Switching names in The Lounge was tons of fun.
meow
Zoot…never stop being you.
Here here!
Yep. 
oh well…we had a nice run. change is inevitable I 'spose.
Is there any way we could only run the chat on weekends, or during shows?
I don’t really think that is necessary…
I am on the posts>>>chat side. I’m not one for the chat room. I like to come on here first thing when I get to work and see what’s going on. It’s nice to read what other people have said about this and that. Then, I go and do some work, and check back on the boards a bit later. Repeat this throughout the work day. I feel like I’m butting in on people’s conversations when I enter the chat room. Then they all give me weird looks and pretend that they weren’t talking. Were you talking about me? What did you say? You know that awkward moment when you feel like no one wants to talk around you and you’ve interfered with their good time? Well, that’s how I feel when I enter the chat.
I just like to come on the ‘Pa, check out all the different different boards, and see what’s shakin’. Well, all except the “Meat” board.
Sinners.
^^
At least with the lounge, you had to “open a door.”
ie, actually login and click that header, anticipating that someone might be in there. And when you left, you shut the door on your way out.
Does anyone else here feel it’s weird that you can view chat when you’re not even logged on?
Sunday night and Pa chat and posts are pretty much dead at the moment. 
I love the chat.
But I do know that there are those who have never opened an account in the OKP that have known about things we discuss on this board. Hell I had a friend who said he trolls OKP and was coming to my BBQ. Freaked me out.
Maybe, for privacy sake. The chat room should be treated like the “meat” section of OKP. At least then when we are tossing out links or phone numbers we don’t have to worry about an outside entity getting that type of information. In one way or another it is a type of eavesdropping.
I brought up the “log in” idea to a few at the BBQ. Honestly I do like the idea.
Sign up. Log in. Lounge on.
substitute bush for obama or whatever tickles your fancy.
the chat is ok… its a bit chatty. I liked the other board for a number of reasons. could never quite figure out why ian switched to this board. maybe he was under pressure from the secret banking cartel? I think he got tired of everyone emailing him to be able to change their names to pretty colors and switched boards to give “power to the people”… also supplying us with a gaudy chat feature and this -> 
pedo face… but at the price of stripping away our freedom of skins. and yet, when I think of ian I think of “booyah” and beans and toast. so like… it all evens out.
We used to have chats all the time with the old board…it was called instant messaging though I spent MANY hours talking to Thom, Will, BRETT, Sean, and a few others over the years. The group IM’s were the poo.
I think, like a lot of other things in this ever-advancing world, the chat is too accessible. Like you guys said, you used to have to actually login to a separate place to chat not knowing if anything was going down until you actually arrived. Now you can read it at any time. I guess the feeling is, who needs to post when the chat is right there? I for one miss the old way.
I guess the upside is that a lot of the new kids have been integrated quite quickly, but honestly, I still don’t really feel like I “know” anybody that’s been here less than 2 or 3 years. I had never even heard of most of the people at the July meet-up. I only knew 3 and one of them I see somewhat regularly in reality.
One of the reasons I post in pretty much 2 threads only is because the chat has accelerated friendships on the pa and it makes me severely out of the loop. I can’t chat at work and chatting isn’t possible on the blackberry, so I won’t ever be able to be in the loop. Kinda makes you sad to see the Pa evolve this way. I am glad people are getting together more. That’s always good to hear about…if you can lurk around the chat.
Let’s not take any precipitous actions until the end of the year, if that’s what anyone’s thinking. The chat is fine, the posts are fine. I think the summer’s activities and the recent tour have some influence on the posts as much if not more than the chat function.
Sometimes it’s good to ‘talk’ real time with people. Sometimes it’s good to express yourself in more than one or two lines. I think both serve a purpose.
A whole bunch of us got together for shows this summer, and I think the success of that had a lot to do with the chat functionality. The OKP hit a high note on this tour in this respect, and I enjoyed seeing that happen and being part of it to a certain degree in Camden.
I am for the status quo at the moment.
So just because you don’t use or enjoy chat, you want to restrict access to it for people who do?
I’m probably one of the heavier chat users and I think it’s an awesome feature of the OKP. I like being able to check in and say hello in real time with whoever happens to be there. I’m a voracious reader of the actual boards as well, but I only post when I feel like I have something worthwhile to contribute, or something that hasn’t already been said. If the chat feature were removed or restricted, I don’t think it would increase my personal level of posting on the OKP… I think it would probably have just the opposite effect.
Just to add my 2 cents:
I’m not really a heavy chat user. I like it from time to time when I don’t really have anything to post.
Having said that, I don’t feel any want at all to deprive people who do frequent the chat their experience. I honestly don’t think the chat is hurting the discussion board side of the Pa nearly as much as eliminating it would. I have a feeling we would lose a lot of our regular members if we did away with the chat and, as much as I sometimes yearn for the days of old, I feel the only way for the OKP to get better is for it to grow and connect Phish fans far and wide. I don’t think limiting their means of connection is the answer.
This is a message board though right? Didn’t members sign up for a message board? I mean it’s not like this is AIM or skype or whatever. Like I said before…I don’t want to get rid of chat, but I sure wish we get some more discussion going on the boards. Threads in non-phish on the first page should all be active (at least I think they should be). Instead we have threads that haven’t been posted in for 3-4 days on the first page.
I agree with a lot of the other posts that think that it’s pretty creepy that anyone can see the conversations going on in chat. You don’t even have to be logged on to lurk and scope out the chat.
I signed up to Phish Freely 
Why does the chat offend people? I post as often and as much as I can because I like to. I also like to use the chat. While the chat isn’t the only thing I like about this board, I’d probably stop coming here if it was decided to remove it to spur more posts. That just sounds weak and manipulative. I would like to see more discussion in the threads too but not at the expense of something that other people enjoy. Especially in the individual show discussion. Nobody ever comments on shows other than recent ones and ones that have been released on SBD. But that’s because people don’t really like Phish, not because of the chat 
EDIT: I didn’t know you could see the chat without logging in…that’s kinda fucked up.
I think Bill, Devin, Eric and Doug stated it perfectly between them all… We are all here freely, chat helps many regulars stay in touch with others and both areas of this board serve a grand purpose…
Why get rid of something that so many use???
Either way, I am not sure ‘voting’ on this makes sense as it is not ruining anything is it? I do AGREE that you should have to have an active account and be logged in to ‘view’ the chat though… Can that be added?
Enough said.
Chat/Post away and enjoy the breeze…