Talk:Live Chat System

Broader definition of Live Help
There could be many instances of when a user might ask for help. Help with editing is just one of them. For example editors may wish to be directly connect to another human to:
 * ask why they were reverted
 * ask if the material they are thinking of contributing belongs in the encyclopedia
 * ask for help with a bad-faith editor
 * ask for help performing an autoconfirmed, sysop, bureaucrat, etc. operation
 * find an article (i.e. real time reference desk)
 * find a policy or guideline

--EpochFail 20:22, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Live chat for improved user interaction
I hypothesize that matching editors with a Wikipedian to help them through their first edit or page creation could streamline their adoption of the Wikipedia community. New editors who are not immediately hit with the revert hammer often complain that they don't feel like there is anyone out there.

Live chat could also be used to quickly test possible vandals. It's a bit of a stretch, maybe, but huggle users might immediately contact the editor they suspect of acting in bad faith to offer them a test. Interacting directly with the person who performs the vandalism may take longer than simply sending a warning, but (1) warning messages have been shown to be harmful (see meta:R:Research:Warning_Templates_in_Huggle) and (2) identifying vandals before they make any more edits could reduce vandal fighter workload.

--EpochFail 20:22, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Chat logging
Publicly logging all chat activities might have some serious benefits for community dynamics and more closely tying the chat to the community and the work product (encyclopedia in Wikipedia's case).

Reporting nefarious activities: Chat logging and interactions should be public and searchable to support community mechanisms for identifying and reporting bad-faith activities. Without public logs, proving that anyone caused a problem or harassed another editor via chat would be impossible.

On wiki socialization: This brings up the question of whether private messaging between editors should exists and whether such a system would be inline with community notions of what acceptable activities on wiki are. See enwiki's en:Wikipedia:Esperanza for an example of community rejection of a social system. Keeping all chat logs public could discourage off topic conversation.

Vetting new sysops: The process for vetting new administrators on enwiki is thorough and involves careful inspection of an editors history of communication as well as their editing activity. It would most likely be beneficial to such discussions if an editor's chat history was available for the scrutiny of other editors in this and other situations.

--EpochFail 20:22, 27 October 2011 (UTC)