Not sure how well it would work

[QRFan]

As I was on here browsing tonight,I realized there's several members online . If I'm reading things right I count about 30 viewing ,while the little box says 29 members & 27 guests. I was surprised since it's 12am on a sunday night (at least here in Ohio). I thought thats pretty cool & was excited wondering what everyone is up to.Then it occured to me .....I have to sift thru the threads & chance catching people on the same topic. We're all within such close proximity here ,yet isolated to a point as well. It would be really cool if there was a place to chat .I don't know how to make that work so that valuable information wouldn't be lost .I know a thread is a good way of keeping records & saving info. I just thought it would be great to get to know people with the same interests. This is a great site & so very very helpful.It also allows you to meet other XSers .I just wish there was a forum set up like chat where we could hangout & have conversations without waiting for someone to happen across the same thread & reply. Maybe this has already been discussed ? I hope no one takes it that I'm complaining.I am in no way unhappy with XS11.com. I love this site. I'm constantly here & enjoy all the animated personaities.XSers are a great group of people. I guess (as I talk here in circles),what I really want to say - does anyone else wish we had a chat set up & if so, is it possible? Even in lieu of chat ,what if there was a feature like facebook's (sorry i said that - brainstorming here- bare with).Maybe a little message indicator that said so& so responded to the thread blah blah blah.Something similar to the emails we get when people post to a thread? Anyhow.It's just a thought.......

[Yard Dogg]

It should inform you of when people respond to the thread. Go to your user cp, somewhere in settings and you should see the option to subscribe to all threads you answer or post automatically. Once you have it set, every time you post, you will be subscribed to that thread, and when you go to user cp, it will show if anybody has written anything in the thread. I think you can even set it to subscribe you to any thread that you read as well.

As far as chatting, you'll just have to build a list of people from here who will IM with you from your desktop.

[Larrym]

The silent chatroom

Hi qrfan,

There was a "live chat" room set up over 5 years ago. Set up as an external link. You can do a "search" here on the forum and you'll find the posts/threads.

No longer current/up to date though: link is still active but takes you to a choice of places/chatrooms for shall we say...."exotic" tastes.

If you go to your "user control panel" and select "edit profile" there is an option to insert your "instant messaging" carrier (yahoo, MSN, skype, etc). Then any post you make has that "icon" in the upper right corner.

Folks can click on the icon and while you browse the endless posts inside tire/oil threads... the little <chat window> is open and active.

as if those threads would survive any distraction whatsoever.

Not many folks do have those IM <icons>. Very rare to see one anymore.

[QRFan]

Thank you

I noticed in the CP that you have the option for a pop up type indicator when u receive a pm. Too bad that same feature is not available when the threads u subscribe to have been replied to. It would simply keep the thread a little more alive than checking back periodically or checking email for notifications. Personally,I don't use IM except ICQ .I think yahoo & some of the others are overwhelming. I like the feature on facebook that shows a little balloon when someone responds to a "wall"(thread in our case) .It keeps the conversations,although they are posts like our threads, fluent. I know IM is good for basically PMing but group discussions are more social & allow people the opportunity to get to know each other. I feel fortunate meeting everyone here,knowing we share a common interest. I keep incontact with SWOXS group & have made some good friends there but There's a whole world full of XSers .It would cool to know several people well enough that if you are going thru their part of the country by bike,you could post a message & maybe meet up for lunch,a beer , or a ride. A similar example... I live here in small town ,Ohio . Alittle over 10 yrs ago I bought a computer,got online & the 1st thing I did was look up my favorite group Queensryche. None of my friends were really into them. I joined their website,began talking with new people then one weekend,about 100 of us who had been visiting online ended up meeting in NY at a local pub before a concert. As a result I have made some very good friends who I still keep incontact with.They are scattered all over the USA & beyond. We get together every so often just to hang out.Usually there's a concert of some sort but Queensryche was the tie that binds (Lawyers,mechanic,programmers,nurses electricians,teachers etc) Its the same here. The XS11 is what brings us here & I feel it gives us a common bond & the opportunity to meet new people & escape the everyday ruts we call our lives I appreacite all the info this site has made available but I also appreciate that it helps connect the XSers,who without it would be scattered thru out the country with no way to connect. Anyhow,Thank you guys for the suggestions. You made me aware of some features that will be very useful .

[CatatonicBug]

I think it comes down to the fact that this is not designed to be a "Social Networking" site. It's more of a resource site, to answer questions about our bikes, and to store the answers for later retrieval. Remember that this site is free, with no advertisements, and the admins do all of their work voluntarily. It takes money and resurces to set up and run a "chat room" - money that this site just doesn't have. Someone would have to be a moderator on the chat, and I can see it getting rather ugly in there at times. We have already had several people banned from the site because of attitude issues. I can only imagine what could happen in an IM setting, with no time-delay between replies!

I have hundreds of threads that I am subscribed to, simply because I type a lot . If I had to deal with pop-up messages telling me about each thread that had a reply, I would go insane! The fact that the thread list highlights all replied-to threads in bold is plenty notification for me.

There are only a couple of things I would suggest for the site... I use the RSS feeds to tell me when a new thread has been started, and it often takes over an hour for the feed to get to my PC. Speeding that up would be nice. I also like the fact that when I hover my cursor over the title of a thread, I can read the first line or two of the OP's message. I kinda wish that "blurb" was actually the most recent reply instead of the OP's message.