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  • Chatbox Policy

    Folks,

    The Admin staff and I are presently considering what our longterm policy on the Chatbox will be. The present software has some loopholes that make us unwilling to leave it running unattended.

    Meanwhile, for the time being we'll be handling it the way we've been handling chat in the old Forums: it'll be turned on when there's a mod in attendance, on user request (and assuming the mod has time to keep an eye on things).

    Also: we'll be testing a new Flash-based full chat facility over the course of the next week or so. This too will be run as the old full chat was: we'll let everybody know when it's ready for a test run.

    Thanks, all.
    Lee / Forum Administrator

  • #2
    How're things going with this new chat?
    "...Some of growing up is the knitting together of our cognitive webs, and some things take time and experience to make sense...." - Taran

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    • #3
      Nothing's happened as yet. There are some version-based difficulties with the implementation that need to be solved, and none of us have really had the time to deal with the situation due to real-world work. We hope to get around to it in the next month or so.

      Also, we're still looking at the issue of whether the YW forums really need any kind of full-service chat facility for the foreseeable future. Here's the situation.

      Our site at the moment is managed as a 100% child-safe space. But adding full-time chat produces problems. Here's the COPPA language, boiled down:

      So if we "maintain" chat, we either have to monitor / censor it whenever it's open, or we have to put in place a full age verification system, and be prepared to get and store permissions from parents and guardians for all our users younger than 18 years of age.

      The second option would be a nuisance.

      If we decide to limit chat to Forum users over 18 years of age, then we still have to put the age verification features in place. And of course some users will lie about their ages. And if something goes wrong or someone misbehaves in chat, DD will nonetheless be left legally liable, since she pays for this operation.

      This would be a BIG nuisance.

      As for supervised/monitored/censored chat, it's not feasible for us to do it every day, or even every week. The time the mods have to spend monitoring chat is not all that well spent, since (to judge by a whole lot of past experience) it frankly almost never has much of anything to do with DD's books.

      For the time being, it seems that the best way to go is as we've been doing: to activate chat only for scheduled conferences, when the mods have the time and inclination to keep an eye on things. Ditto for when DD (or some other guest) has time to do a conference. If our users want to casually chat with each other while going through the message base, they're more than welcome to use any of the many IM services that our system is equipped to synch with. Anybody with a profile can go in there and add their info for ICQ or Yahoo Chat or AOL or whatever, so other users can see them: that way the mechanism of chat is somebody else's responsibility, and responsibility for the content lies on the chatting user, rather than on DD.

      Some day if we have thousands more users, and can afford the kind of paid support it would take to keep such an operation running, we may reconsider the whole chat management issue. (And we may have to anyway if the EU enacts something like COPPA, or the law changes or tightens in the US.) But not right now.
      Last edited by Lee Enfield-Burke; January 7, 2009, 06:03:36 PM.
      Lee / Forum Administrator

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      • #4
        *Nods* So back when the old chat was still in full operation, the rule you mentioned either didn't exist, was unheard of, or was being broken?
        Last edited by EricG1793; January 7, 2009, 06:44:06 PM.
        "...Some of growing up is the knitting together of our cognitive webs, and some things take time and experience to make sense...." - Taran

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        • #5
          Originally posted by EricG1793 View Post
          *Nods* So back when the old chat was still in full operation, the rule you mentioned either didn't exist, was unheard of, or was being broken?
          The nature of the US monitoring restrictions -- i.e., requiring that live chat be censored/monitored vs. chat logs being monitored after the fact -- was redefined while we were still running the chat area along the old lines. The point at which (due to member behavior) we stopped running chat unmonitored, roughly coincided with the point at which the redefinition would have required us to change the way we operated anyway.
          Lee / Forum Administrator

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          • #6
            Dang sounds complicated...so why don't you just put up a blocking program that scensors words just like reporters who are going live use???
            It is better to die on your feat then to live a life on your knees-Emiliano Zapata.
            That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.-dad

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            • #7
              ^ The old chat did have word censoring, but it could be tricked. Plus, there's no stopping someone from posting personal info (except if each post had to be pre-approved).

              Gee, if I knew about these rules coming in to affect near the same time our old chat closed, I wouldn't wouldn't have continued to bug you about it! I digress.
              Last edited by EricG1793; January 7, 2009, 08:49:44 PM.
              "...Some of growing up is the knitting together of our cognitive webs, and some things take time and experience to make sense...." - Taran

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Septimus View Post
                Dang sounds complicated...so why don't you just put up a blocking program that scensors words just like reporters who are going live use???
                Unfortunately that wouldn't satisfy the legal requirements. Monitoring (when used) now has to be live.
                Lee / Forum Administrator

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                • #9
                  I see. These legal requirments are loopholes within loopholes nots within knots...and it still sounds complicated. You have my sympathy
                  It is better to die on your feat then to live a life on your knees-Emiliano Zapata.
                  That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.-dad

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