The chat room has been on the fritz for a few days, what happened?

I'm betting it's unavailable for a good reason.

Sorry, it may be down for some time, I should have made an announcement.

I have to decide whether it's worth keeping or not, for a number of reasons.

Among them, - We haven't had any scheduled events for awhile now, and it does detract from participation in the Forum (here).

I can't speak for the others, but I consider the chat a vital link between folks I'd never meet with otherwise.

At least half the conversations have little direct connection to the trade, so would be inappropriate for the forum. How you are, career changes, etc ... the others are as friends to me.

Personally,I'm sorry you feel that way.
I would like if you could expand on those thoughts.

Is it financial? None of my business,But I must ask.
As For scheduled events. Not sure what your asking.
We Have on many occasions had scheduled -meetings- Both social and technical.
The offer is many times placed out for members to join in.
I have seen many come in. If it is a topic,we recommend that they/we post it on the site.

Myself,I have learned a great deal and made some friends thru the 'chat' (I hope it is mutual).

Some shy away from very structured 'chat', i am one. i enjoy the casual,yet technical and (on occasion) foolish 'chat'.

It's a good thing. Just my take on it.

With respect, Leland.

Leland,

Simply put, it has not been an asset to the community lately.

Sorry, I'm not going to go into specifics here.

I have to weigh the pros and cons and determine if there is a net-benefit or not.

Bill

To alay a few fears around here, at this stage, the Chat room will not be returning, in the fore-seeable future,if at all.

Thanks to all of you that have supported it over the years that it has been running.

Please, we don't want endless threads and stuff in the Shout-Box as to why.

Just let's say that it was closed due to it being "past it's use by date".

Thank you.