Anyone up for an online chat?

[garybeck]

just for the heck of it. no pressing issue, other than our democracy is crumbling. might be good/fun to relate in real time for a change of pace. we did this once a while ago, when Andy was still with us, and it was indeed both fun and useful.

I would propose to use Yahoo Instant Messenger and do it at 11pm Eastern tonight (wednesday 1/11).

[SharonRB]

1. Hi, Gary

I was on a couple of those for the Vote Group -- is that what you're talking about? The conference calls were even better. It was really "hard work" keeping up with the conversation in the on-line chat -- I found it hard to tell which responses were answering which.

I'd love to join in, in spite of that, but I need to be in bed by 11.

Enjoy!

[babsbunny]

3. Is this anything like Yahoo Forums?

I heard on DU that Yahoo Forums is doing some kind of spying or something. They are keeping track of you if you belong to a Yahoo Forum.

[garybeck]

4. forums... groups... cookies... web beacons....

forums (groups) are different from chat (messenger). what you are referring to is a web beacon. it's sort of nasty but you can disable it. here's the instructions:

http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/beacons/details.html

I thought Yahoo would be easiest because most of us already have an account. I suppose it's not very secure so we shouldn't discuss anything "sensitive."

If you are concerned about things like this, I highly recommend downloading the free program called Spybot Search and Destroy, which will remove unwanted cookies on your system that track your web use (Yahoo is not the only one that does this).

Personally, I do my best to remove all these tracking cookies and beacons but I won't let it all scare me into not doing something. when that happens, they win. I think for the most part these things are used for advertising purposes and spam, rather than spying for political purposes, but who knows. I guess, when the day comes that they start rounding up people who talk about politics on the internet, I suppose I'll have some good friends in jail...

Gary

[lala_rawraw]

2. me

[garybeck]

5. tentative plan

I will start a conference using Yahoo IM. for those who want to join, PM me your yahooIM ID and I'll invite you. if there's a way for me to post the conference so people can join without me inviting them, I'll do that here.

if 11pm is too late, we can change it to 10pm. I just want to make sure it's not too early on the west coast. give feedback on the time 10 or 11 is better?????

[Ian David]

6. During The Daily Show? Are you a freedom-hating Rejectionist? n/t

[garybeck]

7. don't you have TiVo?

:)

and isn't that show repeated about 8 times a day?

[garybeck]

8. one hour to go, anyone want to do this?

if folks want to do this, PM me or post an n/t here to show there's interest.

[garybeck]

9. NO CHAT TONIGHT

i guess i didn't give enough notice, or there isn't enough interest for whatever reason. maybe another time.

peace
gary

[emlev]

10. I'd be up for it another time, but significantly more interested if

I found out about it beforehand, rather than after.

Good idea, though, Garybeck!

[garybeck]

11. OK, there is interest, but we need more lead time. How about next week >>

I'll throw this up in the air-- Thursday 1/19 at 10pm Eastern (7pm Western).

This gives everyone a week to think about it.

I would like to add, let's not use this week to prepare an "agenda". Let's not have the chat turn into a debate about issue(s) that divide us. Let's just ligthen up, have some fun, pat ourselves on the back for what we've accomplished so far, and get to know eachother a little bit.

Gary

[emlev]

12. can't do that time, but don' t have a better idea n/t

[minvis]

13. Count me in

I can do it. BTW, my yahoo ID is the same as my DU ID, minvis.

[Wilms]

14. kick