# Suggestion:  "General Chat" forum



## jwest

I think it would be a good idea to add a "General Chat" forum to this site.  It would give us a place to chat and practice our various languages without putting off-topic posts in the other forums.


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## lauranazario

jwest said:
			
		

> I think it would be a good idea to add a "General Chat" forum to this site.  It would give us a place to chat and practice our various languages without putting off-topic posts in the other forums.



Initially that might seem like a good idea... but being aware of all the made-up or abbreviated "words" that seem so pervasive/frequent in today's _ciberspeak_, I definitely doubt anyone could seriously learn any language via chat. 
I mean... IMHO, of course. 

Happy Three Kings Day,
LN


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## jwest

You may be right... Real-time chat is very hard for me to do in Spanish anyway. The words scroll by way too fast! I think it would be better in the context of a forum where participants could take their time in reading and in typing out what they want to say.

 BTW, it's "*cyberspeak*," not ciberspeak.  (Unless that's some Spanish version of the word, in which case, nevermind!    )


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## JUANSE

if you really want to learn spanish...NOTHING IS GONNA STOP YOU !
YOU CAN DO IT !
never be afraid to try something new.

buena suerte.

juanse


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## ling0127

JUANSE said:
			
		

> if you really want to learn spanish...NOTHING IS GONNA STOP YOU !
> YOU CAN DO IT !
> never be afraid to try something new.
> 
> buena suerte.
> 
> juanse


thanks for the boost!


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## vachecow

I think that that would take away from the forums......people would ask questions there instead of here


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## Silvia

I agree with vachecow. Here we keep a record about everything. In a chat room, everything would be lost. Furthermore, there would be no room for in-depth study.

Nevertheless, I think online chats can really help if you want to improve both written and spoken language, since the best instant messengers allow voice chat as well. Though that works at best when it's one on one and not in a room with, say, 20 or 40 people (you wouldn't be able to keep up and wouldn't learn much).


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## jwest

I think everyone misunderstood what I meant.  I meant an additional section of this forum with a topic of "General Chat."  I did not mean a real-time chat area.  

 The discussions would be recorded and people could take their time in reading and replying just as they do in the existing sections of this forum.


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## Focalist

jwest said:
			
		

> I think everyone misunderstood what I meant.  I meant an additional section of this forum with a topic of "General Chat."  I did not mean a real-time chat area.
> 
> The discussions would be recorded and people could take their time in reading and replying just as they do in the existing sections of this forum.


You are quite right, jw: everyone seems to have been misunderstanding the meaning of the word "chat"! Chat is just a word for informal conversation about this and that: a phenomenon that has existed since the dawn of language and certainly predates the existence of "chat rooms" by many millennia. People have chats (chinwags) at the bus stop, over the garden wall, or over a cup of tea, ring their friends "just for a chat", or write and receive chatty letters. None of that has much to do with the kind of shenanigans and look-at-me posturings you come across in "chat rooms".

On the other hand, I do think there's plenty of naturally arising chat in the existing forums already, so I don't really see the need for one specifically labelled "general chat". I know that "off-topic" is a term of reproval to some, but no-one is forced to read any of my own rambling digressions about, say, the price of bananas in a thread entitled "The hypothetical subjunctive - more than just a theory?".

F


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## Silvia

Focalist... 

Yes, you're right, since people have asked about a chat corner before... I was thinking of the same thing. By the way, I agree with you, there's plenty of chit chat around here... that might be a way to confine it to a specific forum, but I'm pretty confident that it will not work, due to the segment of "impenitent" anarchists.


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## lsp

I think the forums are now divided generously enough to provide some semblance of order and still allow a lot of leeway for our tangents and our tendency (all of us) towards digressing. General chat, even as you intended "chat," would be a free-for-all with no thread or continuity. Ultimatey it would be subdivided and end up looking like what we have today.


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## vachecow

maybe if there was a different general chat forum for each language....


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## Sharon

I don't think that the idle chit chat in any given thread would end, even with the addition of a "General Chat" forum!  We all run off on tangents! I think a good portion of the addictiveness of the Forum is that a lot of the members feel like friends. There are people whose posts will guarantee me a smile, or even a laugh out loud. There are posts that remind me of other things. Sometimes the topic strays in a thread, same as it does in conversation between friends. 

