Live Chat?

[Kizzie]

Work just ramped up unexpectedly    so will get back to this when I've cleared away the rubble. 

[Boatsetsailrose]

Hi I'm not sure how I feel about it
I get so much from using the forum the way we have it.
My fear is that it would somehow take away from what I've got and be detrimenta l.
My experience of doing telephone meeting s is that they work because there is a lot of structure and people facilitating

If there was going to be structure then who would be providing that ?
Also, what would be our aims

Um I'm not sure I seem to be moving towards a no I think

Wonderful that we can bring ideas and have a democracy, so liberating

[Fen Starshimmer]

I just found this thread and thinking what a great idea to have live chat on OOTS. Would it be on special dates and times or an area that was available 24/7?

I wondered whether you had seen how Ark of Hope for Children are doing it with their Removing Chains 15 anonymous live chat rooms? (Hope it's OK to post the link. Feel free to remove if not.)

http://arkofhopeforchildren.org/programs/removing-chains-live-chat-support#.WKd2VvmLSUk

I would be in favour of live audio as well. Have tried this before with Skype conference calls. I think it could work well with a good chair (or chairs) where there is no pressure to speak. If you don't feel like contributing you don't have to. And there's the message wall for people who just want to type their contributions. Or maybe OOTS should trial more than more option and see how it goes?

[Kizzie]

Many tks for the input Boat and Fen  

I haven't gone any further with this because in addition to my having an (unexpectedly) full plate, we have lost our awesome IT person recently due to the demands in his life.  So until I can find someone who will help in that respect, the live chat idea is on hold unfortunately.  I can manage the basics around here but installing something like that requires some solid knowledge and finesse. 

Please do feel free to weigh in on the idea though, it's always good to know what members think about potential changes to the board.  Fen I will have a closer look at the site you sent, it looks really interesting - tks again for posting it    

[Fen Starshimmer]

Kizzie, Glad you found the site interesting. I have a lot of respect for Ark of Hope's work and the man behind it, Blair Corbett, who I've been following on Facebook for a few years now. They specialise in child trafficking but cover most types of abuse.

Hope you can find a new IT person soon and explore the idea further.