Your Thoughts
Thank you to everyone who was involved in yesterday’s chat. I know it was a thrill for some people, chaotic for others, and completely new territory for many. To me, chat is an equalizer - a place where any member of the community can participate. No one is chosen to call in, log in, or show up somewhere, which means that no one is left out.
What do you think? How else would you like to see the characters involve you in their journey?
For a complete transcript of the chat, please visit this page of the LGPedia, the number one resource for information on the LG15 Universe.
- Amanda
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I understand why you want everyone to be able to join in.
However, I think that fewer fans are able to enjoy these events than those who are not enjoying them. It gets so chaotic and frustrating when so many people are logged in and trying to all chat at the same time. There really seems be no way to overcome that confusion unless you have the Character Chats private, inviting a certain number of fans to participate.
After the chat is complete then provide LGpedia a non-edited transcript.
Lets try this once and see how it works?
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 pm
well, you could de-voice everyone and only allow fans to post via PM’s to the ops, who will then post questions or comments from fans. like so:
We don’t know what to do.
kelseygirl15 says “you should go to find Sarah immediately!”
thanks kelsey. we’re not sure.
that way everyone who wants to listen live and try to participate can do so. not ever question is gonna be posed by the ops. no duplication, no “show your tits” posts. if the chats were made private with only a few fans, too many people would howl like crazy.
January 3rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
ugh the comment machine deletes my greater than/less than signals.
[Daniel] We don’t know what to do.
[Broken_Kid] kelseygirl15 says “you should go to find Sarah immediately!”
[Jonas_tko]thanks kelsey. we’re not sure.
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I like that idea. Is it practical though for the ops?
January 3rd, 2008 at 2:37 pm
It can be done, but it does not go over well.
A well “trained” audience knows how to behave in these situations and the use of catalysts is much preferred unless the “ops” loose total control of the room as tends to happen in LG15 chats.
Its really more a question of fans understanding the format than turning it into a dictatorship. A room that is silenced is controlled but it is no longer free.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:33 pm
These are all great suggestions. It’s kinda tricky to figure out the best way to allow everyone to participate yet at the same time to prevent chaos. Right now we’re using IRC, but down the road we’ll have some custom tech solutions to address this. Maybe a two column chat with the characters on one side and the audience on the other so that the character dialogue can be read in sequence… also a method to “pull” an audience question to the left column so it’s inline with the character dialogue. Dunno. We’ll work with you guys when we build this thing out. Thanks for the input!
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:34 pm
The chat was awesome!
I’d like to see more stuff like this
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I posted something along these lines on the thread on the lg15.com forums as well…
An alternative/variation on the in-character chat might be to try something with a format like NowLive radio broadcasts or BreeFM radio shows - combining audio of the main characters (plus a few callers perhaps) with a side chat with everyone else in it. This way, everyone can clearly hear what the characters are saying to each other and react freely in the chat, and the characters can still interact with the audience by responding to some of what they see from the audience.
I think this format would be much easier to follow.
Limitations are that the actual actors would have to play the characters (as with the Jonas phone call), and transcripts would be less perfect (but a recording could be provided).
Just as with the in-character chat, I would still want characters (and one or two moderators) to have highlighted text when they did react in chat, and for the characters to mention fans by name (as Danielbeast did last night) when responding to specific things said.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:14 pm
voyboy: i think it is doable. its the way huge chats at, say, the washington post are done (although those are generally slower moving).
modelmotion: you can never “train” these audiences, because these events always attracts newbies and attention hounds.
a slightly more complex solution than what i proposed above is to also have an official second irc channel going (say #lg15chat2) where all the joking and stuff can go on. irc newbies probably can’t figure that out, but most lg15 chat regulars are old hands at doing that.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Great thoughts! A radio broadcast would be a lot of fun. I’ll let that one marinate for a bit.
January 3rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I liked the Jonas conference call
January 3rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
i liked the jonas conference call. the chat last night was too hard because of all of the people talking at once. i was confused!!!!
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I wasn’t in the chatroom (damn you javascript), but from what I read it seems pretty awesome!! A good idea, guys :3
And yes, I agree on a LG15 radio broadcast (like in Live365 or something!)
January 3rd, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I was at work when all this happened but for what I hear it was CHAOS… Many other chat rooms use “moderators” so it all gets organized and people can actually have a conversation with other LG15 people. being interactive with the cast is not that important to me I’m most interested on being interactive with other fans.
Asking questions, requesting comments and opinions or just pocking fun at someone is much more fun.
-xavier-
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I think that selecting people to be able to talk, before-hand, as in the conference call would be helpful. Also, a video type thing, like NowLive, could help, because talking, in general, is faster than typing. Finally, NowLive is an easy to use program. It also allows for more complicated things such as video, pictures that the audience can see, and sound effects.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
It was a bit chaotic. I literally felt dizzy and nauseous for a good while following the chat. Then again… I have always been slightly prone to motion sickness. Things were moving so incredibly fast it was difficult (if not impossible) to keep up. I like both milowent’s and voyboy’s suggestions.
I agree there should be more of a control factor. It’s awesome that you tried to find a way to include everyone… but with the size of this group (many who seem to have an uncontrolable level of enthusiasm, to put it nicely) open chat may not be the best format.
My favorite mode of interactivity is still clues/ puzzles/ ARG aspects, where we can all work together towards an answer on the boards and in the forum (with clues and direction from the characters)… with shoutouts in the next videos. More, overall, character activity in the forum “in-character” section would be nice, too.
