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TowersStreet Chat - Community Involvement

Scott

Scott

Former TS Team Member
Favourite Ride
Nemesis
In our last Q&A session, it was mentioned by Meat Pie that maybe we ought to have a thread based around TS Chat and to discuss how we can make it more popular again!

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For those of you who don't know, TowersStreet Chat used to always be full of people just generally talking and having a laugh in a relaxed environment. Every night of the week there would be people there and it was very well used. Recently, chat has been *very* quiet unless there has been specific cause to go on it (such as a JoelyFM night or a Q&A session).

So, what would get you guys into chat more often? Are there any community suggestions which might help us make it more popular again? Do we need a 'Chat Schedule' whereby we promote chat on certain nights of the week or at certain times?

We want to include the community at the heart of what we do on TowersStreet and this is why we're throwing the doors open to your suggestions! Help us show TowersStreet Chat some love... what do you want to see? :)
 
A more obvious CHAT button would help. If you hide it on a menu people don't even have to use, you are asking for trouble from the casual user. Don't hide something in a menu, you want used often or to become a more integral part of your site.

Why not have a banner/pagemark at the top like The Smiler one? If you make it a prominent part of the site, it will get used more. The Shoutbox is just an example of people using an easier and more convenient version of chat. Look at what works, and copy that.

Scheduling helps as well of course, especially if you are doing interactive radio things - the question I have on that though, is does it end up becoming more of a chore if you do it too often, same as much everything else? Every 2 or 3 weeks could be nice.

Even I find it overwhelming in there at times though when everyone's in, it's chaos! Fun of course, but still hard to follow - does tend to require full attention when everyone lands in it at the same time ;D, that is both the up and downside of scheduling.

So yeah, er, advertise it basically! Make it easy, convenient, and highly prominent and keep reminding people it is there.
 
If buttons keep getting added to the top menu all the other links will start to lose prominence, which I believe was brought up about the forum link not too long ago :)
 
I'd LOVE to see Chat return through community involvement, that's why it was so popular back on TowersTimes. It was a very tight knit, 'anybody has the right to join in', place to relax and have a bit of fun through silliness or a lovely talk. Although I struggle to come onto Chat due to my flat's inability to use any kind of Java or Mibbit right now, it would be great to see more things happen than say Joely Radio or Q&As such as the quizzes, guest radio spots, pre-meet chats etc.
 
I do think the hidden chat link does not help.

But I feel the main problem is the people that used to frequent chat a lot and keep it alive have drifted off onto other forums of chat. Skype being the main one. It almost feels a bit like its a closed group that now use an different chat.
Also the shoutbox gets used like a chat room now. There have often been big discussions about different topics which really would be better in the chat room but how do you police what should be in the chat room and what can be left on the shoutbox?

One of the best parts of chat was the fact that as a new member you got to meet and got to know a lot of different members but that just seems to be a quick hello in the newbie topic and that is about it.

It would be good to have a scrolling banner up every so often to make it obvious that we do have a chat room.
 
Jem8472 said:
I do think the hidden chat link does not help.
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Thing is, the Chat link spent the first 4 months or so sat prominently on the main menu before it was filtered down the importance list as more prominent links were added (Theme Park, Resort, Future etc) - and still the chat never really gained much popularity with people.

We have to keep the menu tidy and simple as possible as too many navigation options confuse people. I personally don't feel its menu link is contributory as much as thought, its more likely the other reasons that you have suggested.

Also an AMAZING amount of people join chat - then quit 2 minutes later - and leaving the client open for a few hours, especially in the early evening, I see a good handful of people come and then leave within 30 seconds or even a few minutes - but yet a minute or so later another person will come and do the same thing - almost like someone joins and goes "Meh, theres nobody here!" and leaves - but with everyone doing that, its hard to get anyone in there to stay even though theres people looking to chat :p

I (again personally) feel the best way to solve it would be to go back to scheduled chat nights again. Whilst I know Ive been mentioned personally about radio, I'd certainly like to do something given the right time to do it (been hectic moving house and starting back at Uni for term 2!).

I know Skype has gained a lot of popularity with the ex-chat core members as its easier than typing in a text chat (myself included, although rarely these days!), but it would be awesome to see a chat revival though!
 
I know it sounds daft, but having set days for chat. Of course chat can be used outside of these days, but once a week or fortnight on a Saturday or whatever, we all meet in chat. Think one of the big things that's stops me going in so often is that I know there will be no one else in there and I don't wanna sit around waiting for others to join.. So by having a set day for chat, it kinda gets rid of that problem.
 
The real problem is people leave when they see no one is there. If people waited for a while then others would come in and see that people are there, otherwise you just get nowhere.


-Sent from a mobile phone-
 
Joel you said about people joining and leaving and just missing other people. Would it be possible to have something somewhere on the site just saying how many people are in chat? Or is that just a waste of server resources and just stops people clicking the button to find out.
 
