Parkinsonian Links
Chat Groups
Chat groups come and go - After four years, this page was really in for a major revision, and it still may not be complete. The IRC (Internet Relay Chat) programs seem to have given way to web site based chats, but then it may also be that my exposure to IRC has not been all that great.
Many chats utilize the keyboard and monitor, transmitting chat contents as data. Some newer chats use a microphone and speaker (or headphones).. The latter are far easier to work with in most cases, but not all computers have programs activated that will allow verbal communication. The data format is easier to archive, but it can be a major consumer of time, especially if yor typing is slowed by Parkinson's. Of course, a soft Parkinson's voice creates problems with verbal communications.
Chat Groups are somewhat hard to define to persons not familiar with computers. It's like you go down to the corner to meet your friends and talk about something in particular. If there are some friends already down at the corner, that's fine - start talking. You've got a chat group going already.
But suppose there are no friends down at that corner - then you have your choice of waiting for someone to show up - or you can find a corner where they have a different topic under discussion - or you can move on and do something else - maybe drop back later.
Here's where it gets tricky: how do you find a corner to meet your friends when you are sitting at your computer at home? It turns out that there are several ways.:
- One way is to go to a 24/7 chat room at an hour when the chat room is supoosedly active, Most 24/7 chatrooms have periods when the group leader is there, and (s)he is likely to draw several others as well. If there's nobody at one chat room, try another....and another.
- Another way is to go to a prearranged chat. Somebody announces that there will be a chat at a given time at a given location. You need to get to that location at that time to take part in the chat.
AOL, America Online, is a favorite place for such a chat - but you need an AOL connection to get there. There are also some websites that include on-line chat capabililties. Of the possibilties listed here, using a chat on someone's website is the only one that may not require you to have special software.
- Here's a chat room - this one run by John Lester of the prestigious Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. On most chat groups, you lose "History" when you sign off. This chat group holds a substantial memory - often little more that someone signed on and off - but it also retains the text of any chat.
- There is a chat group at http://www.ivillage.com, that is open 24/7, but mostly used from 11:00 AM to noon, Eastern Time, on Mondays and Wednesdays. You have to be signed up at ivillage - no charge.. This chat group may be hard to find at first, so when you do find it, do bookmark it.
- Another group on Yahoo is called "sparklelist" and is open 24/7. You have to be signed up on Yahoo first - no charge. It is an offshoot of the SPARKLE list, in turn an offshoot of the PARKINSN listserv. There are at this writing at least 42 other forums regarding Parkinson's on Yahoo, each evidently capable of hosting a chat.
- Chat programs are available for use on anybody's web sirte, so they may show up anywhere. But to be useful, they must have people on them. And that's the problem with chats: Too many sites, too few people. - at least in most cases.
- Undernet was once an important site for chats, and it still may be. It is accessed through a IRC (Internet Relay Chat) Program.
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