Chat room suggestions?

[cortjezter]

Ok, so the last thread managed to get stuck in some drama (which is what we're trying to purge). Let's try this again:

When it comes to our site's chat room, what kinds of things can we do to:

- make the chat more appealing to a blog comment-heavy crowd
- get more involvement from the rest of the site visitors
- generate awareness
- grow the group of people who frequent the chat
- regular event ideas to draw attention (trivia, call-in live shows, tournaments, game nights)?
- pie

Keeping in mind the room exists more than just during the podcast live stream (when we have plenty of activity); what can we do the rest of the 166 hours per week?

If you post something helpful, you'll win this fabulous prize: not being banned!
If you derail the thread, you will lose.

[Oregano]

I think there just needs to be more presence on the main page. The link to the IRC isn't very apparent most of the time and during podcasts is when most people are reminded the thing exists. I'm not really sure how that can be remedied without being intrusive though...

[Mako]

The chat needs to be a direct extension of GoNintendo. Right now, it is almost like a second pillar type thing. It should be a place to further discuss news stories with people, talk about all things video games, and other things as well. The focus should be on things related to the site though. Obviously people come to the site to see the latest Nintendo news, so they should come to the chat to discuss all things Nintendo. Sure, other things are fine too... The chat is always popular during the podcast and other live events. Maybe part of the reason is because the chat is displayed on the front page of the site during these events? Not hidden under the "community" portion of the site navigation.

What if we found a non intrusive way to have the chat on the front page at all times? I think the best option would be to have a tab on the lower right that says "GoNintendo Chat". You click it and then a chat window expands and you join the chat automatically. It would be similar to the Facebook chat where you open it once and then it stays open no matter where you go on the site. For those that don't want to chat it is just a little tab that they don't have to click on, and for those that do want to chat once click and they are set.

[t27duck]

I 1000% agree on needing to have the chatroom link more visible on the main site. As of right now there's a small link at the top of the first page on the main site and one buried in a drop down menu.

@Mako
Unfortunately that's now exactly how IRC works. It's not like a persistent IM service like Facebook Chat. You need a client (or the web chat thingy) to connect to the room. You close the window, you disconnect from the server.

I also want to promote the chatroom as a place to talk about whatever you want along with stuff related to the site. I don't want to lock conversation down to specifically Nintendo or what RMC is posting, though any game talk in general would be nice.

[Steam Industries]

Change the name? You know, make it more appealing, show it big in the front page, with a big header, nice art and a cool name. Event ideas would be great. Like say chatting while playing the same game on a 3DS, for example!

Also, pie AND cookies! Donuts are also good... and cake...

[cortjezter]

Change the name? You know, make it more appealing, show it big in the front page, with a big header, nice art and a cool name. Event ideas would be great. Like say chatting while playing the same game on a 3DS, for example!

Also, pie AND cookies! Donuts are also good... and cake...

change the name? maybe you could be a little more clear or give an example of what you mean... something like "gonintendo word sex dungeon"?
also wondering what/where we would put art for it, since it's just one feature of the site.

[KingBroly]

GoNe Talkin - The Official GoNintendo Chat Room

[Autosaver]

GoNe Talkin - The Official GoNintendo Chat Room

OMFG!! THIS IS GREAT!

+40000 internets

[Steam Industries]

Change the name? You know, make it more appealing, show it big in the front page, with a big header, nice art and a cool name. Event ideas would be great. Like say chatting while playing the same game on a 3DS, for example!

Also, pie AND cookies! Donuts are also good... and cake...

change the name? maybe you could be a little more clear or give an example of what you mean... something like "gonintendo word sex dungeon"?
also wondering what/where we would put art for it, since it's just one feature of the site.

KingBroly's idea sounds about right! And by art I mean, some kind of Big banner in the main page so everybody can see it and grab their attention, perhaps have contests and change the banner every month, that would get people going! Maybe below the Goriginal content. A lot of people either don't know about it or they just forget it (like me) because it is so small. Remember you have to appeal to an audience

[MasterGoomba]

Try to change the look because right now it looks like you're debugging a game

[TANK]

There is nothing wrong with a bit more pazaz,it looks a little outta date compared to other sites,it needs to grab you with visual text or somthing to say nintendo news which did not grab me,although it was the storys that got me here in the end.
Time to start decorating.

[cortjezter]

haha.. well unless we dump the IRC format for something else, there's not much we can do about that. IRC is essentially simple text only. some clients support formatting with bold, italic, color, etc, but not much else. sorry... not much we can do to help the constant need for over the top stimuation the younger generations have to have like drugs

[vinniebrock]

I agree that it should get a bit more visibility on the homepage. Also, I like the idea of game nights. Members can volunteer to host a weekly game night and/or tourney and obviously people would meet up in teh chat room (Basically, I like the "Regular Events" idea as a whole) . Also, pie sounds good.

[TwistedN]

Yes I would like gamenights, maybe have it set up every Friday night at 8PM EST, trivia for Saturdays like at 7PM to get the people from the podcast chat back in. Tournaments for sundays maybe once a month to attract users, what King Broly said for the name it would be perfect and allow it to have it's own tab somewhere, maybe a poll for the new game for gamenight, maybe build a new IRC? I know it's sort of hard but a collective effort will make it pay off. All together this can be a GoNintendo 4.1 update, right?