I think you should make the chatroom a button in your main page of equivalent dominance to “The Forums” button. This would likely mean that people signing in will want to see the chat room just as much as the forum. That’s probably why it hasn’t gained as much popularity- People don’t see it, they don’t join it. People that know about it join it, don’t see anyone, leave, ad infinitum.
Gaiaguerrilla,
Way back in the dim dark past, I was on staff as a relatively new moderator looking for a way to build a little excitement into discussion. I saw the chat room and with the help of Imp, (he’s from the dim dark past, too 
) advertised heavily in the sociology forum, and the results were underwhelming (if disasterous is the definition). For whatever reason, the folks don’t seem to be interested in IM in a discussion board. But PM Carleas and offer to help get it going and maybe it would work this time. I like the idea of immediate thinly-veiled ad homs… don’t you?
Yeah. “chat-line” sounds like a mockery of philosophy itself, we can think of it as another “Mundane Babble” board. But then real solutions don’t usually come through periodical entries from lone thinkers. It comes when several people with some insight can exchange on a real-time scale.
You could incorporate different #rooms where one is stricter than the other- concrete rules which basically mean no bs talk, or you’re immediately sent to the kiddie room for a while. I’ll PM Carleas a link here on the odd chance that he didn’t yet see it. I’ll leave it at that.
i propose that when we log onto ILP we also open up the chat room and just sit there, perodically checking if anyone else joins…
I’m in there right now…
I didn’t even know there were chat rooms. Pretty fly if you ask me. I’d love to just get at some of these guys when they don’t have a chance to wikipedia everything.
Heh, I don’t know how to do that technical stuff side of it, but I’m willing to give the IRC link more visibility. I can look into the other stuff, but that will take some time. I’m looking to August for any technically heavy upgrades, and I can add that to the list.
indeed
-Imp
Smears, you underestimate the speed with which I can reference wikipedia.
I’m in the IRC thing right now. It’s pretty cool. All the cool kids are here too, doing cool things. Good thing losers don’t like IRC chats, because it guarantees a high level of cool in the room. Yeah. 
IRC might not be visited very often because it is only shown on the home page… Some of us bookmark the board index page as a short cut. It might be useful to show IRC in the Index page. That would really be cool…
Hmm… I just realized how I can do that. Should it go at the top or the bottom of the index?
How about the top in BIG BOLD letters with dancing girls? The bottom says… well, the bottom.
As much as I like the dancing girls, I suggest in the utility row top-right between “Members” and “User Control Panel” Or after “User Control Panel”
OR
If you can track how many people are in the chatroom and deliver it to the user for every link activated, then I would put the tally of people in the room next to “who is online” at the bottom. Like “0 guests, 0 chatters” and hyperlink “chatters”
Gaia, as usual, you have given me too much credit.
I managed to get it in beneath the user control panel link. Good enough? I can move it around a little vertically, but most of the space up there is generated by php code, so I don’t know how to put it in between buttons, or do anything fancy with syncing the chat and the forums.
Damn you, Carleas! I want a URL displayed on the surface of Mars within the next month or I will demand a moderator court martial!
How about the surface of the earth? I’m real handy with some dirt and a pointy stick.
Why not paste it on a picture of mars. Well you won’t get the credit. We’ll say aliens did it.
I’m also handy with dirt and a pointy stick but the dominatrix is not available on thursdays.
Finally! It showed up right under Board Index. Thanks Carleas. I signed in yesterday… nobody there. I signed in just a minute ago. Nobody there. Almost as exciting as watching paint dry…
im chillin in there now, and will for awhile.
All the cool kids are there.
And by that I mean, I am all alone. So cripplingly alone . . . The sadness is overbearing, I am lost in a sea of dispair-sorrow . . .
Bullshit. You’re off drinking beer and carousing with the low-lifes. I checked in and no one there…