posted
Oddly enough, TomD, I know by that statement you have no idea what goes on in hatrack chat. Just last night, for instance, I taught someone the basics of programming in scheme, there was good discussion on becoming involved in local politics, we did medical research, and supported someone who needed help getting motivated to do school work. All in all, a good night's chat.
In fact, hatrack chat bears a striking resemblance to another common kind of chat: real life chat. There's fluff, but there's also plenty of serious discussion.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ok, I know the smileys have gotten a BIT eccesive. So, just for you guys I will cut back and use them less. And I'll try to comfine them to the fluff threads.
There, you happy?
(notice I did not use smileys in this post.)
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've only been to one WI get-together. I missed the first one due to gaslessness (now THAT's a keeper.) The second was awesome, but you weren't there. We really should have another- but with more alcohol! I demand more consumption of fermented stuff.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, Fugu, as you know, my name lingered without my consent in Hatrack Chat almost all of yesterday afternoon. True, you did educate someone regarding programming -- but I don't know if you realize just how rare that is. For your one instance of programming, I can provide eons of senseless "role-playing" and meaningless action words (e.g. *stabs fugu*).
It's true, there are some people worth getting to know in Hatrack Chat, and it's fun on rare occasions (hence my constant dropping in and rare participation). But for the vast majority of the time, it's mind-numbing.
Such as when Feyd's in there. Heh.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
"It's true, there are some people worth getting to know in Hatrack Chat..."
Is there anyone worth knowing on Hatrack Chat that I could not also get to know on the forums themselves?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Feyd Baron and kwsni, among others. Becky does post occasionally, but the only place where I've even begun to know her is the chat room. There's also Jeni and T_Smith and occasionally the Eddies, though we all post to varying degrees on the forum. And others, of course, but I've either forgotten or don't care about their existences.
Chat could never replace the forum, no. But it's a nice water cooler for a few of us to congregate around and cool off from the forum. Plus, we get to gossip about you, since we know you'll never drop in and catch us doing it.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Sarahdipity is also around chat much more than she posts, and saudade doesn't post anymore either.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, Tom, you get to know people better through AIM. For instance, though you have 12,000 posts, I never felt like I knew you very well. When I met you, I really had no idea what to expect. There are people I know quite well through the forum alone, because, for some reason, I have had an interaction with them in a thread that was particularly personal. This happens more on AIM, though . . . you can make those short real-time posts that would be so annoying on a thread.
Without AIM or Parachat, most of your fellow posters are simply other voices, whom you might respect or be amused or annoyed by to varying degrees. You might know something about their writing style or pet peeves. But you might not know anything else, personality-wise. I think that with AIM is where most of us make friends.
You've often expressed concern about backbiting on AIM. If this happens, I haven't seen it. Mostly I just see people relating to each other with more casualness than on the forums.
Actually, rather than decry the existence of AIM, I think it could solve a lot of our problems. I would encourage the people who are making lots of posts that communicate little or nothing to just go to AIM instead.
Do I think you would enjoy the chatroom? Honestly, no. I go there every once in a while when I have time to kill, and often there isn't anything there that I can relate to. Like "::stabs so and so::" just isn't the sort of thing I can get into. So I just lurk in the background while I post on Hatrack or do other stuff online. Once in a while, though, we have truly entertaining conversations. I don't get the sense from you that you are willing to invest that much time in something that only pays off once in a long while, though, at least in terms of sitting around the chatroom. That's OK . . . sometimes I just have less of a life that way.
I really enjoyed the few times I was there for Trivial Pursuit, though. And I think AIM has similar promise for real role-playing.
And that brings up another possibility . . . AIM has value apart from Hatrack Chat, which can be hit and miss. I don't think there's anything sinister about seeking out individuals for conversation sometimes rather than issues. There are a handful of Hatrackers I chat with with some frequency, and I just feel like I get to know these people better. For instance, I enjoyed chatting with Christie when you guys came down. (Incidentally, I think she might enjoy the chat room more than you.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I can see the value with AIM, however although I've only been using it for a couple of months I already have a pet peeve:
The overuse of 'lol' ('heh' falls within this same category).
Everytime I managed to get embroiled in a conversation that degenerates to 'lol' 'heh' 'lol lol' 'heh' 'heh' 'lol' ... and other variations on the above theme, I am sorely tempted to scream aloud.
Either that or kick the computer.
Posts: 4393 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Email is a very different medium than chat. Your response is like someone saying "why would I have a conversation in person when I can send a letter?"
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Actually, my reply is almost exactly like someone asking "why would I want to sit for hours in a chat room on the off-chance that someone will say something interesting, running the risk of suddenly being IMed by dozens of people who'll feel I'm being rude if I don't acknowledge their existence to their satisfaction, when I can just ignore people over E-mail?" Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't know, Tom. Maybe you're in great demand or just overly sensitive, but at least in my experience, it's not a big deal to ignore people you don't care about.
