We all have our own ideas...

I agree with Moo.
Chat should be taken down for a while.
It'll help keep out the fights.
Or another idea is that WE SHOULD SPREAD LOVE.
This fighting has gone long enough.

I don't think that taking chat down will help. Only for a while, then when it's back the starts would come back. I think people should just respect the rules or be punished. taking down chat is a punishment to everyone, even the people who did nothing. Respecting the rules is part of making a functional site, if people can't do that where does that leave us?

Whilst taking down the chatbox is a good idea, it is unfair to those who are decent in chatbox and stuff. I'm not saying that's me, 'cause that'd be untrue. What I'm saying is we should have chatbox mods, people without a colour, but with a @ next to their name, who's job it is to control the chatbox. These people shouldn't be voted for, but should fill in at least two of the next points :
- They should be active, and go on the chatbox regularily.
- Have at least one chatbox mod in each timezone [[ i.e Dean lives in Sevenoaks, in England, so he should be one. Death lives in Indonesia, so she should be one too. ]]
- Not be an admin or mod, or have any of the benefits that an admin or mod have. These people are not staff, but merely police for the chatbox.
- Must promise to not be biased against anyone.

It has come to my attention that all [[or most]] of the admins and moderators live in America. Whilst the site is mainly inhabited by americans, there are a few of us who live elsewhere. That's why I'm suggesting this - so that someone's watching the CBOX at all times.

I like Ninja's idea. It might work, or at least help.

Or select some members that are active, like me for example(nogt that I neeed to mod another Cbox, just an example), who can keep an eye on the box.

I'm going to state my opinions. You can either agree or disagree with them, I don't care. I have to say that chatbox removal will not work. I instead believe we need mediators. We need staff members that are able to sit down and settle the issues on both sides and get them to stop fighting. Banning people is not going to work. It'll just piss others off more and once they're unbanned that person will come back even more angry. I instead believe that somehow, through the forum or through PM (NOT THROUGH THE BLOODY CHATBOX) that people should, with a neutral person in attendance, state their issues and then work towards resolving them. I'm not talking meaningless apologies, I mean saying WHY a person is upset at another person and then figuring out a solution to get them to stop being angry. In order for this to work though, we need "counselors" or neutral people who are going to sit there and keep order as each side expresses their opinions and try to get them to end their conflict. Yes, this'll involve having to find a number of uninvolved folks, but I don't think ignoring the problem or keeping secret hatred towards each other is the way to go. There is the saying that states "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all". This is me saying "This saying does work at times, but when people are building up anger, something's going to explode eventually". How about defusing the bomb BEFORE it blows up into a million pieces?


~Over and Out,
Rhyme

I think that the chat box being taken down is only one part of the whole solution to not just change the chat box but abolish fights in general. Everyone on here wants a friendly community where they can escape the pressures of life and just have fun. But right now it's stressing us all out to a point where we just snap and fight with each other like wild dogs chasing their own tails. To really change this site for the better and make it that warm, inviting place we all want it's going to take effort from every single person on here. I suggest the following:

1) Making an announcement that the chat box will be down for a few days to help everyone calm down. (And while it does seem like a drastic move, if everyone just agrees to understand that we have to let everything calm down before we can start new and fresh, then this will help us greatly.

2) We just have to stop fighting! It's a simple concept but hard to do, trust me. Some of us don't like others on the site. We're not all going to be best friends, but we can be civil. But that's going to take a responsibility from everyone on here. We have to all agree that even if we're provoked by someone who is having a bad day or just being rude we have to report it to an admin and NOT deal with it ourselves. The admins won't be able to be on all the time, but dealing with rudeness ourselves, despite everyone's best efforts to keep calm, will only lead to fights.

So here's what you do if someone is rude to you:
.... a) Assume that maybe that person has had a bad day and is taking out anger. I do it. You do it. Everyone does it. Everyone will have one of those days that even though we're trying we take anger out on someone else. So, if you're the anger punching bag (metaphorically speaking of course), you have to just give that person some understanding and grace and not flip out on them.

.... b) If, after ignoring them and seeing if they've had a bad day and would like to talk about it, that person is still being rude. Politely ask them to stop. Do not threaten, do not be rude. Just say "I'm sorry, but can you please stop?" And everyone else, while I understand that you're trying to stop the fight and be rational, bringing in more people aggravates the situation. If an admin or mod is on the chat box, they will handle it. If not, just stay quiet. It seems cowardly, I know. And I have problems doing it because I hate fights, but sometimes getting involved only makes the others upset.

