After Action Report

[smittywing]

So, last night, wojelah, shetiger, and I attempted to use GoogleWave to groupchat. Mostly we made a mess but here are a few things we learned:

1) You type in real-time, like the old ICQ. So it's occasionally necessary to think before you start instead of just thinking before you hit done. :P

2) Wave stacks conversations, so I could be chatting with shetiger about

Comments

[shetiger]

I don't know if it was just me experiencing it (and my cranky computer), but there at the end when we were all typing about Emily it was lagging like crazy for me, and I had to refresh it a couple times. It makes me worried for what will happen when we get more people in there. But I am totally looking forward to trying again! I had a blast last night. :D

[smittywing]

Oh, that is a good point. Mine was lagging a lot, too. If that happens again (I also should restart my computer before the next chat because I often don't restart it for ages at a time and I was running a graphics program and two browsers, etc.) then I will put in a thingy to Google and explain the different problems we had - because if the strengths of Wave is its multi-user planning aspects, they need to know that heavy conversation jams it up.

Yay! It was so nice talking to you guys last night. :) I can't wait to get another one going!

Also, personal advice: work on the Rossi/Prentiss second time or start a new thing in the vein that we were discussing last night? I need fluffy things to ponder now.

[shetiger]

I am having a hard time remembering what that first one is. I mean, in the details sort of way. I kind of like the idea of the new thing, though. I'd like to see Emily just throw down. :D

[smittywing]

The second one is extremely reminiscent of the first. Italian food. Awkward conversation. Unfinished. :P

The new one attracts me. I have Ideas.

[chinawolf]

I can't chat this weekend, but after Tuesday I will be able to! :)

By the by, if anybody still needs an invite, I have many. Just poke me and give me your email to send the invite to.

[smittywing]

Yay! I expect we will have another one later next week (maybe Thursdayish again?) and I'll try for next weekend too.

Thanks for offering invites! I do have a slight fear that suddenly lots of people will want invites and I will not have enough.

[shetiger]

I still have plenty, should that come to pass. ;)

[ratcreature]

I'm not much into chatting but I thought I'd point out that you don't say anywhere which timezone your "Saturday afternoon" and such refers to, which could lead to coordination problems.

[smittywing]

I just figured I'd look at the people who were interested, see what timezone they were in, and figure out what time it was for everyone else - there doesn't seem to be an avalanche of people and while 1pm could be afternoon, so could 4pm. So I left the times deliberately vague in order to pin them to my time and see how I could get as many people as possible. (F'rex, if you said Saturday night and someone on the West Coast US said Saturday afternoon, I could adjust you both to my timezone and say we could start at like, 5pm EST which would be late evening for you and around 2pm for said other person. Whereas if you said afternoon, we could maybe open up a wave around 1pm or so and it would be late afternoon for you, which limits teh time people get to chat, but gets everyone in eventually.)

This made sense in my head. Really.

[jcalanthe]

I agree with ratcreature that the lack of timezones is probably an issue. I answered according to Pacific time, which I am now realizing is probably silly.

I now have an account as jcalanthe at googlewave, and I have lots of invites if you end up with folks wanting them.

[smittywing]

Oh, I actually expected everyone to answer in their own timezone and then I'd adjust - I wrote out my brain-logic to ratcreature and then was all, "Hm. That looks faulty." I think I was going to get a vague sense of how many people were interested and then set up start times - they can always go until everyone gets tired. Because as long as there's still one person on the wave, they can invite people and so on. Hmm.

[mirabile_dictu]

I've been really curious to try Wave but haven't found any interest at work. But I also have a Wave for my fannish email, so this sounds like a great opportunity to see how it works. Or if it works.

I'm Pacific Standard Time, btw.

[smittywing]

"If" may be the operative word. :P I just made a post suggesting we try tomorrow at 5pm EST/2pm PST. It's a little earlier than you were hoping for, I think, but I'm pretty sure we'll be around for a while, and I'll add you as soon as I see you - you can ignore it while you're busy and jump in when you're ready to kick back with us. I'm so glad you'll be joining us! I am hoping this will be a good time.

[mirabile_dictu]

If I'm around, I definitely will! Oh, my wave name is mirabile1dictu.

Thanks for organizing this!