Robert V. Lux: Reconsidering chat times

[Robert V. Lux]

The opportunities for Don?s Domain subscribers to chat, both with each other, and with world leading blackjack authors is a well appreciated venture for numerous members. As far as I am concerned, most subscribers are Americans (pretty logically, since the US is the world leading ?blackjack culture?, and the website is American).

The chats are conventionally hosted on Sunday evenings, 9 PM E.T. As I, along with other non-Americans, mostly Europeans and also a few Asians, have a passion for blackjack, we would also like to participate on the chats. Albeit the chats are open to all and sundry with access to DD, the time (or date) is constantly a difficulty. As I presume a majority of the members have works and educations to deal with on early Monday mornings, non-American subscribers face a hard time making it to the chats, since they are, at least to European members, in the middle of the night (3 AM Swedish time, 2 AM Greenwich time, etc.). I believe I speak for all non-Americans say I implore for the chats to, either be on Saturdays or Fridays, or a few hours earlier on Sundays.

Best regards, Robert V. Lux

[Pimp the Great]

I live in the US Central Time Zone, but I wouldn't mind a change either, due to my early morning straight job on Monday

[Don Schlesinger]

Thanks for the feedback. We have to reexamine the whole chat schedule.

Turnouts have been unusually light, prompting some cancellations. I don't understand why so few DD members attended the Shackleford chat.

In any event, a 7 p.m. ET start means 4 p.m. for the California crowd, so it's very hard to please everyone.

Don

[Pimp the Great]

A suggestion to boost turnout (and I say this as someone who has missed 3 consecutive chats):

Make it a policy to delay the archiving of the chats by 2 weeks or so, to discourage non-participation. This may sound heavy handed, but I think it is in the long-term interest of the DD community.

[Robert V. Lux]

> Turnouts have been unusually light,
> prompting some cancellations. I don't
> understand why so few DD members attended
> the Shackleford chat.

One way to increase the traffic on the chats would be to let the, say five writers of ?the best posts? of the month on the free forums, win a participation in one chat. By doing this, you would also increase the traffic and posts on the public forums, which would also, in the long run, generate more visitors.

Or, you could create a semi-DD. Say you divide the current DD into two separate pieces, one chat piece and one forum piece. Then you could offer a semi-DD at perhaps half the original DD-rate, and a complete DD (like today?s) for the ones who want both the chats and the availability to the forums.

The possibilities are interminable. Only the imagination sets limitations.

Regards, Robert V. Lux

[FLAPlayer]

> One way to increase the traffic on the chats
> would be to let the, say five writers of
> ?the best posts? of the month on the free
> forums, win a participation in one chat. By
> doing this, you would also increase the
> traffic and posts on the public forums,
> which would also, in the long run, generate
> more visitors.

> Or, you could create a semi-DD. Say you
> divide the current DD into two separate
> pieces, one chat piece and one forum piece.
> Then you could offer a semi-DD at perhaps
> half the original DD-rate, and a complete DD
> (like today?s) for the ones who want both
> the chats and the availability to the
> forums.

> The possibilities are interminable. Only the
> imagination sets limitations.

> Regards, Robert V. Lux

All great comments, I think a chat late (eastern time) Friday afternoon might be good- I'm sure that like many of you I'm sitting at my desk, unlike a weekend- just a thought!

[Don Schlesinger]

> All great comments, I think a chat late
> (eastern time) Friday afternoon might be
> good- I'm sure that like many of you I'm
> sitting at my desk, unlike a weekend- just a
> thought!

Thanks for all the above suggestions. We'll weigh them carefully and try to come up with the best solution.

Don