ATS chat is down

An interesting developement...

Some observations:

PMs are monitored, it seems. Therefore, they aren't private.

Paedos had gotten into chat, and I was none the wiser. An alarming revelation.

Chat was far more valued than some may have realised.

The Mods are not to blame for this Admin decision.

And besides, Admin have to do something to cover themselves and the site against possible legal situations.

Thanks all you mods for answering my questions. I hope chat can come back. The first priority is making sure everything seems legal. i'm surprised the media hasn't picked on this. "Top Headline: ATS chatgate controversy" dum dum dum

i'm surprised the media hasn't picked on this. "Top Headline: ATS chatgate controversy"

CPR, dont say things like that, the media might just do that, and thats the last thing we need.

Chat is back up (for now), for members with more than 100 posts.

Also, private messages are disabled.

Yay, thank you administration, I think its good that your trying to keep us safe from undesirables.

I thank you SO and I am still willing to give what ever financial help is needed to secure this site's chat , but I feel better with the lack of private chat so as to eliminate threats by the fact all that someone says is in the open and people can work to eliminate problems together.

I have been on the net and in chats since I first used a 4800 baud modem to connect. THey are one of the few places where I can really open up and feel confortable. And due to some of the hearing loss i have chats are the perfect medium. I have also run and moderated forums on my own.

But most people do not understand that the Admins have invited us to thier place in oder to facilitate discussions. It is similar to inviting people over to your house and having a party. We all need to remember we are still guests, and that anything we do, is at the behest of another. At anytime we are unthankful we are just showing our arrogance at what really goes into desgining and running places like this.

Honestly, anything more then a BB is well mroe then any of us deserve to be able to use. And for that I offer my apologise to the owners of the house for anyhting I may have, or will do, and thank those that keep it running. Also, my deepest thanks for having a wornderful place to discuss things that are important to everyone

Edit: I type too slow. CHAT IS BACK!

[edit on 3/6/2005 by Jehosephat]

I think the chat will be back, maybe not today, maybe not tommarrow, but it will be back

It's back! heh

Good fix SO! I would applaud you if I could. Doing away with private messages was probably a very good idea, this way moderators can see, in real time, who is being naughty and who is being nice, and can act accordingly.

As I understand it, the way PMs worked, only a few key personell could review the logs, and only after the fact. This should be a much more transparent system, and should prevent pervs from being able to conduct their pervishness in private.

Keep up the good work!

I'm going to admit that I saw this coming, but I wish it could have been resolved another way. I have met some great people from all over the world in chat and many of them I will still see on MSN and AIM. But this is such a darn shame, there will be no new friends in the future, because I would never go to chat anywhere else, for the very reasons that unfortunately ATS chat is now shut down.

I saw a lot of red flags in the past couple of months and unfortuantely I've also seen some bannings where people got caught up in the "drama" and lost their right to chat. I also saw it was becoming next to impossible to keep a grip on it, and personally got suspicious of quite a few people. The Mods did a lot to try and keep it on track and always responded quickly when alerted to situations in the public room, but the problems being alluded to in the private feature, I just can't imagine keeping it on track if it was that bad and that prolific.

I also agree it was invaluable for assistance and direction with questions both on the board and in real life (hey, any one in here a plumber?). Yes, there were times it got too silly, but you know what, a lot of members used chat to get a breather from some of the intensity of the threads.

I am just so saddened by this.....I do think it is a great loss that this happened at all. I understand that it is only a small part of the ATS site, so I do not expect we will see it back. The time and effort to make it right are probably not justified, but I wish there were a way.

See you on the threads my friends.

Edit: Yea! I'm wrong! Thanks SO!!!!


[edit on 3/6/2005 by Relentless]

It's an aweful shame about chat, and also it's aweful what the Adminstration here has Probably had to go through. They provided a wonderful chat service to us for free and some aweful people abused it. I totally back up if don't want to ever have chat again in the near future. and they have also been as open as they could for the reasons of their actions. I commend you all for your fine work

Originally posted by cpr12r
I hate when people ruin it for everyone. Happens at school all the time. I hate when people do this. *SNIP*
THANKS

Yeah, cpr, I remember school being like that too.
Too bad some posters here need to be treated like bad school kids. I enjoy seeing you, SE7EN, asala and all the others at chat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
SO, I'm glad you put chat back. It must have been galling to see it abused as it was.

I, for one, enjoy the relaxed atmosphere, where you get to know members and staff alike.
I haven't been there in the last few weeks. A pity people can't behave responsibly *shakes head sorrowfully*


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is it still up? I can't get in at all. I click on the icon and nothing happens

Nevermind, I changed browsers, and got in okay



[edit on 6-3-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

Chat appeared to be functioning for a minute, but now the link is dead. I went in for a second, saw SO telling everyone to clear out (so they could reboot the server) and now 10 minutes later or so the link is still dead. Hmmm...

So is chat working for anyone else right now?

I was about to ask the same thing, I', glad I'm not the only one that cant enter it.

I can't get in chat. I click on the link and it says this url does not exist on the server. whats up with that?

EDIT: nvm it just doesn't wrk from recent posts

[edit on 6-3-2005 by cpr12r]

hmmm..still down.

Crap. The one time I actually want to be in ATS chat, it doesn't work. Figures.

I even uprgraded my flash for the occasion.

It works it isn't down now. you just have to access it from the main page.

FWIW, it's pretty quiet right now.
Without private chat, the people who looked to be evil have no place to hide.

Private chat works still. I told some of the mods and they contacted skeptic.