.... c) If, after you've ignored them politely, asked them nicely to stop, and an admin or mod is not on the chat box, PM them about it. Copy and Paste the chat box history with the fight/rudeness and inform the admin/mod of the situation. Until they can deal with it, everyone just has to ignore the person being rude and go on like they don't notice. They might get mad, but just keep ignoring them. You have to be the mature ones in that kind of situation. Just continue your conversations until an admin/mod arrives, temporarily bans the person (if necessary) and then deal with the situation over PM.

3) If all else fails, take the disagreement to PM. DO NOT CONFRONT ANYONE IN THE CHAT BOX. EVER. That is one of the most important rules! If you can't prevent the fight and you can't get a staff member's attention, take the issue to PM. I would still rather not have any fights, even over PM, but this is one option as well.

Fighting sucks. There's no other way to it. It's not necessary, never is and never will be. There's always a way to rationally deal with something. I know you're all mature enough to see that as well. It will take everyone's efforts to make this site better. And it won't just be with the things that I suggested but the things everyone else suggests as well. Everyone just has to calm down, take a deep breath and look at the situation rationally. Sometimes it's hard, I know. And I've slipped up multiple times. But if you do slip up and you are rude to someone, apologize. It might seem like a minimal effort, but just getting off your high horse and admitting you were wrong (sometimes even if you weren't) is the mature thing to do. Because sometimes I don't realize this and sometimes others don't either, but this yelling and fighting and rude remarks we all give someone else over the internet is considered cyber bullying. You look at those people on facebook that post a rude message on someone's wall and you think "Wow...are you seriously that immature?" However, despite that thought, I'm willing to bet most of you have been rude to someone ever the internet more than once. I know I have.
It's going to take cooperation from EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. to make this site change for good. But I think that we can do it and I hope you have faith as well.

Thank you for reading this far,
Sincerely,
Angel.

I love Angel's idea. Along with Ninja's.

Nice selection of pics. Snape Approves... nice. Where,d you get those?

My lair of amazingness.


wegetofftopicsoeasily

Heey! Nice idea. though, it would be better to have CLs with @before their names? Cuz no one really does care about their language whenever they're around. They'd be all "Pfffft. CLs can't kick me out of the cbox." But hey, it's my opinion.

(P.S. Roo, I love you and all, but I'm in the Philippines rather than Indonesia
)

Sorry Death. Bad Ninja. BAD. I was sick last night and I couldn't remember which one it was. >_<

I don't know about CL with C-Box power. That's more of a popularity contest, if I say. You could have the worst person in the chat win CL elections, and doesn't do squat to help others.

We can check the archives and see what was going on, plus I think we all live in different time zones (Except a certain admin and I. xD) So, I think we got it covered.

Archives only shows so much. Unless, you admins can see everything.

Miss. Jessica wrote:

We can check the archives and see what was going on, plus I think we all live in different time zones (Except a certain admin and I. xD) So, I think we got it covered.

Nah. Dan, Em, you, and I are all in the EST time zone. Nico and Selene are in central, which is only an hour behind. I'm not entirely sure of which timezone Tethys and Sunny are in, but they should be in either EST or Central.

Just so you guys know, we are definitely considering some new staff members!

I disagree with this. Also, we haven't really been having any fights until yesterday.

Plus, we've got faithful members that like to "tattle tell" on people who fight. (like me xD) Just so you know, I leave my comp on constantly, so even when I'm supposed to be doing homework I'll probably be on chb xD

Crispy Bacon wrote:

Nah. Dan, Em, you, and I are all in the EST time zone. Nico and Selene are in central, which is only an hour behind. I'm not entirely sure of which timezone Tethys and Sunny are in, but they should be in either EST or Central.

I live in the EST time zone, I think. I'm in NJ.

But there are still fights o.o

Tattletelling by the way doesn't assure they're won't be another fight. It's just saying "OH HEY STAFF KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE DOING NOW STOP IT". It may be enough to stop one fight, but the anger's still there. Most likely if you're really pissed at someone in school and the teacher's right there and that someone does something to make you explode, you won't give a crap about the teacher for at least a few moments.