Herp specific IM network?

I voted yes and that I would help...... if needed.

I voted you were a dork, just because I couldn't resist, but in reality it is an interesting project and I would be happy to assist in testing for you. :)

my only concern is this... how would people know who the people with knowledge are? in a forum, at least you have an idea of who has knowledge and who doesn't. sometimes it's just going by their join date... but still you get an idea of how long they've been keeping herps for.

in a chat situation, with an emergency... how would you know if the person giving out the information has the knowledge behind them?

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

my only concern is this... how would people know who the people with knowledge are? in a forum, at least you have an idea of who has knowledge and who doesn't. sometimes it's just going by their join date... but still you get an idea of how long they've been keeping herps for.

in a chat situation, with an emergency... how would you know if the person giving out the information has the knowledge behind them?

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Depending on how integrated that system is with the forum here, you could require that they use the same handle for both arenas.

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Originally Posted by slartibartfast

Depending on how integrated that system is with the forum here, you could require that they use the same handle for both arenas.

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There would be no way to integrate that kind of system with the forum.

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Originally Posted by JLC

There would be no way to integrate that kind of system with the forum.

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I think it would have to be more of a mandatory enforcement by the person running the IM...when you registered a nickname, you'd have to register with the same one you used here. Something similar is used at an unrelated forum I frequent, and the admins of the messaging system boot folks who try to register with the wrong nicks. They have it cross-referenced with the e-mails on the forum profiles. Reduces malicious behavior, imping, etc. Not so much a physical integration as man-powered one. :-)

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Originally Posted by JLC

There would be no way to integrate that kind of system with the forum.

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Correct.

What domain will this be running off Tek?

Just want to clear some things up for you guys. What I have in mind *could* be in some ways integrated into forums. That is totally depent on forum communities themeselves. This network if it takes off will be open to anyone, and is not in conjuction or relation to any one forum or online comunity already in existence unless said communities *choose* to be involved.

I am getting a pretty good number of people who sound like they would like to help. The first part of the testing will honestly not be all that difficult on the user end. I will most likely start out with a handfull of users and simply have them connect to the IM server. Those users would be free to "play" and chat with others...probably not all that exciting. This step will be mostly on my end seeing what sort of impact the server has if any with the first few users as well as testing admin functions and features.

To answer some of the other questions about how do we know who is who and what not: This will be open anyone but in reality it is my hope that word will travel within existing communities so the chances of someone "just hoping on" are slim to none. Some of the testing I mentioned above will involve how to setup user groups and "staff" such as admins and lower level "helpers". Guidelines will have to be written and there will be methods of communicating who abusers are with actions to follow.

It is my intention to keep away from a forum that is for herp discussion as I know this will infringe on existing communities. I will need a way however to dynamically display info and manage things on the site so a forum may be implemented but for the sole purpose of supporting this network -not for herp discussions, we have great forums such as this one for that. I have ideas for a "directory" of sorts for looking up specific users or those participating in say an emergency help team for example. The possibility also of a way to determine who has the knowledge to help other individuals with accurate info. Forum site admins could suggest those they see clearly up on their knowledge and ability to help others...even if just as representitives of said forums. To start I think the IM network will rely on the site for much of this but I have yet to really unleash the power of the IM server so we'll see how it goes.

I may start the forum soon as a place for those interested to submit suggestions and talk about testing and what not. I would like to hold off on the site address until there is something actually there to get us started...as well as give this forum's admins another chance to tell me not post it :P now knowing that a forum will be open for communication on the project. I will be looking for a good team of people to help get this going from all angles such as web programmers and such. I don't think there will be any shortage of those willing to be the ones offering the help this network is meant to deliver :)

Seems like an interesting idea, although I'd be a little careful. Jabber tends to be pretty sweet on resources, but I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot poll if you're running a web server on it as well (I've seen 15 minute load averages at 5.0+).

If you need any help let me know :).

I keep my equipment pretty tight but thanks for tip. I've done alot research and still doing more on the software I've chosen to use for testing. If you have some tech knowledge would love to have you on board once the site is up.