very helpful interaction.

In my opinion, the bulletin board format is much more effective for asking and answering questions then a chat room would be. I can check this board (and the other four I participate in) a few times a day, see what's been posted over the last few hours and respond. I personally would NOT bother logging in to a chat room a few times a day since all I would see would be random postings from whoever happened to be logged in at the time.

One of the strengths of a bulletin board is that when people (even so-called "experts") give out incorrect information, other more knowledgeable people can eventually correct it. You don't get that with a chat room since the interaction is "hit and run".

Obviously, just my opinion.

ovreddy · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 11:33 am

Hi Frank,

I agree with you, But the problems will arise if it is a regular chat room. But we can display a list of experts and their available timings for chat. then users can directly interact at that particular time. And we can store trnscripts topic wise for others reference.

I am suggesting chatrooms because Users can effectively express their que and experts can answer these without confusion. What do you say?

for Eg: Frank Expert in JCL will be available for online chat from 5 to 5:30p.m. to day.

( this will be helpful to the users who want to ask ques on JCL)

Bye,
Reddy.

priya · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:00 pm

It seems to be Good. But practically impossible. We are all working here on our own interests. So it's impossible to give some commitments to the users. This is just my opinion.

Why not we create a Poll for that, and depending on the users ratings, we can ask the admin to create a char room.

Frank Yaeger · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:33 pm

Reddy,

To set the record straight: I'm an "expert" on DFSORT and DFSORT's ICETOOL, not on JCL.

I don't see the advantages of the chat room over the board. If an expert is in the U.S., the chances he or she will be available at the same time somebody in India or Germany happens to want to ask a question are not good. Of course, the same goes for people in different places all over the world. There's no such time constraints with the board. I agree with Priya that the chat room would be impractical. And storing transcripts of the chat room conversations is just duplicating what we already do on the board.

Chat rooms are also very unstructured ... if a lot of people did happen to be interacting at the same time, it would be chaos - kind of like when you have five instant message chats going at once and you can't keep track of them. The single "multiple discrete threads" nature of the board is a much better vehicle for the kind of question and answer interactions we do here than the chaos of a chat room.

Web bulletin boards are the logical progression from Usenet lists. Usenet lists are still thriving for a very good reason ... they work. Web bulletin boards have most of the same characteristics with a nicer presentation. They are also thriving because they work. I participate on five boards and two Usenet lists relating to mainframes, all of which work well. I don't know of any chat rooms related to mainframes, and I think the reason is, if there are any they don't work as well as Usenet lists or bulletin boards.

Of course, you could put this to rest one way or the other by asking all of your "experts" if they would want to participate in a chat room in the way you suggest. I guess if you get enough of them willing to participate you could try it. I personally wouldn't be willing for the reasons I've given.

Again, just my opinion.

Frank Yaeger · Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:42 pm

I just thought of some other "problems" with chat rooms.

When somebody asks me how to do something with DFSORT/ICETOOL, I often go off to figure out a solution and test it. That can often take quite a while. With the board, I can just post my solution when I'm ready. With a chat room, I'd have to say ... hold on for an hour or so while I go figure it out. I don't think anybody will want to wait around in a chat room for an hour to get an answer.

Chat rooms tend to foster quick (and often incorrect) answers, whereas boards tend to foster more deliberative answers. Personally, I'd rather wait for an answer that takes a little time but has been considered and researched, then get an immediate answer based on the first thing that pops into somebody's head.

jerald · Support Team Member Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 27

I agree with Frank, and we can leave this idea of creating a Chat Forum.

Sorry Reddy and Thanks Frank for your suggestions. Keep in touch...

Any more suggestions?