Now that some of us are visiting the chat room there is something I'd
like to say about the "ghost" syndrome and "being there but not being
spoken to."
I hope I'm not being patronizing with the following explanation... it
is not my intention. When each of us logs onto our computer we do it
through "servers" which allow us all access to the internet, each of
those servers is like a spoke on a wheel and the chat room is the
central hub. We all use different spokes to access the hub and each
of us has a different rate of connection. There is something called
"lag-time" which is the amount of time it takes for a message to leave
one keyboard and be received by each of the other persons in the chat
room this is called "lag." That delay can sometimes be one second or
it can be minutes depending on server traffic and other mitigating
factors. It can also vary from one chatter to the next. On other
chat programs such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat) one can check the lag
time (or ping as some call it) between yourself and another person,
that isn't possible in a Java chat room so if it seems like someone is
ignoring you or can't see you it's probaby that you are lagged to the
moon and back. It is very possible for you to be so lagged that you
can leave the room and come back and still see yourself there even
though you're not, this is called "ghosting."
I hope this helps some of you with the questions and problems you're
experiencing in the chat room. Try again, each time you connect the
lag time varies.
Cassy
