Open Road

Wanted to ask you all, should we keep "The Wall" and our chat platform?

Many of you might not even realize these features exist but let me explain:

- The "Wall" is similar in functionality to Facebook where you can provide an update or share content for the world to see. It was introduced during the rebrand but never really gained traction. The main reason I'm asking if we should shut it down is because it hinders performance on that part of the site. Whereas without it I can load a page in 1.5 seconds, with it enabled it slows down to 4 seconds. Pretty significant when people are impatient. If you're not sure what I'm talking about you can find it here: https://openroad.site/pages/wall/

- The chat room is exactly what it sounds like. It's a real-time exchange of conversation between participants. We really only saw two spikes for it in terms usage - election night and inauguration day. This one doesn't really affect performance but it does carry a monthly cost which I could put to better use if we do away with it. https://openroad.site/pages/chat-room/

Trying to clean up what we have here and focus more on content and reference material for the "Community" section of the site. To do that I need to overcome the speed challenge which has been a struggle because it sometimes results in new users getting deactivated.

So what say you?

If the chat room is not getting any regular usage at this time, then shut it down. I'm not a facebook guy in any way so the Wall is something I'm not going to use anyway. If they are not being used and they affect performance I'd say shut them both down. They are there to put back up when the monies are there for them.

Maybe the chat room could be used occasionally for special events. You would just activate it for the occasion.

I'd turn off both. I did the chat on election night. It was fun, but not likely to use it more, and if resources are scarce (always are) I'd allocate elsewhere. I have no use for the Wall.

agree with the guys above..................... keep it simple and straight forward.........

dump em both in the name of financial efficiency.

Always good to review processes and procedures to determine if they are efficient. No different in this instance. I'd say axe them both since they didn't gain steam and the costs aren't worth the benefit.

Never been fond of a chat room because I am a half assed typist. By the time my point is ready to post, I am 10 lines behind the conversation.

Keep it simple stupid, bag'em. The chat was fun during the debates and election, but I don't see it getting used much moving forward.

I appreciate you offering such features Fernando. My 2 cents: I didn't know The Wall existed, but wouldn't use it anyway. Chat was fun on one of the debate nights (or was it election night?) but it doesn't seem to be something we frequently use. I think we can live without both.

NCporsche wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 2:07 pmNever been fond of a chat room because I am a half assed typist. By the time my point is ready to post, I am 10 lines behind the conversation.

And we're old. You should see what it's like where young people post in chat. Of course, they are not saying anything of value either, so that can be posted much faster. Imagine being V8, with all the time in the world to post, and still not being able to craft anything of value.

Fernando - I voted to kill them both. If there is ever an event that we really want to bring back chat for, then we can do that. If Biden ever does give a SOTU speech, he will be moving so slowly that I'm guessing the regular posting format will suffice.

I don’t use either, agree to kill both.

I'm with the guys to shut them down. The chat was fun for the important nights where we could all have a drink and laugh/cry in real time but those two nights are really the only times I used it.

As to the "wall".......I don't think I was even aware it was there.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

The wall, in my opinion, has become a bit redundant with some of the new features I introduced on the forum. The primary purpose was that in the event some of us wanted to converse in a more succinct manner like Twitter or Facebook, that is where the wall would have offered that as an option. But I think this user base prefers a more natural conversation so it really doesn't work that well there.

Also now we offer user profile walls and status where you can enter your one-liners or quick updates as a whole if you didn't want to use the forum.

For chat, I also enjoyed the play-by-play conversations we had there but aside from special events it seemed to just occupy space.

Ok I'll get to working on my next set of revisions

I voted to kill them both, but would support opening the chat room for special events!

XR4Tim wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:18 pm I voted to kill them both, but would support opening the chat room for special events!

I think there are some free options out there that I could use for special events. It just doesn't make sense to pay a monthly fee for something that is used 1-2 times per year.

I'll research it!

I have to be honest. I didn't know either existed. First time to visit each when clicking on the links. Probably not the best reference but I can do and have done without both.