Hi wiki-peeps,

The chat rooms are a great source of support on wiki, and a fantastic way to start to make friends and move on towards your new life.

But we want to make them even better.

We are launching new updated chat software this weekend and wanted to hear your ideas on things we could do to make chat better.

I've heard quite a few suggestions made in the chatroom - but if you could jot them down in reply to this post I will have a record of them - and will be able to take them into account this week as i work on setting up the new chat.

So please tell me your ideas...cos the good ones will be implemented and you could see your suggestions live and running within a week - cool huh

sign against newbis or they show highlighted to alert to them for us old guys to watch out for.
maybe a suggestion of the old peeps who r regulars that newbies will feel comfortable chatting with

guidelines for using pm windows and list of common abbreviations

One for those who shepherd and support newbies would be for a 'psuedo-moderator' user status who can have a presence in multiple rooms. If you see someone who needs some help it is useful to direct them to a different room to give them some support without them having to sift through 3 zillion other messages. However, if one is doing that, one is not aware of what is going on in the other room(s)

I know what I mean, and anyone who has tried to do that will understand too

Mike

Oh, and another one - showing a male/ female icon against the user name in the chat list - nearly embarrassed myself once or twice...

its so daunting for the newbies when they first arrive in the chatroom - lots of people who know each other and the chat can be very fast moving at times too.

How about a team of experienced volunteers to man the newbie room, and help them settle in?

Ruby

I think manning it may be a bit of a duty but perhaps there could be a buddy list. A few ppl who are willing to 'casually' take people through things.
What do you think Roobs?
Personally, manning sounds like a duty whereas a buddy sounds more flexible and could be done with PMs or email messages from main site.
FBGS

Some way of accessing profile information without opening new windows or tabs.
If there is someone there called Hell@Home it gives me no indication whether they are male or female. Or even with Stevie?
So perhaps a gender symbol could be good. Just to help conversation and avoid any confusion.