Re: Juggling Chat

Posted by fak, 2012-04-28 16:26 BST

I know this topic is for people interested in a chat (however it is administered), but I figured I would just raise the voice for those not interested. Juggling is something I like doing and watching. Talking about it in realtime online has never grabbed me. Chatting with mates, yes, chatting with a bunch of people I may or may not know online when the topic is restricted to juggling, not so much.

So if you find that there isn't a great uptake of people, or you get a lot of people logging in but not chatting, they may be a bit like me.

Now, to get people using a chat feature I think it does often require some work from the people there.

It's important for new people not to feel like they have walked into a private club where everyone knows everyone else except for them. This can be hard to achieve as people who know each other might be having a jolly old time chatting about something exclusive to them. A way round this is to effectively pause a conversation when a n00b arrives and do some introductions, including a little explanation of what was just being talked about when they arrive, and the connections between the people there. As an example: "Hello new person, I'm fak and am a club passer based in Bristol. We were just talking about the BJC 2012 public show which we all attended a couple of weeks ago. "

Another issue is inactivity. Lots of people logged in but no-one chatting? This is where someone needs to step up and initiate a conversation. Juggling videos can be a great conversation starter (after introductions) as everyone can watch a video and share their opinions, ditto blog posts/online articles.

You're always going to have a lot of people popping in and popping out again because the conversation isn't to their taste, and there's no real way round that considering how wide (and narrow) a range of interests jugglers can have.

In conclusion, have fun with juggling chat, but I doubt I'll see you in there anytime soon (wherever you set up home).