Hi, everyone! As I mentioned in another forum topic, Hoop.la (this site's host) recently gave us chat room functionality! But what are chat rooms, you might ask? Good question . . .
Chat rooms (example, pictured above left) differ from forums in that they allow members to chat in real time rather than "asynchronously." (Sorry, that was Hoop.la tech-speak for "not at the same time"!) And chat rooms differ from chat events (like the recent one with Sweet Ambs and the upcoming one with Glory, above right) in that they're not moderated and can go on indefinitely.
I believe chat rooms hold a lot of potential for allowing members to get to know one another better, but I honestly haven't though through all of their potential applications. For now, I'm giving them a test run with this new chat room called Casual Cookie Chat. It will be open 24/7 for popping in, saying hello to members, and/or discussing burning cookie questions.
If you have ideas for other chat rooms (i.e., topics that benefit from real-time chatter), please leave them in this forum. I'll evaluate them and may phase them in over time depending on activity in the test chat room.
Thanks!