The room moderators would have a link to the new VIP area. We would likely have a list of VIP Pass holders, those that only have one sponsor, as well as the list of suspended users. We also need a way to nominate new pass holders.

Maybe we can have an entry page where the mod can chose to see the list of users, or go to the nomination page? We are up for any suggestions.

Like I have said in the chat room and mod forum the reason I put so much time, energy, and money into it is because I enjoy chatting with people from all over the world. I have from day one with my webcam. I knew early on that this is what I wanted to do.

Everyone wants to be a star. Everyone wants to be seen. Everyone wants to be in the camera’s eye. People want to be liked. I think this is deep in the roots of the webcam chat experience. In watching my first chat room and webcam sites back in the 1990’s I already had dreams of what I wanted to do. CamChat.org is the result of that.

Some of the first sites I had bumpped into and enjoyed watching was AnaCam, JeniCam.org (now closed), and Sunny. Yes they were all “camgirls” but it was fascinating to me how their communities grew and worked. I wanted one of my own. Yes my image was the first ever uploaded here. I wish I still had that image. I think what keeps us going is being able to sit down at your computer and chat with people from all over the world for free. Come on in and enjoy the free webcam chat.

PuP

The oldest webcam that is still running would be “Fog Cam” at SF State Uni. It was started in 1994 and still runs today. See it at fogcam.org.

I built a webpage and uploaded my first webcam picture in 1997. In those days streaming video didn’t exist, it was just pictures. Software was used to grab a webcam picture and upload to a server using FTP. We used javascript to check for a new image every 60 seconds so if a new picture was up, it was displayed for the user.

I thought I’d share a funny story here. When I had uploaded my first webcam picture, and had a chatroom going, I was so excited I sat in there for three days straight … by myself. That’s when I started getting new users. Soon there were 10 regular users, then 20, then 30. We have always used ChatStop.net for our chat service.

In those days I was just using free websites like Geocities or web1000. The guy who was the second webcam added became my partner in the project. I won’t mention his name at this time. I’ll tell you why later. He was also affiliated with a website called MetalFlakes.com, which is a heavy metal website still active today. My chatroom became the chatroom used by this site as well.

Happy Chatting and be sure to join the chat room.

There were some recent changes made to the chat code and the login process. We should be aware of the changes so we can best help the new chatroom user.

The login process has changed. In order to simplify the process to get into the webcam and chat room, there are new directions for the user, which include pictures of the things they should click. You can no longer use a nickname that is registered by another user. The chat system will prompt the user to change their chat name.As always any chatroom rule violations are dealt with quickly by our live staff. We might have the best live chatroom staff ever.

We have made it harder for the user to change names on the fly. This has always been a problem in the chat room because then we have a mismatch in the system. That makes things confusing for the new user. We have removed private messaging all together as there are too many problems with this chat feature being misused. This seems to be working much better for the regular webcam users.

We have added the feature for users to choose their chatroom text color and style. Having the different colors in the chatroom makes it easier for the user to keep up with the conversations. The eye can easily catch the colors and skip over what is not important at the moment

Again, thanks for visiting www.camchat.org and have a happy 2012 everyone.

I wanted to take a moment to thank our webcam video provider over at www.camamba.com . They have always been there for us providing top shelf video for us. Like I said over at http://www.camchat.org/blogs/2011/08/06/whats-the-objective-anyway/ we can’t operate without our webcam and chat partners.

As far as chatroom users that get kicked or banned from the chat we’d like to be thought of as a group that gives a second chance. We find that some users need to know their limits before they can fit in. Let’s look at a webcam violator as salvageable and try a kick first, on re-entry to the chat room explain what was wrong. If it keeps up, then set the ban. We have been able to obtain new valuable chatters understanding that that some need to know their chat limits first.

Now with the acceptable chat room nicknames this is what I do. If the user has an unacceptable nickname we can warn to change it. I give them like 60 seconds and warn again. Give like 20 seconds and kick from the chatroom. If the nickname looks bad in the cam list we should stop the cam as well.

There will be cases when an immediate ban is needed, such as trouble webcam users. Other cases will be up to your best judgment. Remember, we do not allow harassing of any of our users. This is one of the principals that have kept the community growing over the years.

Of course there will be users that want to help with the chat room. The room staff is asked this a lot. The best thing they can tell the normal user is that we greet guests, help get cams going, and keep the chat moving. We can tell users if they do this, the room staff will notice. That would be a users best chance of becoming a Room Mod. It can be done.

Thanks everyone and enjoy the chat.
www.camchat.org

Neither Apple nor Microsoft are going to support flash anymore. No, they are not hating on Adobe, it’s just that things are moving to HTML5. Our site does not work on the new tablets and the upcoming version of windows will not support flash. Our webcams are chat based. That means we’re not going to work well with emerging technologies.

As we look to the future we’ll likely have to find a solution for our webcams that does not involve flash. We’ll have to look at the possibilities of HTML5 and see what we can do. Any input is appreciated.

I think Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube links are ok. They don’t cause any harm. One thing’s for sure, camchat.org has always been and always will be a free webcam chat website. It’s not about the money.

What we want to look for is links to other chat networks and people spamming their business. This is because we are not a springboard for other businesses. It’s not right to advertise in our chat room when they could build their own community and advertise there.

The reason for “No Messengers” is simple. We’re trying to keep people chatting here, not on each others messengers. Some emails are actually the messenger address so we don’t allow emails in the chatroom and we don’t lose any users to other video chat sites like our own.

Email addresses open us up for a lot of trouble so we just try to keep them out of the room.

I hope this cleared some items up. I am often asked about this type of behavior so I wanted to post something on the subject while we were on webcams.

The mods enter a professional-sounding reason in their chatroom and webcam bans showing which CamChat.org rule was broken. This way we can better keep track of who is banning who and all the room moderators can stay informed.

Thanks guys and keep reading.

For the first 3 years I didn’t know either. I knew I liked chatrooms and when you added the webcams made it that much better. You could see who you were chatting with.

So what are we trying to do?

I think the driving force behind CamChat.org is being able to sit down at your computer and webcam chat with people from around the world for free. CamChat.org has always been free and that’s the way it will stay. I guess it has finally become a community and our objective would be to make it grow. This is why greeting the guest is so important.

Our goal would be to make the community grow with users like us.
: )

Webmaster
www.CamChat.org

I’m often asked this so I thought I’d post something on it. First of all keep our objective in mind. To make the webcam community grow. Greeting the guest and getting them involved with the current conversation is the best way to make them feel welcome. In my first IRC Chatrooms I landed in, years ago, I was greeted. That made me want to stay. If I weren’t greeted and made to feel welcomed that day, I may not have stuck with it.

By greeting the guest we have the chance of making them stay just a moment longer. This can be a wonderful thing. If that guest stays just a moment longer, reading your text, we have a better chance of another person joining during that time. The first user sees people joining the room and a growing dynamic webcam community. The chat room will at that point start to grow. I’ve done it over and over.

Also remember we’re looking for that one-in-a-million chatter. You know the ones. The ones like every single one of you. Greeting is the best way to start that search.