I've started working on some new live chat rooms for us.

I need some people to join so we can test them.
Also would welcome suggestions about what types of chat rooms we might like to create, and ideas for having scheduled chats.

As I mentioned in our newsletter, I'm hoping we might be able to entice some "guest speakers" to join us in the chat rooms at specific times/days.

Which means we need some ideas for topics and guests for the chat events.

http://www.pianoworld.com/TotalChat/

we can't use our nick and login info from here?

It's a separate system.

You could set up you account in the chat rooms using the same info, but you still need to request the account.

What an ugly interface.

Why use this TotalChat crap. What about IRC? There was aparently at one time an unofficial Piano World IRC chatroom:

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/2/13219.html

I would love a Piano World chatroom, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in this craptacular, proprietary, non-free Flash chat app while I'm idling all day long.

I not able to say right away as to whether I'd be interested. It would mainly depend on how much time I had to spend on participating.

I was wondering, however, what are some of the advantages of a live chatroom for Piano World over the standard forums? Special guests would be one advantage. What are some others?

Well, now I'm confused. I signed up for the chatroom...but what am I registering for, exactly?

Kathleen

I requested an account, and I love live chats! But I will (a bit more politely) echo the above post re: the chat software. IRC is so much nicer. I've never had really good luck with either Flash or Java chats- they tend to be really unstable for me.

I tried IRC before, people were having trouble with the commands.
If you know of any IRC software that has a really good (read: easy) interface, I'll check it out.

In the meantime, we've had about 10 people sign up so far for this one (and they are now approved).

Great idea to have a piano chat room. I can't wait until it's up and running.

I'm not sure what counts as easy really.

If all you need to do is chat...you should not really need to use commands. There are many Java IRC apps and a few flash ones.

I would try this out:

http://www.pjirc.com/main.php

And the more tech inclined can use any IRC client they please.

It is up and running, it's just that catching someone in one of the rooms right now is hit or miss.

We will need to have people agree on times and rooms to meet. And as I said, I hope we can get some of our "celebrity" members to host some chat sessions.

When you write something, how long does it stay up there until it disappears.

Frank,

This is a good idea, but I wonder about the time people have to chat. I tend to hang in the forums because they're almost at chat speed, and I don't have to worry about catching someone online.

If you're interested, there are versions of UBB that have chat capabilities built in. I belong to another forum (not piano related) that has this. To tell if someone is online at the time, a green light is lit up next to their login name.

John

John,

I wasn't really thinking so much about people hanging out in the chat rooms, as scheduled chat meetings and presentations.

This is a great idea for people my age (i.e. Me, Playadom, Piano*son (aka Bookworm) But I can't imagine adults going: brb, rotflol, ttyl, ect...



Matt

Love the chat room idea....

I wonder if it could be taken a step further - are live online recitals feasible? Several years ago I was able to log into chat forums equipped with a mic, and talk to my mates (with my voice!) Why not a piano hooked up to the mic and have scheduled recitals for willing members to participate in and listen to?

We should set up space in 'Second Life' and have live performances!!

Yahoo chat is good for mic capabilities. Maybe we can setup a private chat room there.

I've not heard of second life - did a quick google search - looks quite interesting.

Yahoo sounds like a good prospect - can everyone who enters a private room listen to one person simultaneously?

It was the last time checked, but that was a couple of years ago.

I think it worked in the same way as Yahoo messenger which is excellent for open mic.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I think we will start slow and work our way up.
I do like the idea of the audio and/or audio/video. Live "concerts" would be fun, or jam sessions with people around the world (I know people have been having jam sessions like this for a few years now).

Second Life has lots of possibilities, but I'm afraid many of our members wouldn't want to go through the set up and learning curve.

I joined recently but haven't had time to do anything with it yet. Heck, I'm still trying to get the right clothes and body (I only wish I looked like the default male they give you :-)

For now I'd be happy if we could have some live chat meetings, at a specific time and with a specific topic.
I think it would be interesting to have someone like Del Fandrich or Scott "The Piano Guy", or one of our many other "professional" members as a guest speaker.

I don't know why this chartroom has to be limited to special chat meetings at specified times. This board is a place where people can talk about pianos any time of day, the chat should be no different.

i'm surprised live online recitals aren't happening anywhere public actually ( a google search turned up nothing anyway) - with technology at the level it is and the low or no cost, the accessibility to something of this nature has never been better.

I like the idea of live online jam sessions and recitals, but the sound quality won't be very pretty since all of these chat programs are optimized for sending voice data, not music.

But it might be fun to try out; personally I prefer Skype because it works easily across firewalls.

There is also some program that allows a group to jam using MIDI, but that isn't an option for everyone either.

eJamming AUDiiO

http://www.ejamming.com/?about_ejammingaudiio

Maybe some of you could sign up for their beta testing?

Whilst online jamming would be fun, I wouldn't say it was important for the PW chat service.

As another user said, it should be a place we can all hang out.

Two different things. I was wandering as usual.
Always looking for new ways to make Piano World interesting for our members and guests.

The chat rooms are available anytime, although I think they would be more useful for scheduled get togethers, question and answer sessions, and presentations.

I keep trying things to see what clicks with people.[/b] Some are useful, some are interesting, and some are just for fun.

We have lots of areas people don't take advantage of, either because they aren't aware of them, or aren't interested.

Here are a few of them:

Movies, MP3s, and other links:
http://www.pianoworld.com/TotalLinker/

Live Chat
http://www.pianoworld.com/TotalChat/

Piano Wiki
http://www.wikipiano.com/mediawiki/index.php/Main_Page

Calendar of Events
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=calendar

Piano Quiz
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/quiz1.htm

Monthly Contest
http://www.pianoworld.com/contest.htm

Music Word Search
http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/word_search.htm

Beat the Piano Playing Pig
http://www.pianoworld.com/Piano_Pig.html

Nora, The Piano Playing Cat
http://www.pianoworld.com/piano-playing-cat.html

For More, see our Directory ...
http://www.pianoworld.com/directory.htm

I would prefer if the chat were on IRC. The reason IRC is so popular is because it is so easy. Also, it would be much easier to set up than the current method.

the piano playing pig was fun. who'd have thunk?

http://www.pianoworld.com/Piano_Pig.html

seconded

I have never "chatted" so I don't really know the difference between IRC and anything else. I did register with this one, but there's no one there, so I have no idea what it looks like or how to chat. Whenever anyone else is logged on, I'll give it a try...