Also if someone is in chat or starts a chat, why not advertise it in the shoutbox or maybe even some sort of banner at the top of the site as tbh, I rarely venture down to the shoutbox much.
 
A few things I'd like to note down.

1. 'Chat' not easily found on the site. I agree with a few comments that it's not prominent enough on the site. You have to delve your way through the menu to find it, and even then the majority of people will be unaware of what it's purpose is. I disagree with that it should be added as a main link on the bar, it would make the bar far too cluttered for my liking, especially when new sections of the site are released over time.

How to get around that? On the home page there's the box that welcomes people to the site, advertises the forums and also the Smiler pages - why not add chat to that too? There are only three frames on there now, I'm sure a fourth one would not hurt (although arguably chat may not be that pivotal to warrant being advertised there).

Make use of social media! One thing that this site aims to do that no others quite so is making an emphasis on the 'community' - using utilities such as Facebook and Twitter could draw in more of an audience that may get more involved.

A bar could be added to the top of the page during chat nights too (much like the chat bars that the team on here used to do on TTF) - it's a quick form of advertising it and can pull in a good load of members.

Of course the forums is a good way to advertise chat too. Ben already does that with The Tavern - however may be global announcements could be made instead? If you're a guest, or someone who rarely looks in the Tavern that's already a fair few people that could have been drawn into chat.

Obviously a few other things need to be addressed before working out when to advertise chat and so on, but I'll cover a few things in a moment.



2. Official chat nights. Most obvious suggestion. I'd suggest there's a weekly 'official' chat, chosen on a day where the site is busier than usual (all sites have there busy and quiet days) and a team member is able to join chat to ramp up excitement. It's simple enough to do and could link up with advertising it weekly. Over time I think more traffic would go towards chat and eventually it would become a standard things that all members do weekly to join together.



3. Chat games. May involve a bit of work on the teams side (or by other members - look below). Create simple games. A pub quiz - all it would involve is a form being made by someone, even if it's made by members and used with Google Docs, just something simple! Picture games. With radio you could even have a 'guess this sound' game.



4. 'Chat team' - I know this will come across as a bizarre idea, however I thought I might as well throw the idea out. As we know the team have a busy job for running the site and forums. So an alternative to keep chat popular could be to get, say, two or three people to form as a part of a 'chat team' - they could be responsible for advertising chat, drawing people in, monitoring people in chat (I know modding isn't a big thing in there, but it's still nice to have a bigger voice in there) and creating games.

It would give the team more time to do their work on the site but allow chat to have some momentum. The chat team (in my eyes) would be something that is kept separate from the main team however, they would not come under 'TS Team' (in the bigger picture) but would form as a new small team that works differently.



5. Another suggestion that may be a bit weird, why not just have a member or anyone that's willing to - to run off a small radio channel. There's a fair few free platforms out there. They don't have the necessarily talk, just have some music playing. So people in chat can just have a little music to listen to while in there and even suggest music to be played. Obviously this is not really a favourable suggestion, but again, just throwing what I can think of out there. :p



I will not lie either, a monthly Joely Radio would be lovelyyy. ;)
 
The chat team could be an expansion of the social 'team' that we currently have, considering that it's to do with people. This way, as James mentioned, people will be encouraged to join chat by the team and therefore chat will expand. The social team could also manage social networking, meet-up ideas, and general questions on the social networking sites.

To make chat stand out, you could always substitute the 'chat' link at the top of the page for the 'about' link, meaning that chat will be more visible and hopefully used more and also the site will not look as cluttered as you are not actually adding links.
 
The last pub quiz we did in chat over on TT was awesome, I'd love to do that again in conjunction with Joely Radio!
 
I do hope chat does get revived somehow as it was the perfect place for me to chat with a few members before my first meet last August.

I loved the Joel Radio session so I hope that will return :)
 
This place has a chat? :p

Agree with a lot of the above points

1. It is quite hidden. I'm a noob and didn't realise that the chat existed!
2. Scheduled chats would be oldskool and awesome.
3. A box on the forum saying how many people are in chat would be much appreciated.
 
Why am I getting the idea that James' suggestion for members to do their own radio shows is a hint for more BALSDON FM? :p
 
I know I am not the only one here who loves radio or has done it in the past, I'd happily consider doing it for the giggles! Though I did investigate running a private internet station and it seemed quite the mission, I did enjoy turning up and just chatting into a mic with other people pressing the buttons haha!!

I dunno, I also think though that two people (such as quiz night...) can be better due to the way you can bounce off each other.

Maybe I should rephrase that.
 
TheMan said:
I dunno, I also think though that two people (such as quiz night...) can be better due to the way you can bounce off each other.
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That was after the quiz, thank you very much ;)
 
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