Guest Chat Etiquette

Note that “guest” here refers to our featured chat guest and not our valued ARZ members.

1. Know the topic. We suggest you do some background research on the guest to get the most out of the discussion and also avoid asking questions that could have been answered by taking just a few minutes to read a document.

2. Show respect. Our guests are here for meaningful civil discourse; please be courteous. Any inflammatory, disrespectful, hateful, belligerent, or hostile language will not be tolerated and such ARZ members risk suspensions or bans

3. Avoid Internet Speak. Typing in capital letters is the equivalent to screaming. Please use proper capitalization and punctuation to avoid ambiguity. Additionally, try to avoid using web speak abbreviations (OIC = Oh, I see) or emoticons (strange smilie faces :-p or :-D ).

4. Wait your turn. We normally run the chat in the format of answering questions that members have pre-submitted. If you have registered a Q with us, then you will be prompted to ask it in turn. If you have not registered a Q, then please sit back and enjoy the chat-- we typically have some time at the end where questions can be asked on the spot, our “open chat” period.

5. Do not post comments or questions whimsically. For obvious reasons the chat would simply not work if we allowed people to add their thoughts as the chat progressed. This would only result in a waste of time for everyone and complete disrespect for the guest.

6. Respect pauses. We ask our guest to type DONE at the end of his or her responses. This prevents uncertainty about whether the answer is in fact complete and the next person in line posting a Q while the guest has yet to finish answering the last one. If you do not see DONE following an answer to a question, please do not post a Q because the guest is still at work.

7. Do not add to any confusion.  Should another poster write out-of-turn or use banned language, please wait for a moderator to address the issue-- do not engage the person. Furthermore, since the Ning network chat program is not particularly controllable, it is possible that people who are unaware of, or late for, the chat will come online and post a greeting or other dialogue. Please ignore such and wait for a moderator to respond.

And lastly, have fun and learn. Enjoy the chat!

Current Admin team:

Carolyn Bailey

Roger Yates

Jason Ward