Chitchat Corner

[F, Calla & Luca]

People do not seem to use the chat page much, in part I think because it obscures the DK pages. Yet, many of us, myself included , sidetrack discussions with personal chitchat to each other. It is one of the fun things about making new friends and acquaintances here. I think it would be great if there were an area, on the main page where we could do this. There appears to be room at the bottom of the page for this. Any thoughts?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The chat was much more prominent on the main page when we first got it, and never got much use then, either. It had a fairly large section along the side of the page where you could read the past dozen comments or so. Hours would go by between comments...days, sometimes. Maybe that's why it got relegated to an obscure section.
I personally don't care for real-time chat. I prefer to do personal chit-chat back & forth on people's pages or in PM's, and then it really is personal, lol, and nobody else cuts in. I find with real-time chat, two or more people are saying something at the same time, so questions go unanswered, comments ignored or unread, and it never seems to work out in terms of real give & take.
But I don't care if others want chat on the main page.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Maybe not chat per se but a chit chat ongoing discussion that remains on the main page or some other format?

[Adina P]

Karen's right. When it was prominent on the main page (and actually would show up on each page in the right column) it was rarely used then too. It's a great option for those who like to text chat. I am not a big chatter...I prefer in person or email myself. Also it does not have to take up the DK page, you can click on the pop out chat box so that you can chat in a separate window than DK. You can even LEAVE DK's page and keep the pop up window up and continue chatting. Also you can have 'private' chat with just one other person.

But yeah...there might be some who simply don't know it is available or how to use it.

[Azure & Muppet]

I've tried using both public and private chats quite a few times, but usually no one responds. I would use it more if other people did also. And I think other people would use it more frequently if it was more visible. I agree, discussions often get sidetracked by unrelated 'chatting'. If it is getting too far off topic, I think it's courteous to move those comments somewhere else.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I'm glad someone agrees.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I don't quite understand what the sidetracking of discussions with unrelated chit-chat has to do with having a prominent "chat" section. I totally agree that "If it is getting too far off topic, I think it's courteous to move those comments somewhere else", but someone who highjacks a discussion to chat with their friends probably isn't going to say, "Hey, let's go chat in the main forum". I think those are two separate issues.
Maybe there are more people here now who want to chat than there were when we had a prominent chat section, but if there are, why does "no one respond?"

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

I love the idea. I enjoy the chit chat area and is sadly not used often enough.

I did like the old version of chat we had on DK.