My two cents is that I agree that we should not let the chat box be a sticking point. It isn’t used enough for significant conversation and I doubt if it will be missed. If necessary, we could always create a sticky forum thread called “chat.” It seems to me there would be very little practical difference, since posts are pretty much immediate, anyway.

^I thought the same as Bamagirl!

In fact, I have a lot of experience with physical chat threads!

I'm pretty 100-0 thread!

The chat box apparently doesn’t even have history, as in the case of threads.

So I don’t think the Chat box should be a big deal.

Actually, the chat box does have history. There is a down arrow to the right of the word "ChatBox". If you click on it, a dropdown menu appears and there is an option to view the archives. This is actually quite handy if you need to make changes to what you typed in chat, because it gives you the option to edit. I have used it a number of times.

The chat box was heavily used around three years ago to the point where members were posting links and comments there instead of threads. We were trying to encourage members to utilize the threads more and over time there was less activity on the chat.

The one main advantage of the chat box is to be able to broadcast a message to all registered users so that it would be seen only by them. It is not visible to non-members and web crawlers don't pick up the content, so there are no worries the conversations would end up forever in cyberspace.

Wow! :yay:

I stand repaired!

I hadn’t researched the subject very much! :13:

Well, that’s good, yes, but still, like you said, this kind of discussion can be a “problem” for a forum if there’s no text in the actual threads. [Although because of its archive, that too is a "thread" ...]

Yet, once history exists, :)(: it would also be great if it could be preserved (even as an archive, etc.)! :13:

I'd say about 85% of the conversations that were going on back then, were taking place in chat and 85% might be low. It was that way because the head guy at the time liked it that way and if you wanted to talk to him on a certain subject, you more less had to do it in chat.

Like you said, it's a problem when there's little text in the actual threads. How could we attract new members if they see nothing current going on? But eventually we got things turned around and what do we have today? Maybe 5% of conversations going on in chat if that.

^I now read the history of Chat in a little more detail.

Apparently at some point the forum was closed to visitors? Opening the forum was an excellent reform!:dance::bow:

For example, I myself probably wouldn’t have registered if I hadn’t read here as a guest months ago first (impossible to say when I have this madness, but at least many “less crazy” would hardly have registered).

Also, for those who are in favor of a chat area past the forum area, what’s the point of having a forum at all if almost everyone is talking in chat? :13: I ask in a good way. :)

So I think the chat can be "deleted", even as a disruptive area of the forum, but the history is still valuable, which would be good to preserve if somehow even possible.

"Why have a chat at all?"

Well. I guess you just had to be there. ;)

If anyone is interested in what the 2007 AAF homepage looked like, take a look here

https://web.archive.org/web/20071130...eeamerica.com/

Hold on, the picture used as the main header there isn't from 2007 or prior though, right? It's one of the UEDS photos.
Is there maybe something I'm missing/overlooking? Is it possible the photos were originally taken for Psychedelices, not used, then repurposed for UEDS? :13:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101119...ges/main12.jpg

This background picture was archived 2010-11-19.
Since its filename is just "main12.jpg" it shows up in older website archives too, but the image didn't contain the same content back then before it was replaced with the on 2010-11-19 archived UEDS photo with the filename "main12.jpg".