Wrong Planet Chatroom

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Who here uses it? I've often found people in there to be a bit mean.

Not been in there for a long time - it's nothing like the forum though.

i can't even get it to work

I couldn't get it to work either, although that was a few months ago.

moved from Getting to know each other to WrongPlanet.net discussion

the moderators are currently discussing the chatroom situation. although it is connected to the main WP site, it's sort of distinct and has its own culture and guidance. but there are an increasing number of concerns coming forward and since it's affiliated with WP we are thinking about where to go from here.

Hyperlexian, I've seen a lot of bullying on there also. And the mods side up with the bullies as well. I remember one mod didn't and didn't really know what to do about it, but I forgot their nickname. I was even made fun of by making spelling errors.

Everyone ignores each other in there. I got like one response from somebody and was like 'zomg'. For all those who have had difficulty using it, you might be accidentally blocking it when the pop up comes up on your browser that prompts you to block the app. Don't press 'yes' as a reflex action, rather, select 'cancel'. Bamboozled me the first couple of times I used it yonks ago.

I tried it when I first came to the site. I thought it wasn't my cup of tea, too hard to have a proper conversation. I got kicked out several times

I used to chat in there about a year ago. I had some okay times. Every time I went there though, there were always trolls, or people arguing about inane BS.

can you please let us know about this discussion, so we can contribute etc. Many of us are trying to create a positive environment in the IRC channel
A lot of the problems stem from other channels created on the network (anyone is free to start their own channel), and then people bringing their arguments from there into #wp.
Another issue is that users have problems with the channel but don't discuss them with the channel ops, this happens surprisingly often. It is hard for us to fix issues when people have a problem, discuss the problem in their own offshoot channels, create petitions about their problems, but don't even once consider messaging an operator or the bot we have in channel that will echo messages to the ops. We can't help resolve issues if we don't know what they are.

It is also infeasible, nor should it be encouraged, to forbid users from making their own offshoot communities after initially meeting in #wp.

-caramel, #wrongplanet op for 1.5 years



Couple of edits:
-try going to webchat.freenode.net and type in #wrongplanet for the channel if the java app from www.wrongplanet.net is not working for you.
-personally I would love to try and sort out any long standing issues if others are open to contacting me. I'll try to remember to log into the forums daily, otherwise PM me on irc.

Same here. I wonder if we ever spoke.

We could set up a sticky thread for chatroom issues, would that be a good idea?

Measuring 'okay' times from years ago in the present that happened on the internet. Your life sounds exciting.

It's been over a year since I have been in there and it wasn't that bad. I figure I haven't been in there often enough to see how bad it really is.

Chat rooms are never my cup of tea. They are like IM except with a bunch of other people in the room than just you and the other person.

Chatroom issues we deal with ourselves - we have an operator channel, a place where bans/warnings are documented, and bots that help us (echo messages as I said before, alert us when someone requests operator assistance in channel etc). And most of us barely, if ever, visit the forum.
In my experience, chatroom discussion only ever overflows to here when people have not tried to contact the ops in the first place, and then most of the time we miss it unless another user tells us about it (I was only aware these two new threads existed because another user mentioned it in passing in channel)

However if there is discussion among the forum mods that will affect the chatroom (for example addition/removal of operators, although removal of operators for no apparent reason already occurs often cudos to WardenWolf, who adds them back a few days later), in particular anything that would benefit us in a helpful way, we would love to hear it and be involved in whatever decision-making process there is. Many ops have volunteered for 3-5+ years and we'd appreciate knowing what is going on.

One common complaint I know of is people complain they don't know who the ops are: this is ultimately Alex's decision on if and how to fix (it is freenode policy that ops are not opped-up unless needed)

Also the channel can seem a bit hostile at times I agree.
It is a side effect of putting 100+ people together, the vast majority of which are autistic and many have other comorbids. People offend each other without realising it, interpret things the wrong way etc.

Personally I try to make a judgement of character and whether any harassment/offence caused is intentional or not, the ones who don't intend it I'll try to explain their behavior to them and keep them in channel, however it can take people months to adjust to stop unintentionally causing hostility every now and then. Its a support channel after all.