[BradS7535]

I see everyone's point in some knowledge possibly getting "lost" by having chat conversations instead of posting it in a thread. The same could be said for PMs, that is a private conversation between 2 people and the information would not be available to others.

As Tom said above (in a way) is that he prefers to have a conversation, and that is what seems to happen a lot in these threads; a very slow conversation (sometimes days between responses). When going back and looking for information it becomes a time consuming exercise to find the information you are looking for sometimes. There are threads 10+ pages long and you've got to read through all the posts, all the back and forth questions, answers, discussions etc to find the answer.

My thoughts and what I am going to try to do is take it upon myself to document/share information that I have learned from these "conversations". A chat room would allow me to ask questions back and forth in "real time" to get all the info I need without cluttering up or creating a 10+ page thread over several days or weeks to get an answer. For example my Solar Installation FAQ thread, I've got tons of questions and I've received lots of answers, but obviously at a much slower rate as not everyone checks the forum every day. I am planning on taking all the information I have received, both from the thread, and any private PMs and put it into a .pdf for the Technical Library.

This forum is only as helpful as we all decide to make it. If you have a PM with another member and keep that information to yourself, then yes...that is not a very good system. If we all took the time to consolidate our personal knowledge and the knowledge gained from others into a single source (like an installation manual, or FAQ) and we place that in the Tech Library, it becomes much easier to find the info you are looking for, instead of searching the boards, trying to find correct threads (from poorly name thread titles), looking through pages in each thread and all the posts...etc.

In my current job there is a big push for "Knowledge Management". There is a ton of information available on this site, and some of it is easier to find than others. A chat room is another way to share knowledge in a more "real-time" manner rather than posting a thread, or sending a PM. In the end, the system is only as useful/helpful as how you decide to use it. I for one appreciate all the knowledgeable people here and want to contribute as much as I can by consolidating information gathered from multiple sources (threads, PMs, chat) into a single source (pdf) in the Tech Library.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

P.S. I may be the youngest guy here, which may explain the differences in opinion (generational thing).