Would it be possible for the Culture forum to have a sub-forum? If I saw a "Conversation forum" sub-heading, then I would know those were "way off-topic." There is already a tendency for conversation threads to be placed there. I have seen a couple where people were trying to find old friends, asking advice about relationships, or sharing an interesting link with friends. There are several threads that might be more psychology or sociology based than they are in cultures. I want it known that I am not complaining about these threads, I simply see them as conversation amongst friends. 


Sharon.


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## vachecow

Good point.  I'm sticking with my first statement.....we allready have enough chatting anyway


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## fetchezlavache

seems to me that 'cultural issues' don't have much more to do with cultural issues at all. this part of the forum is turning into the chatting forum. aside from a goofy post about hunks, i'm not really drawn to that part of the forum. but that's just me.


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## Artrella

We can chat by other means other than this forum....  I'd like to keep this forum for language discussion  ...


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## neka

I think that to create a chat forum where all of us can express our doubts of both, SPanish and ENglish, could be a fantastic idea. SO, count on with all my support!! 
Neka


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## jacinta

Artrella said:
			
		

> We can chat by other means other than this forum....  I'd like to keep this forum for language discussion  ...



I agree.  Language is what drew me to this forum in the first place.  This site is an augmentation of the dictionary site.  I think if it strays from its original purpose, it will lose "something".  Besides, I thought we were already chatting  .


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## fetchezlavache

so i'm going to be very basic, don't think me rude, but what do threads like 'let's imagine what we look like' or 'best movie ever' or 'the way to a man's heart' etc.. have to do with language ?


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## Artrella

fetchezlavache said:
			
		

> so i'm going to be very basic, don't think me rude, but what do threads like 'let's imagine what we look like' or 'best movie ever' or 'the way to a man's heart' etc.. have to do with language ?


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## Artrella

fetchezlavache said:
			
		

> so i'm going to be very basic, don't think me rude, but what do threads like 'let's imagine what we look like' or 'best movie ever' or 'the way to a man's heart' etc.. have to do with language ?



    Although I have replied to some of them... But you are right Fetchezlavache... Nothing to do with language  ...


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## Silvia

Just a thought. I guess the members took the Cultural Issues Forum for the limbo, anything not suitable for other forums (read linguistic matters) will be posted there.

Maybe it's just a way to relax inbetween the hard work with languages?! 

So why not an area for crosswords?


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## fetchezlavache

drats. i'm trying to make sense of your signature silviap, i'd never noticed it before... it's funny 

less funny, a pensiero for all our italian friends, horrible train accident


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## Silvia

Yeah, fetchezlavache.

Though, I've just replaced my siggy  (I did it before reading your post...) and so it's forever lost and no one will ever know what we are talking about. Now, this is odd!


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## vachecow

fetchezlavache said:
			
		

> so i'm going to be very basic, don't think me rude, but what do threads like 'let's imagine what we look like' or 'best movie ever' or 'the way to a man's heart' etc.. have to do with language ?


I'm still against a chat forum, but movies and books are a large part of our culture so I think they would belong in a place called cultural issues.


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## lauranazario

vachecow121 said:
			
		

> I'm still against a chat forum, but movies and books are a large part of our culture so I think they would belong in a place called cultural issues.



Hear, hear.... I coudn't have said it better, Vachecow!  

While some people may not agree that the "Cultural Issues" forum is the proper place for allegedly 'trite' discussion about films or movie stars or whatever... Cultural Issue it has become a "meeting place" for people from all the other language forums when they 'step out' of their respective areas and are done with the 'business' of finding out what a word or a phrase means. 

People gravitate to Cultural Issues when they want to catch up on an different kind of conversation, be it WWII Germany, Harry Potter films, Poems, Argentinian Songs or to congratulate XYZ on his umpteenth post (all real threads in Cultural Issues!) 

It's like going to a world café after you're done with work.... you don't know what you'll find but maybe you'll find someone has said something interesting and maybe you learned a bit from someone's point of view (maybe coming from another part of the world).

At least that's how I see it... 
LN


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## mkellogg

Hi all,

(I'm just back from vacation here...)

I've long considered opening an off-topic forum where people could discuss whatever and (in theory) the cultural issues forum could return to the original intention of being a place to talk purely about cultural questions and observations.  As you can see from the comments of many of the people here, the idea has never received a very warm reception!

Mike


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