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Meeting at the Skype Virtual Pub

June 7, 2005 12:02 PM

Topics: Tips & Tricks

Skype never ceases to amaze me. The application; not the company. (Grin) It is a very rich environment. I keep discovering new things you can do with it. So here is a new toy for you to play with. Skype Blogger Jaanus, calls the toy a Persistent Topic.

Persistent Chats feels like a better name. A Persistent Chat creates a new kind of community clustered around a narrow topic. Participants are “always on” and instantly connected. It appears to be a very hot environment. Pretty simple to set up. Just create a multi-chat for a specific topic and bookmark it.

As soon as someone adds an entry you get notified in the taskbar.

Persistent Chat.png

I have been testing this new toy out now for the past few weeks. Tried this a couple of months back. I didn’t get it; I didn’t like it.

Now I am really turned on.

I am interviewing others who are using this toy. I will share their experiences and ideas with you soon. Here is what I have learned so far:

Rules of engagement:
1. Invite some buddies to a chat
2. Name a Topic
3. Push the Blue Pin (this will make the chat persistent) in the upper right hand corner of the chat window

Persistent chat2.png


4. Don’t “Quit”; just minimize. Participants need to cultivate a mind set sort of like the Eagles say in their song Hotel California, "you can check out any time you want, but you can never leave".

Persistent Chat Don't Quit.png

5. Don’t change the topic; keep it persistent.

6. If you don’t leave your computer on 24/7 like I do you can reopen the chat in Skype>Tools>Bookmarked Chats


How is a “Persistent Chat” different than a Forum, a Wiki, or an e-mail List Server? “Always on” and “instant” come to mind. In some sense a Persistent Chat contains flavours of CNN, dash boards on a MAC, an open-line radio program and your own personal early warning radar system. It is highly engaging. More so I feel than any other medium I have worked in. It approaches the feeling of a cocktail party or a group meeting in a pub without the feeling those events can leave you with the next morning.

Spontania, the producers of, Video4Skype, or any other software or device developer who are testing beta versions could make really good use of this technique to connect up a group of users for instant feedback. Ideal for Focus Groups too. Any team environment. Political action group.

Try setting up a few Persistent Chats. Give us your feedback, experience and ideas of how you use this technique.

Maybe someone can even tell us how we remove a bookmarked chat. The Skype knowledgebase doesn't have an entry for this. How many presistent chats can we have? Is there a limit? This lack of documentation is a persistent problem with Skype. (Grin)

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Posts linking to Meeting at the Skype Virtual Pub:

» Skype op z'n IRC's from R-win.com [weblog] drwxr--r--
Jaanus bij Skype HQ logt over een handigheidje van Skype, het bookmarken van chats: "(...) wed like to tell you of our hidden agenda of making Skype Chat an e-mail killer. (...)" SkypeJournal illustreert Jaanus' posting met schermafbeeldingen.... [Read More]

Tracked on June 8, 2005 5:27 AM

Comments

Posted by: Erki Esken at June 7, 2005 2:30 PM

One very cool feature of these Persistent Chats is that they are synchronized if you switch machines. Lets say you have a chat going on during the day at work PC, then you go home, log into Skype on your home PC and all the previous chat content is synced there too. Read the backlog of posts that were sent when you were offline and continue your chatting.

To remove bookmarked chat just unset the blue pin. And leave/quit if you don't want any more messages.

I don't think there's a limit to bookmarked chats. But after a few dozen the Tools > Bookmarked Chats menu can be a bit hard to navigate.

Also try the "/alertson sometext" command in chat window (/help for more). It's useful sometimes to set "/alertson yourname" for example so you wouldn't get blinking Skype chat window all the time. Only when someone mentiones you by name. Because some big chats can get annoying sometimes :)

Posted by: Bill Campbell at June 7, 2005 2:53 PM

Hey Erki!

That is very cool information you added. You are a star. (I will have to take you off my list)

Thanks for helping out.

Regards, Bill

Posted by: Uri L. at June 7, 2005 4:17 PM

Yet another proof that Skype isn't just a plain VoIP enabling software, but rather an innovative communication tool.

"Persistent Chats" are a nice contribution to the IM experience.

Skype leaves the big IM boys to tickle each other with entertainment and multimedia features - and drills down on the Voice+Text communication environment.

Posted by: Les Squires at December 2, 2005 12:28 PM

You can group Chats (and Contacts). Use the first two characters of each Topic to distinguish your various clients, groups, interests. For example I own a company whose initials are WO. My family chats are FA. HE is a client. Since the Topics are alphabetized (Contacts too!), these letters help me zero in quickly on the topic or contact by group!

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