[spence2]

Originally Posted by Zero Tolerance

@ spence 2 - Sounds good, little dry on what this is exactly and in detail, if you provide that i'll be sure to give it thought

Thanks. I'll try to elaborate a bit more.

Let's say I have a forum based on music, and I have a member named Joe, who is crazy about the blues. He would like to chat with other members of the forum who share his interest -- specifically, those who really like B B King.

Now imagine that it was possible for Joe to go to a forum named "Chat Meetings" or "Chat Events" or "Scheduled Chats" ... or else a calendar by one of those names. His purpose would be to announce a date and time for everyone interested in chatting about B B King to "meet up" in a chatroom. He might name the chat he was scheduling: "B B King Chat Event".

Entries might look like:
Name.....................................Date..... .....................Time........................C hatroom
"BB King Chat Event".............March 3, 2005...........7pm (pst).................The Blues
"Usher Chat Event"................March 12, 2005.........4pm (est).................Hiphop
"Aerosmith Chat Event"..........April 3, 2005.............8pm (cst)..................Rock

People interested in "Chat Events" could go to this forum or calendar (via a link on the vB Chat interface) and check out the scheduled chats (or schedule one of their own).

By the way, there is already a Calendar Hack that allows users create an event or to "register" to attend an event already posted. I'm unclear whether all users or only admins are allowed to create eventd (we would need registered users to create events). Something similar to this (with the "fixes" you will find in the thread) might work ... as it allows users to respond, saying that they intend to attend the posted event ... that is, for our purposes, that they will join in the scheduled chat.
OR ... conversely, something along the lines of the Announcements forum created by vBJukebox ... something to list the scheduled chats.

Whatever works. I bow to your expertise!

Of course, it would be great if all those who responded could be sent a pm or email to remind them of the name, date and time of the scheduled chat. Perhaps it might even be wise to try to limit the number of responders, those who intended to chat at once due to server load ... I dunno.

That's the general idea, anyway. to allow users to create & announce scheduled chats in some organized fashion.
If I haven't been clear, I will be glad to try to be more precise. And, no doubt, others might have some great ideas for this as well.

Thanks again for your consideration.
Spence