How about live chat discussions???

[harinath_2007]

Its quite boring here and requires some hot programming stuff discussions LIVE. Eventhough there's a PM option , why cant there be an option to live chat with somebody else in this website and share our thoughts and ideas and lot more. Its time for creating chat rooms..

[pritaeas]

DaniWeb has an IRC channel, although pretty quiet.

[deceptikon]

We've had an IRC channel for ages and ages, but nobody cared to use it even when it was linked directly on the forum. If you're interested it's irc.daniweb.com, channel #daniweb. But be warned, there's very little activity, so you'll no doubt find it boring there too.

We're also looking into some form of chat as a new feature.

[harinath_2007]

the link "irc.daniweb.com" is not working. All the best for new chat feature.Waiting eagerly..

[deceptikon]

the link "irc.daniweb.com" is not working.

It's not a website, it's an IRC server. You need an IRC client to access it.

[harinath_2007]

Oh..really.. I never used an IRC client before. Maybe I should give a try.

[Reverend Jim]

My experience with IRC clients was not positive. I found them difficult to use and not user friendly.

[Mike Askew]

New chat feature definately would be good, could get onto it within the work proxies then :)

[stultuske]

the fora being 'boring' ... well, they were meant to be (at least for me,as a user) helpfull, not a home-cinema system.
the problem I would see of an integrated "live-chat", is that people that could answer tons of questions in a nick of time, might spend that time on that chat, while questions remained without (the correct) answer.

[Reverend Jim]

Granted, questions might be answered more quickly with an interactive dialog, but would those dialogs be recorded in the forum the same as the current post/response so that others could browse them?

[ChrisHunter]

Thats a good point, the reason threads (5 years+ old) aren't deleted is to serve as archives to help others with similar problems.

Also if someone pops into a chat session, contributes and leaves before the proposer can ask s follow-up question, it might lead to a lot of partially answered questions.

[deceptikon]

Chat isn't really meant for all but the most trivial Q&A. Even in the current IRC channel (when it's active), most in-depth technical questions are directed to the forum.

[ImZick]

yeah, maybe because that IRC channel needs an improvement or something? just an opinion

[gavinflud]

I'm only new around here, but it seems like a good community where something like the current IRC channel could be put to good use.

In my experience with other websites and forums, something like that comes in handy when people in a specific thread want to have a more informal and quick way to chat about the topic of the thread, as long as the relevant answers are posted in the threads so everyone can see them.

[deceptikon]

I'm only new around here, but it seems like a good community where something like the current IRC channel could be put to good use.

Agreed. The problem is that we have trouble convincing enough people to hang out on the IRC channel. It's so inactive that anyone who tries will end up leaving, never to return, in short order. Such is the attitude of instant gratification, I think. ;)

[ChrisHunter]

I only realised DaniWeb had an IRC channel from this thread and in all honesty i would just to chat with other DaniWeb users in real time (i don't know how IRC's work so forgive me if it isnt realtime) if nothing else.

plus it would mean you could get a reply and reply yourself, without waiting for hours between posts.

[gavinflud]

The problem is that we have trouble convincing enough people to hang out on the IRC channel.

It's hard to convince people to go onto an IRC channel just for the sake of it. It'd probably need an big event or discussion topic that people just want to chat informally about to get people onto it.

Just as a quick example, I went onto an IRC channel a few weeks ago for reddit.com's /r/programming subscribers, simply because a few users wanted to discuss Node.js in some depth. Something like that is what gets me onto IRC channels anyway.

[Reverend Jim]

I'd use a chat feature for non-help related discussions but I doubt I'd use it to help someone except in rare circumstances. It's easy to offer help in one's one time and at one's own pace using the threads. It's another thing entirely to get stuck in an endless interactive chat and not being able to politely walk away. I've only come across two cases in two years when I'd be willing to "go live".

[deceptikon]

I'd use a chat feature for non-help related discussions but I doubt I'd use it to help someone except in rare circumstances.

My experience with the IRC channel is that it's mostly random chat with a slightly technical bent (obviously, because we're techies). Sometimes questions were brought up and answered if it wasn't too time consuming and didn't require detailed examples such as code. For the complex questions or ones where an answer would take more than a couple of sentences, they were directed to the forums. However, often questions encouraged a tangent of discussion that kept things moving.

By far the most entertaining instances of IRC chatting was when crazies from the forum (cough TkTkorrovi cough) came in to rant and we egged them on for lulz. ;)

[Dani]

For those not in the know, we have live chat now :)

www.daniweb.com/chat/