Apologies. My brain has been in a cold-medicine fog the last few days.

The chat registration on/off has more attached to it than I understood.

What it really means is anonymous randos now being able to register on the spot in the same format as Lifeline, if chat registration is on. No more of our old "must first be vetted as a poster here on the board for X amount of time" etc..

This would mean trading off all the things we had in the old Ralf chat. Chat would naturally have to be kept locked by necessity when nobody with the ability to moderate was there. (Meaning? Probably closed all but a few hours per week and NO guarantees about any open time slots.) Further, it would mean (by necessity) the end of PM's with your other friends in the chat.

No offense toward Lifeline, but I see some of you there from time to time. There are a LOT more people and some very high energy, but also a lot more arguing and strife at times. I enjoy that occasionally, but it's way different than GC has been in recent years.

The problem is, we don't have a staff of volunteers to babysit random new anons with random motives for being there, and random self-control levels.

Leaving registrations off would mean having the same laid back feel as before, possibly leaving chat open at all times, memos left for friends, but it would mean no new chat nics, and anyone who "forgets" their pass might have a very difficult time getting the problem fixed, depending on the absence/presence of our admin gods. We know how that's been in recent times.

It may take some time to get feedback here, so it's possible the chat will return for now with new registrations turned off while anyone with an opinion can have time to share it before everything has been decided. Is this a good temporary move?

Everyone please share thoughts. Thanks.