I am in the UK and have the same problem mentioned by the other UK users, maybe we could have a UK or Europe time zone friendly chat room?

I think it would be very helpful for all of us if there was a window/button something that flashes like your names do on the daily blog. If it was on the home page and linked to chat with a few options for chatting. I know how disappointing it is the go there and find no one arround. It would be nice to make members aware by putting a link that shows there are people in chat. I hope I'm not repeating myself too much.

Thanks,
MaryLou

What if there was a window that automatically was linked to the forum or blog section persay, that was opened all the time with like 5 catagories in it. The option was give to us upon loging in to in to the site as to wheather or not we wanted to be logged onto chat as well. Let's face it we really don't need that many catagories for chat. Special Guest, BOM, and maybe one or two more. It doesn't take a genious to figure out that if you are typing at 2:00 am you can't sleep . Anyway, if there is a side window or side bar that is open then we will be alerted to someone being online and able to chat. This way while we or posting our comments on the forum or the blogs we can see who is chatting and join in if we want.

Same here. Whenever I'm on the computer, there is nobody in any of the rooms. It doesn;t help that I work fulltime, so there is only a relatively small window of time for me, and I live in the UK. But I keep looking. Maybe one of these days I'll strike it lucky.

I have looked at the chat rooms but have never seen anyone -

Just this week I sent this suggestion:

just an idea... since there are now quite a few options on the 2 index bars, could you do something like you've done w/ Alex's lessons & Ricky's Rhapsody to show if something's new since we last visited? Maybe a different color text or something? Checking frequently then finding no changes (as sometimes happens in Stories, and I expect may happen in Projects and Articles) makes one stop checking, then we might miss things...
Maybe for Chat, if it could change depending on whether there's anyone in any chat room, that might spark more participation there...

and John replied:
Great ideas. I will talk to the tech people about what is possible.

so, my guess is it IS possible, but just depends on where it lands on the "wish list" for the tech folks. I know I don't check the chat room often, but if I knew someone was there, I'd probably go in...

Florence

I think if the chat room had fewer chat selections, and people were encouraged to meet in the chat room at particular times (varied day to day to accommodate different parts of the country) on special subjects, and then the revamp were advertised, there might be more chatting. Chatting is really fun when it gets going. But usually no one seems to be there. Maybe it's because of the timing, but I think it's because folks are just sure no one is there.

I wonder if anybody else has any more ideas for how to make the chat rooms work better?