Who To Chat With?

[greytop]

You could always bring in a mystery person and leave it up to us to try and figure out who it is.

I like that idea.

[David]

Well it would be kinda boring for them to sit around while everyone tried to figure out who they were. But an idea would be to have a mystery person until the time of the chat!

[Orce]

Wouldn't mind talking to CJ's brother, seeing how he's supposed to be in another episode isn't he? I like the idea. Perhaps also there could be some sort of contest where the lucky winner could chat with them for a while. Then all accepted questions could be asked by the person who suggested them in the first place. Forgive me, I was thinking out loud.

[Skydiver]

ms' stunt double's name was kyle. he came to gatecon one year....and it is amazing, he does bear a passing resemblance to MS

I"m not talking about every single member of the crew, but maybe the writers/producers.

guest stars that are popular like sam jones, anna louise plowman, carmen argenziano...etc.

Only one thing about the guest stars......it ain't all aobut stargate to them. To many of them, stargate is a job they had for a few weeks last year. they have other things going on, so i think we would need to be aware that the chat can't be all stargate

[TameFarrar]

Boy, I wish I had time. Not sure how we'd manage that yet, but we might get a few people to ghost-mod it.

there are a few very good *moderated* chat rooms that I have been to....the *hosts* work shifts and it is done similar to the modding here and I think they have *special powers* just as our mods do. It has been quite a while since I modded a chat so I am sure techhy stuff has upgraded since then but it is fairly easy and all it takes is the people willing to commit to it.

In the *Novel Chat* we were all volunteers and worked 2- hour shifts and there were two of us that kept the mayhem to a minimum or caused it you decide....

But that is one idea David

Now onto a suggestion.
Rene Auberjonois

[Skydiver]

it would have to be moderated.

just for the simple fact, and i mean no disrespect to anyone at all, but folks don't know how to keep thier mouths shut and keep the chatter down.

get several dozen folks in one room, heck if they all say hi as one person comes in, it's 50 odd responses in a few seconds.

If you could trust every person to basically shut up unless they have a question and wait for an answer, it wouldn't need to be moderated. but i've seen chats with as few as 20 people being total mayhem because folks coulnd't keep thier fingers off the keyboard

[Jafana]

actually, as a suggestion on how to deal with that kind of a problem - I've seen a chat with a star where the audience didnt actually talk directly to the person. Rather the questions were emailed to a mod, who then copy pasted the ok ones in there.

I guess it's a form of censorship.. but it certainly stops the stars being bombarded with thousands of different questions and (possibly) nasty comments.

I'm just thinking along the lines of certain controversial characters. We wouldn't want them to feel unwelcome or anything. Rather, we'd want them to enjoy the time they spent on Gateworld.

[ShadowMaat]

They're PM'd to the mod, not emailed. At least, that's how SCIFI runs things. Makes more sense unless the thing is all arranged ahead of time with questions sent in and everything. Takes away from the spontinaity, tho, and any chance for follow-up questions.

It would depend a lot on who was gonna chat and how many people showed up. I know that when Joe popped into SG1fans chats it was very relaxed and informal and people behaved themselves pretty well, but if you've ever been in a SCIFI chat before they've modded it or after they've stopped, it's a nightmaring flood of incomprehensible text and questions and comments.... *shudder*

[Skydiver]

it's a fine line to walk

A 100% modded chat is boring as all get out. You may as well not bother showing up and just wait for the transcript. there is also the implication or feeling that you are being censored. that only 'approved' questions get through and that the mods could be using thier personal preferences or feelings about a poster or a topic to 'rig' the air of the chat.

but, a totally unmodded one where it's a free for all with 200 odd people all in the same room is chaos. you end up with so much useless chatter that the person can't see the questions adn answer them. there is also the risk of a person either treading into a forbidden topic or keep yammering away, demanding an answer that the guest can't or won't give. this creates tension and can make it unfriendly

I think the key is to try and find a happy medium

[GateWorld]

We've done half-modded chats in the past -- nobody is gagged (unless they give mods reason), but we ask that they keep the chatter to a minimum and only ask the guest a question when their turn in the queue comes up and they are called upon.

That may not work next time we chat with a special guest, simply because of the sheer number of people who could show up. Our forum is a lot bigger and busier than when we were on Delphi. We may have gotten to the point where that free of an event is too chaotic.

What we might consider doing is gagging everyone, then ungagging each question-asker in turn so that s/he can ask a question and actually interact with the guest for their turn (like standing at a mic at a convention).

Darren

[keshou]

but, a totally unmodded one where it's a free for all with 200 odd people all in the same room is chaos. you end up with so much useless chatter that the person can't see the questions adn answer them. there is also the risk of a person either treading into a forbidden topic or keep yammering away, demanding an answer that the guest can't or won't give. this creates tension and can make it unfriendly

I think the key is to try and find a happy medium

I've heard of unmodded chats (I think one with Gary Jones, as a matter of fact) where everyone was just chatting away and hardly anyone was talking to the guest. That sounds horrible.

I've kind of liked some of the recent chats I've been to where they unmod it at the beginning so everyone can say hi. Then have a modded period where questions are PM'd to various mods and the guest really has time to answer them with more than one-line answers.

At the mid-point of the chat and at the end turn everyone loose to submit questions and then gag them again while the guest scrolls back thru and picks and chooses what they want to answer. That creates a little bit more of a fun atmosphere and the celebrity really gets to feel like there's actual people on the other end.

[David]

Originally my thoughts were to submit questions ahead of time, but if we can give each person, say the first sixty folks, to talk with the guest at their leisure for a couple minutes, I would love to work it out that way.

[DownFallAngel]

What about Walter?

[greytop]

How about Darren and David? Or the mods?

[ShadowMaat]

How about Darren and David? Or the mods?

Oh, they're boring! Besides, we can talk to them here. I like the "at the podium" idea, tho I don't know how practical it would be. You'll always end up with a few "mic hogs".