Lena - with most chat software, you can see if anyone else is in the room with you and tailor your conversation accordingly. Someone joinging the room can't see what was discussed before they arrived in the room. In addition, private chat is available so people could one-on-one without worrying about others.

Just FYI. I don't think privacy is a huge deal. My biggest concern is whether it will hurt posting frequency on the board.

Lena, your idea about the publisher and the rx company is brilliant! I think it would be great and who knows may just defray the costs. I would have ordered the book right here for sure!

the hosting costs can be kept pretty small for a board like this. Similarly the chat function is pretty cheap.

Regarding meeting those costs I can advise (as can others I'm sure) about my experience of monetising such a forum. Bottom line - not hard to do, and for a board like this it would be possible to come up with some discreet options that should easily generate enough revenue to diffray the costs above.

As regards the chat functionality itself, it is possible to have live chats, private chats etc. It is also possible for the administrators to access chat logs, if bullying/malice etc were issues.

We can use this thread we are in right now as an example. Our discussion here could well be done in chat if there were enough people on at a particular time. However, it would likely be highly "NA-centric", since the majority here are in North America (NA), thus leaving out our important friends in Australia, Africa, Europe. Plus if we had done this in chat mode, the information, ideas and opinions would be lost.

And, on top of that, it would be more of a burden to moderate because of potential posers, trolls and sock puppets (Sock puppet definition). I remember a weekend when lena was unavailable and we got some very graphic posts from ghost users that probably registered through a bot. When a chat room is open 24/7, you kinda have to have 24/7 moderation too.

The more I think about it the less I like the idea.

However, 1-4-the-road brings up an interesting twist. Can we limit the chatting between ourselves to private chats? For instance, currently I see N101CS is on as I type this and perhaps I wanted to ask him a question; private chat would be highly useful for that.

Bob

Sockpuppet! LOL. I'm using that one for sure. Hey Bob, since your name really isn't "Bob", are you a sockpuppet?

I think Bob's idea of private, one-on-one chats is a good one.

You know, I had to think about that for a minute, because it almost fits the definition. But there's a significant difference; I don't misrepresent myself here. And yes, I know you were just kidding!

Bob

There have been some excellent posts here both Pro and Con the Live Chat issue.
If this had been done on Chat I for one would not have been able to read any of it as I'm in a different time zone.

I vote NO.

If you want to send a private message to someone .. then use the Private Message function.

I am also against any form of promotion of outside services or providers.

I do however support the idea of a Link to buy the Book. Brilliant!

Yet another alternative is to increase the number of private messages allowed. I often have to delete messages before I can retrieve mine. Sometimes that's because the pm'ing becomes virtually [in the non-internet sense] a chat session. N101CS is this possible?

Sure, I can do that. With only a couple hundred members it won't burn much space. Though I've got to wonder why anyone would want to keep a hundred more more messages in their inbox (I do it too).

I'm not too keen on live chat , although I see arguments for support for some .
The time zone factor tips my decision too . Personally it's not my thing I prefer abit of reflection which seems the forum way .