Board Thread:General Wiki Discussion/@comment-24376429-20140317195106/@comment-24463401-20140317202546

Makes the site seem less like a community. For me, coming in for the first time and seeing that everyone knew each other and how the site worked. Considering how the chat was shut down for less than a few hours and caused a shit storm, it may be a bad idea.

I also agree with what Chao said. Even though there is negative things that come out of it too. It's just a lot more convenient for some people. Skype, Email, threads or talk pages all take a considerably longer amount of time to try and get in contact with people. For example, Admin Fred has to get in contact with Admin Phil. Sending an email would take about the same time as posting something on his talk page. So he decides to try Skype and Phil isn't online. Then he thinks to himself: "Wouldn't it make more sense for the site to have some sort of communication system instead of using all these third party ways to get in touch with people who are probably already on the site?" Sure you could make some excuse about cellphones but some people wouldn't want to give away personal information like that.

Also wouldn't this just end up pissing off a lot of mods who behaved and worked to get and maintain their position? If I was a mod and the chat was suddenly taken away for no reason besides some meager things, I'd be pretty angry at the site. This doesn't really do anything positive to the site besides gets rid of a bit of drama that could probably be started again on other means of communication. Getting rid of the middle man reduces time, effort and annoyance without it.