If perhaps there was a tab for the Chat room instead of the remote top link would more awesome people think of using it?

Like as a reminder… as in how many awesome people are chatting right now having a blast… :D

I lurve you @Dog :D

I think if there was just a side box, like on facebook, all the time, I would probably use it more often. I’ve never actually used it before, because it always seems empty.

Fluther has a chat room?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought Yeah who would have guessed?

Maybe something like this with a better icon.

I think if you put the Chat button next to social on the question types bar there’s a risk people think it’s for chatty questions as opposed to a chat room.

@Lightlyseared :: Some things are a trade-off. Accidental clicks would probably only happen once per user. But making it more visible would help immensely. I was a mod of the chat room and I forget about it.

We should put the number of people in the chatroom in parenthesis next to the word chat. Like maybe “Chat(7)” to show that there are seven people in the room. This would encourage people to go join if there are a lot of people in the room, but might discourage people if no one was in there.

@PhiNotPi :: I had that on a old site and it did slow things down. But I tossed up a message that was pretty much like:
Chat is empty, someone has to be the first.
And if one person was in it:
$userName is lonely. Keep them company.

Then things picked up. My site has a lot less users than Fluther and the chat is way more active. I just promote it.

^ I like this. I can only Fluther when I have access to a computer – like today, when I’m updating a friend’s lappy, or when I’m at the library – so it’d be great to be able to stumble headlong into the Chat, and have someone actually be there. ^_^