Personally I have the sound and notifications off and don’t mind the chatting at all, but that also means I ignore the chat while working. I think chatting for introduction and about goals, expectations is crucial and should be limited only if it becomes about non-productive-related stuff.
Perhaps a second room with more or less chat (or other guidelines) will be good if more people join in, but now I think focus should be more on coming up with correct guidelines.
I valued the bit of chatting we did a lot. It creates a community feeling , and helps with actually getting me to work :)
But indeed, some people are distracted by the chatting. Having a “lobby” would work. Then the study room could be quiet most of the time, except when the joint hour-synced Pomodoro finishes. If you want to hang out but aren’t working, you remove yourself from the study room. These would be simple but effective guidelines, I think.
If people can turn off sounds and notifications, we probably don’t have to worry about bothering others by chatting outside of a break. So we could just have a recommendation that you are allowed to chat anytime, but chatting at times HH:25 -- HH:29 and HH:55 -- HH:59 is a Shelling point.
We can encourage this norm by saying “break” and “break over” at the specified time.
If people can turn off sounds and notifications, we probably don’t have to worry about bothering others by chatting outside of a break.
I would think so too, but at least 1 person has requested chats that chats be at a minimum, even if he turned off the sound and notifications.
Besides that, a lobby has the advantage that you can hang out without working. Here’s the failure mode I’m anticipating and trying to avoid: Let’s say this becomes big, and there’s plenty of people in the study room. Some will just hang out, and not specifically be working at that time. This creates an environment in which it feels “okay” to just hang out and not work when you’re there.
The problem with no notifications is that because you’re still in a room where interesting stuff is going on, of course you’ll check the chat history and/or join the people already chatting. (Unless you use up willpower not to, but the whole point is using less of that.)
Having a 25 min work + 5 min chat cycle seems to be a good thing though; start working because everyone else went silent is so much easier as going back to the “library” while everyone else is still talking in the lobby. If you’re working, don’t go there, that’s it.
Actually, how about “24 Hour International Study Hall?” Its way less prestigious sounding, but a better descriptor and more likely to catch people’s attention.
I like simplicity and would prefer something shorter (it does sound representitive though), but wouldn’t really care about the name as long as the system is working and has (my preference) people from less wrong working there.
Personally I have the sound and notifications off and don’t mind the chatting at all, but that also means I ignore the chat while working. I think chatting for introduction and about goals, expectations is crucial and should be limited only if it becomes about non-productive-related stuff.
Perhaps a second room with more or less chat (or other guidelines) will be good if more people join in, but now I think focus should be more on coming up with correct guidelines.
I valued the bit of chatting we did a lot. It creates a community feeling , and helps with actually getting me to work :)
But indeed, some people are distracted by the chatting. Having a “lobby” would work. Then the study room could be quiet most of the time, except when the joint hour-synced Pomodoro finishes. If you want to hang out but aren’t working, you remove yourself from the study room.
These would be simple but effective guidelines, I think.
If people can turn off sounds and notifications, we probably don’t have to worry about bothering others by chatting outside of a break. So we could just have a recommendation that you are allowed to chat anytime, but chatting at times HH:25 -- HH:29 and HH:55 -- HH:59 is a Shelling point.
We can encourage this norm by saying “break” and “break over” at the specified time.
I would think so too, but at least 1 person has requested chats that chats be at a minimum, even if he turned off the sound and notifications.
Besides that, a lobby has the advantage that you can hang out without working. Here’s the failure mode I’m anticipating and trying to avoid: Let’s say this becomes big, and there’s plenty of people in the study room. Some will just hang out, and not specifically be working at that time. This creates an environment in which it feels “okay” to just hang out and not work when you’re there.
The problem with no notifications is that because you’re still in a room where interesting stuff is going on, of course you’ll check the chat history and/or join the people already chatting. (Unless you use up willpower not to, but the whole point is using less of that.)
Having a 25 min work + 5 min chat cycle seems to be a good thing though; start working because everyone else went silent is so much easier as going back to the “library” while everyone else is still talking in the lobby. If you’re working, don’t go there, that’s it.
What do you think of “International Study Hall” as a name for this?
Having spent the day on there, I think that is a decent descriptor for setting expectations and I like the ring :)
Not “Common Room”? Ravenclaw or otherwise?
Too obvious? :)
Ooh, I do like that too :)
Actually, how about “24 Hour International Study Hall?” Its way less prestigious sounding, but a better descriptor and more likely to catch people’s attention.
I like simplicity and would prefer something shorter (it does sound representitive though), but wouldn’t really care about the name as long as the system is working and has (my preference) people from less wrong working there.