where's chat?

[Rebecca Petris]

Hi all,

The DEZ chat account got suspended because... I had to cancel the Amex account it was tied to (I think somebody snapped a pic of it... it had unauthorized charges) and I forgot to give them the chat company the new one, so if anybody tried to get into it and couldn't, I apologize.

Before reinstating it, I want to take the community pulse once more. Frankly, much as I'd like to make it useful, and even though I had a lot of fun when we've managed to have chats, I honestly just don't have the time or motivation to put it to good enough use to be worth the money.

Any thoughts? Requests? Or, better yet, VOLUNTEER CHAT COORDINATORS/MODERATORS?

[Eli]

My garbled 2 cents

Well, chat was a nice feature of this website. I didn't use it a lot, but it was nice to be able to chat with members in real time if neccesary. Also, I had always hoped we could occasionally recruit guest doctors for a brief Q&A.(I'm sure moderation would be neccesary here)
It would be nice to hear from the likes of Pflugfelder, Tseng, Lemp, Dana, Sullivan, etc. to get a feel for what's really happening behind the doors of the laboratories in which we are placing our dreams for a "cure."
Of course, this also be accomplished by simply sending the individual a questionaire and posting his/her answers.
But as far as chat goes, it was certainly nice to have available, but is also something I could easily live without. I'm sure no one here expects you to burden yourself financially or otherwise for our benefit. You have already done so much to help those in need. You could also bring it back in the future if the need arose.

Eli

[MJ]

I also had lots of fun when I chatted. The only problem was there was never anyone around to chat with unless it was scheduled and then I couldn't always make the scheduled times.

Quite honestly, I never went to the chat room for dry eye information. I always found any information I needed by posting or looking through the archives. I went to our chat room to meet the people in this community and become friends with them. And then when I posted it was nice to actually know the person on the other side of the post. It's more of a bonding thing. And we had fun doing that ... even reaching across the water to raise a cyber pint or two with friends over there.

mj

[dianat]

Hey, chatting with Prattstar and taking in his stories made whatever the cost of chat worth every penny!

I miss joining in, but rarely had the time for it.

Diana