@seoulsearch Have you ever considered a Zoom meet? I envision us kinda loosening up and all talking at once. There we go in need of another set of guidelines, lol. Just a thought😊
Actually we have been seeing signs that we might get an in-house chat client back. We might have that live chat sooner than you think.
This is such an excellent idea,
@TabinRivCA. Please forgive me in that I'm not a techie person, so I don't automatically think of things like this.
It seems like a great option with lots of built-in privacy and safety guard rails. People can still join in without revealing their face or voice if they opt not to (as long as just typing is allowed? I'm not sure with Zoom.) As Lynx mentioned, Skype is another option as well. I'm also on Discord but I don't know what the limitations are there?
Years ago when CC had a Singles chat room, we did host a meetup event then. I just remember it as a bit of a blur, as Lynx was manning (or perching on) the mic to greet people by voice, and I was busy watching for people coming in to type written greetings. I know a lot of people are online because of social anxiety, and for them especially, some form of acknowledgment is important.
CC also had the option back then to rent the chat rooms, and we were talking about how we could go about collectively funding regular meetup chats.
I've never tried Zoom and don't know how it works, but apparently you can host up to 100 people for free? (I'm sure we'd have to do some sort of limited RSVP to keep things manageable, especially for the first go.) But something like that could be held more frequently and more likely to hopefully cast a wider net of days and times (with no expense and little hassle.)
However, if CC gets chats up and running again, my first choice would be to try to do something here in order to support the site.
Much to ponder...
Thanks so much for this suggestion!