Also, consider that your rarity makes you a great commodity whenever you can be found. I've seen you in the chat room, count it, once. Of course everyone's going to go bonkers. Make your appearance a more regular thing, and the dimwits eventually ease back and look for a new someone to wait for.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: Of course everyone's going to go bonkers. Make your appearance a more regular thing, and the dimwits eventually ease back and look for a new someone to wait for.
How rude. You're calling all those who participate in Hatrack Chat dimwits? That's what I got from what you said.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
| IP: Logged |
God gave us e-mail? Wow... it makes perfect sense now. God really does want us to save on our credit card bills.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Of course everyone's going to go bonkers. Make your appearance a more regular thing, and the dimwits eventually ease back and look for a new someone to wait for. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How rude. You're calling all those who participate in Hatrack Chat dimwits? That's what I got from what you said.
Heh. No, Nick. I participate in Hatrack Chat. And while no doubt several people are convinced of my dim wit, I'm nowhere near bright enough to realize my own failure as a bright wit and thus accuse myself of such.
Though I will admit to Tom-lust. And if he made a more regular appearance anywhere, no doubt my flame of passion for his hidden candle of Davidson would dwindle, sputtering, into ashes of disinterest and only flame up again once I realized the existence of Toni's bonfire of luv.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Okay, some of us need to read Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. In it, he goes over how Al Gore does deserve credit for the creation of modern-day Internet. What should've been one of his campaign's greatest strengths was warped into a false accusation of deceit.
Of course, I'm sure you already knew this and there's no point in reminding you that as a senator, Al Gore led the charge for developing the existing military network into a nationwide, worldwide web of information available to everyone in the United States and beyond. Ha ha ha. Taking credit. That's so funny.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Heh. What I just can't figure out, T, is why you picked Al Gore as Satan when you have a whole Bush White House to pick from. Especially when Clinton and Gore did so much for the US, and Bush and Cheney and Rumsfield and Ashcroft have done little more than, charitably speaking, run it into the ground. Again, that's a best-case scenario.
Thank god you have your Brad-Pitt-esque looks, T. You just sit and look pretty, okay?
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
See? A thread about smilies morphed into a serious thread, smilies don't always ruin the political atmosphere.
And personally, if you want to talk about running a country into the ground I would pick Regan because he did just so that the Soviets would have to try too where as Bush seems to have some sort of long term plan instead of just seeing who can shovel money into the fire the fastest.
posted
The only problem being that Bush's long-term plan involves shovelling money to the rich at immense cost to the rest of the country and the country's future. Heh.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, I suppose I could have said that Bill Gates was Satan. But since Al Gores name was up in the air...
And you are right, I do need to read that Al Franken book. It's on my list of things to do, right next to "Homework thats a week behind" and "Get a date."
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
You must be joking. Brad Pitt can't get a date?
Just walk around some Catholic all-girls' school, and keep bending over. Something'll happen sooner or later. Which reminds me, be careful the place isn't next door to an open-air prison, as most all-girls' Catholic schools tend to be.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ummm. Eddie, you do know that Al Gore claimed to have invented the Interweb? Think that's where the joke came from.
Anyway, if God gave us email then He is clearly a She and a She who is not only a co-ed lesbian teen who is hot for, well, all of us but happens to run a business that makes enlargement devices for a certain appendage and can help you reduce credit at the same time.
Posts: 2945 | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Also, consider that your rarity makes you a great commodity whenever you can be found. I've seen you in the chat room, count it, once. Of course everyone's going to go bonkers. Make your appearance a more regular thing, and the dimwits eventually ease back and look for a new someone to wait for.
I think you've hit on Tom's hidden agenda here, Eddie. We all know he loves the attention and hordes it with a passion.
Posts: 4753 | Registered: May 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: Is it persecution? Is it harassment to ask them to move their very unique threads full of very unique expressions to a different forum, and use Hatrack more as a tool for actual opinions and thought?
Yes.
And if you were a bit less busy rounding up tar and feathers, you might notice you'd replied in a different thread than the post you seem to be replying to.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Heh. Dammit, EG, I was desperately trying to figure out a way to work impotent into the same post as omnipotent.
And no, Rivka, I fail to see how that's harassment. Unless, of course, one has a very low ability to tolerate criticism or suggestion.
Eh. I've given up on the argument in the other thread -- not that I ever believed I'd be successful, but I hoped maybe people would be willing to move threads of useless emoticons to another forum. No doubt, I've failed. Continue posting threads of emoticons, Rivka. Exercise that intellect.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
)![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
I was a Gore supporter, but it's still enjoyable to poke fun at him. ![[Group Hug]](graemlins/grouphug.gif)
![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
