[sldev] Communication

[Brenda Archer]

This is my first post, please bear with me.

I'd like to try to describe what is happening when
someone uses the new communicate window while running
a large meeting.  If this problem can be solved I
would be forever grateful.  I know it's been discussed
but I don't know if you've seen the extreme of it.

I run meetings and parties, for a large group, that
often have ten to twenty people in attendance.  Not
all of them can use voice, because they are on Linux,
at work, at home with family who are asleep, etc.

So the chat window is moving non-stop, and I have to
reply to it immediately, with no hesitation.

At the same time, the group IM session is open, and
generally IMs from individual avies are also coming in
every few minutes, some of them requests to teleport
(which means I'll need to Search) and some of the
requests to join the group (which means I'll need to
pull up the detailed group info).  

Eventually, I am tracking ten IM sessions, which in
the original client, I ran as a bar across either the
top or bottom of the screen.  Every twenty seconds or
so, I click through all the IM tabs to check for
conversation; the people talking to me will only
notice I'm replying a bit slowly.

At the same time, I have to be able to see the
building, walk around, greet new people, notice who's
being quiet and engage them, and keep an eye out for
any security issues.

The only way I can do this and not look frozen, is to
run the chat window and the IM windows as two separate
windows, going across the top and bottom of the
screen.  The group info is in another separate window,
and Friends list should also be separate so I can
watch my volunteers come and go.  I need to be able to
watch all of these at once, AND walk around AND see
where I am going.

This is why the new communication window makes me feel
blind, dumb and mute.  If I attend to chat history, I
can't see the people next to me.  If I attend to IMs
asking for teleports, I lose the thread of the chat
and stand there frozen.  I can't ask everyone to
voice, because not everyone can.  My voice is on, just
in case someone tries to talk to me.

With separate, resizable, potentially very small
windows, I can work this meeting alone, by keeping my
eyes moving just as I would driving down a freeway.  

I've tried to get a volunteer to help, but it doesn't
work.  In a social situation, when people want to talk
to you, they want YOU, now, not someone else.  It's
critical that I be able to give them that.

Many thanks,

Brenda Archer