Just my two cents… for what it’s worth.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Yeah, I hardly typed anything in the chat; I was trying to save up my comments to be good ones. Now I’m glad I withheld simply because I would have been drowned out. I think an easy solution would be two new impromptu rules:
1. Only give well-thought out replies. No “OMG, Hey, Jonas!” and then ANOTHER line with “What’s up?!”
2. (The most effective, if it would work) Only two replies per person every three minutes or so. Granted, with over 100 people in the chat, that would still be a lot of chatter, but it would be lessened.
January 3rd, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Honestly, I don’t see why a good ‘ol series of forum posts wouldn’t work as long as they’re in succession and over a limited amount of time.
Chats are so sporadic. You get way too many mixed results.
IMHO, an active message board presence would more than make up for any chats … meaning no huge lapse in responses, and a discussion type feel to most. I’ve noticed a few message board discussions, but most seem to entail 2-3 comments from the main characters. I suggest a more conversational feel, with multiple and more personalized comments from the LG gang throughout the posts
January 4th, 2008 at 2:05 am
It was my first chat that I watched . . . I say “watched” because while I posted every now and again, I was really just trying to keep up with the speed of the entire thing. Nevertheless, I was entertained and enjoyed all the twists. That aside, I do think there should be some moderation of question askers, ala picking certain questions from the group to prevent duplication, etc. I also think a audiocast would be interesting as well.
But one thing’s for sure — shy of going to a LG15 Convention, I beleive last night was an accurate portrayal of just how big the LG15 fandom is!
January 4th, 2008 at 2:51 am
Okay, so about the chat. Heres the thing, I know it was crazy, and I know a lot of people didn’t enjoy it. And a lot of people sent me PM’s asking me to mute the room, and they were angry that we wouldn’t. Now I don’t think having a muted chat would be productive at all because it defeats the entire purpose of having character interaction. Yes, we do need to find some kind of way to filter out all of the pointless chatter, but the point is that moderators can’t do anything about that. It was up to everybody to control the chaos themselves. They were typing a million words a minute and expecting it to NOT be chaos?? How is that even possible? We can’t control how fast you type, or what you type. It was up to everybody to control the chaos. I posted at least half a dozen warnings for people to please control the chatting, and yet nobody wanted to comply. As moderators we simply MODERATE……we are not magical chat gods who can control what people say. Yes, we were responsible to control the chat at the time, but ultimately it was up to all 147 members in there. NOT JUST US!
Okay, now about what we can do….
I think that next time we need to have questions bouncing through mod’s and relayed to the characters for better understanding. And i ultimately think that all the members that enter chat have to know that it will get crazy, and they have to be understanding of that. They also have to understand that they need to slow down a bit so that EVERYBODY can enjoy it.
Anyway, I think it was pretty interesting and fun to be a part of. It was a learning experience that taught all of us a lot
January 4th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Hammy…
I do not blame the mods… you guys rock!! I totally understand what you can and cannot control. It is sad that the “fans” can get so overzealous and turn it into mass chaos. I get that they are excited… but it was obvious that everyone needed to SLOW it down… and I saw your warnings… you did everything you could. Muting the room did defeat the purpose of the entire event. It did slow things down a bit… but not for long.
I appreciate the mods… you guys were doing the very best you could with what you had to work with… So THANKS!!
January 4th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Here here, Chippercat! I agree the Mods are NOT to blame. I think the chat session turned out exactly how the C’s expected. The best way to hook your viewers is to encourage participation. How do you expect the fans to respond when Jennie is asking for suggestion? Almost everyone who has an idea will respond! And then ppl are scolded for giving their input. I know there were some pointless posts, but when Jennie asked, “Can I trust Jonas and Daniel?” you can darn well expect at least 50 ppl to reply, “Yes!” all at once. Advertising the chat only increased the participation. I’d say the characters should do more impromptu chat sessions, so only those that happened to be there will be able to participate. Some may be disappointed (including me) that they weren’t in chat when it happened, but the dialogue will be less chaotic. Just a thought.
January 4th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I really like QtheC’s idea!
January 4th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
I liked the ideas Miles mentioned about upcoming features. I also like the idea of “call screening”, where Mod’s pick comments to post. I know it would be difficult, but I’m sure it could be done, and actual information could then be exchanged.
I’ve seen on other sites as well where they have questions submitted by fans, and the mods pick 3 for everyone to vote on. The author then answers the winning question. Something like that done weekly or bi-monthly would be really cool, and would shut down any negativity about plot holes. Questions that people are just dying to know could be answered, and it would be real, honest to goodness interaction between the fans and Creator’s about what the fans find important.
The way the chat is now is just not conducive to actual conversation, even between the Characters. It seemed like they were trying hard to stick to a script while being attacked by paparazzi. It wasn’t a realistic interaction to me - it just felt engineered and chaotic. I appreciate the idea, but organization trumps feel-good-fun-time.
January 4th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
why not use ventrilo or teamspeak, we could hav a permenant ventrilo server for th lg15 fan, i think theres a setting to only let certain ppl talk, we could do it like the call with jonas, we pick special ppl (new ppl everytime and ask questions, they could be their questions or they can get questions from ppl in chat.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I thought that the chat was a little chaotic, but still fun. I really love how you guys have started doing a lot more fan-interaction, we really like it and it means a lot to us.