Question

I think that more people need to help us in English,History and Science, it's not enough attention in those subjects. I honestly think we need to get rid of the chats so that more people can focus on getting work done and helping people with work. The chats are distracting people. It's a bunch of nonsense going on in chats for an ex. Bullying, Trolling. This site is for Helping. Not for harassing and bullying. This is why we come on online schooling to get away from nonsense like that.

Answer 1

I think that the chat, or at least the ones I partake in, are helpful. They're a good way to communicate instantly. I believe that we should keep it.

Answer 2

I don't think that we should keep it because it's too much games in chat no one has time for that...they come on this site to get help and people are trolling, harassing, spamming, bullying and playing games and not FOCUSING on work and helping others.

Answer 3

I agree. I do, English, biology, history, Spanish and math are my strongest subjects. I'll help where i can.

Answer 4

I also agree!! I was in the History chat and I was reading the comments and I didn't know I spent a half hour reading all of the drama and I didn't get any work done because of it, but behalf of that was my fault for even opening the chat.

Answer 5

Hello! I am glad that you have decided to voice your opinion here, unfortunately I do not think they'll be getting rid of the chats anytime soon. Mostly because, the chat is what separates Openstudy from the rest of study sites. While I do understand what you are saying, I do not agree with it. The whole point of Openstudy is that it is a social network and a study database combined into one.

Furthermore, if you find someone harassing, belittling, bullying, etc. You should report that person and he or she will be dealt with accordingly. Now, that doesn't mean the consequences for that person will be instant, you need to give moderators the time they need to investigate the situation.

Moving on, I cannot speak for everyone here but, I try to help as much as I can in my area of expertise (History,English,and Math). You have to understand that most of the people on here who answer questions deal with math. That is why the other subjects are sometimes overlooked. It isn't a bad thing whatsoever, I actually like that part of this site.(Seeing as math is a problem subject for most) The people that do help in the other sections are very good at what they do, you just need to be patient and wait for someone to come along and assist you.

I hope I helped to ease your mind here, and maybe help you understand.

~Taylor Diane Hackworth

Answer 6

Reporting doesn't help.

Answer 7

If the chats get removed we still have PM.

Answer 8

Chats are distracting, but they are useful. You won't know who to private message if you have nowhere to meet them @Jacquisback

Answer 9

This site isn't for meeting people from my opinion. It's for getting help with work and helping others.

Answer 10

Exactly, but you won't know who to ask for help if you do not meet them. I help people often and all of them i met through the chats

Answer 11

Thats why we fan people.

Answer 12

it gives you a break from working.

Answer 13

Jacquis, your points aren't really valid, I am sorry to say.

Answer 14

Who are you to say that my points aren't valid? Are you a Ambassador or a mod?, No.

Answer 15

I'm defending the newbies on here because if they post a question right now, they don't get any help.

Answer 16

I am Taylor, I do not need a position of authority to express my opinion, just like you have expressed your opinion.

Answer 17

Yes but you're saying my points aren't valid. What I say about Openstudy is my opinion.

Answer 18

Look, I am not going to argue with you on this.

Answer 19

This isn't an argument, Taylor. You said my points aren't valid that's starting an argument.

Answer 20

I'm sorry but I love the chats >.,

Answer 21

*>.<

Answer 22

From what I have seen, you have the concern of the chats. Now, we have had this discussion before amongst us Ambassadors and Moderators before about having a limit to the characters used when in the chats. Also, a limit on how many messages can be sent per minute. We plan on continuing these discussions in further meetings.

As for your post Jacquis, it is 100% understandable where you are coming from. They can be a little out of control at times. But they are a great way for our site to create friends. One of our main goals on here is to work together. By doing so you create friends. Friends are our main way of communicating on here.

Like it had been stated before, if you see anything that needs to be reported, then report it. If nothing is done, you can report it again after about 10-15 minutes. If that doesn't seem to work for you, then you can message any online moderator to come and handle the situation.

If you feel there is hardly any help in those sections, try having some friends off of OpenStudy join who work well in those groups. We try our hardest each and every day to get to every user. Does that happen? Most days, no. Not everyone knows the answer or how to explain it.

Most users who are in those sections try to help one another out. Sometimes they can't. My best thing to say would be email your teacher or do some research if you don't get help in the time period you "need" the help. As much as we'd love to help you, we sometimes can't.

You both (and all) are entitled to your own opinions on here. No need to form any hostility for anyone by "not agreeing" or "agreeing". If you do not like ones words, keep your thoughts to yourself or take it over private message. That's one simple thing you can do.

If either of you or anyone have any questions, contact a current online moderator.

Answer 23

Thank you Becca, I appreciate your input very much.

Answer 24

The chats aren't going to be removed anytime soon. It's one of the things that separates OpenStudy from other study sites. It’s ok to socialize as long as it doesn’t come to a point where mods need to clean-up business. We would have much less activity here than we normally do, and PMs are only from one person to another. Group chats allow better communication and make it seem like a friendly place, not just a place where you come and go for answers to tests but to stay and feel like family.

We have plenty of helpers and members but we try and support less-active sections as much as we can. Examples include moderators helping in chemistry and science, people like Taylor who help out in History, bilingual users helping in the culture and languages area, etc. The chats keep us connected as we don’t want to promote external-social media and websites for communication, as it is off of OS and a bigger distraction. Bullying, harassing, language, spam, etc. can be reported to moderators. We hope to implement new restrictions to avoid spam and other things, but for now it’s just up to the report button.

We completely understand what you are wanting to say, but we aren’t going to be taking down the chats. It’s one of our core features and we have better communication with one-another. Without the chats we wouldn’t be the community we are now.

Answer 25

What have I done @♪Chibiterasu

Answer 26

You've created a monster..

Answer 27

Very eloquently said Taylor, Becca and Chibi.
There is no chance that the chat is going to be removed since it's a big part of what makes OpenStudy is so appealing.

However, we are currently brainstorming about how we are going to deal with the current problems in the chat.
Current ideas involves more effective moderation tools, more users with authority in the chat (chat moderators), and preventing people from registering new accounts after they have been suspended.

For tools, the biggest addition has to be the ability to issue a chat mute. This should disable the option to post chat messages for some time, just as guest on the site (users who are not logged in) cannot reply in the chat, but still can see the messages.

We are also figuring out a way to have more users moderate the chat. Many people think it's cool to be a moderator, but it's not that glamorous. We usually get over a 1000 reports every week, that's about 150 each day. 75% of those reports are from the chat, and the better part of that (about 80%) is false. People are reporting eachother too easily, and that is why we have a hard time moderating the chat. It's not very realistic to constantly stay in the chat. That would be detrimental to students who are in need of help, and the regular reports of abuse in the questions. As the questions are more important aspect of the site, those reports have a higher priority.

Now the idea is to appoint chat moderators. People who are very active in the chat would be given some of the global moderator powers to keep the chat clean from spam, abuse, trolling and drama.

Also some changes have to be made to the signup system to prevent suspended users from coming back to the site in their time of exile. That is the biggest issue at this moment and believe me, when this is fixed, the majority of trolls, bullies and rude people will be gone.

We will not have to wait too long for this all, the plans are already there and the realization will start soon, we just need you to be patient until that time and keep reporting users that exhibit misconduct.

Thanks for your input
We appreciate user feedback!

Answer 28

Thank you for the input Thomaster.

Answer 29

@Jaqcuisback
If you don't like the chats, just minimize them. Press the circle in the right corner and then you won't have to deal with them. That way, you can be happy, and the people who want to chat are happy as well. :)

Answer 30

* @Jacquisback