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I know we had many issues with the gameday chats during the season, and I apologize for that. Yes, the plan is to have a draft chat as usual, but given the amount of issues we had during the season, I can't promise it will go swimmingly.

My current plan was to upgrade the forum chat software to a more recent version. The problem with this is that the recent updates aren't 100% secure, which is why I never really presented it as an option during the regular season. But I'm thinking if this is only a 1-time use for draft weekend, then I'm willing to risk it. My hope is that this will solve the issues we had during the season, which was basically whenever there were more than 3 or 4 people in the forums, it strained the database and people began to lose posts and it was very, very slow. Obviously, this is not good because people want instant updates during a chat.

To be honest, I'm not an expert in these matters. I think part of it is because of my server, another part is that the forum database may be too large which then causes more strain on the server. I think these issues could be alleviated by going back and pruning some of this forum, but I'm not 100% and I'm not going to start deleting back posts and it not work. Others suggested other chat software to use, including IRC, but in truth I simply couldn't figure that out how to use it. I'm as always open to suggestions for how to solve this issue.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to get to is that I'm thinking about installing the upgraded chat software in the coming days, so that we could potentially test it out a week or two before the draft to make sure there are no bugs. So I'm simply asking whether people will be interested in having a pre-draft chat to make sure the chat software checks out OK. And I want it to be well enough before the draft that will allow me time to fix whatever issues arise or come up with a new solution.

I'm thinking perhaps next weekend, like on a Saturday or Sunday night. Please let me know what you guys think?

Security shouldn't be an issue. We're not exactly discussing nuclear secrets, and if a troll or something comes into the channel, that's what moderators are for.

The security concern is that it can open up backdoor channels to hack the board. And if you can hack the board, then you can crash the site. This is why you need stable, secure software releases.

I've been through this before, back in late 2004, and it blows. It can take weeks to get the site up and running again (2 weeks I recall last time), with March & April being two of this site's most visited months.

Thus why I'm only offering this as a short-term solution. Ideally two chat dates, one pre-draft, and then draft weekend, and then I'll likely shut it down, and look for a new long-term solution during the regular season.

OKay change of plans...

Instead of putting up a new chat room on the site, I'll just be asking everyone to take their butts to the http://justin.tv/didziojo chat room. My podcast co-host Ryan (aka Adkinsmark) and I will be live-chatting the draft on April 26. So rather than myself being in two places at once, I'm just going to go with the full-bore self-promotion of our show and just ask that people that want to talk live on draft day, show up there and listen to us go on and on for 3+ hours and if they want to talk draft and Falcons football, they can do so on that chat interface.

So in the coming days/weeks (16 days until the draft), just head over to http://justin.tv and create an account, and then on draft day you can go to our channel: http://www.justin.tv/didziojo

I'm sure I will get plenty of complaints about this set-up, but honestly...

Thanks Pudge.Will try and be there.

throw us a line on what time April 26th! I'll try to bust in

I believe Round 1 kicks off around 7, so I would like to believe that we'll be kicking things off 30-60 minutes before. So 6 or 6:30 at the latest.