MiceChat

MiceChat is a message board themed around fans of the Disney company and Disney theme parks. It is the sister site to MiceAge, a fan created Disney news and information site. The site had long received requests for a message board but did not act upon them. In January of 2005, several friends and fans of the site created their own message board, aptly titled MiceChat. The site had its first member register on January 10th, 2005, and continued to grow in popularity. Still under a year old, the site reached 3000 members on July 29th, 2005. As of September 17, 2005, MiceChat has 3450 members.

= Topics =

The site has added and removed various forums over time, but discussions on MiceChat generally fall into three catergories. There are columnist discussions, where users may discuss articles from MiceAge as well as pose questions to the authors. There are park and company discussions, where members can discuss news and provide critism and ideas for each of the Disney resorts around the world. There are also discussions on general entertainment, non-Disney theme parks, and the Disney company in general. Lastly, there are the lounges, which provide a place to discuss or annouce anything and everything. Discussions that are inappropriate or have gotten out of hand are moved to the litter box, which is separate from the rest of the board.

= Member Groups =

Aside from regular members, there are certain groups which help maintain various aspects of the board.

Administrators help moderate the discussions, and also are in charge of the upkeep of the boards software.

Moderators Help to moderate the discussion, making sure that discussion and content posted remains appropriate and family-friendly. They also have the power to edit, move or remove posts if necessary. While Moderators used to be assigned to one or two particular forums, they now moderate the entire board. Only moderators and administrators can view and post in the Moderator Forum, which allows for private discussion about the board by its staff.

MiceChat News Club Members maintain the MiceChat News forum, which showcases news about Disney and similar companies. This forum is not for discussion purposes and can only be posted in by News Club members.

MiceEars Crew Members write the weekly MiceChat Roundup, a selection of some of the most inteteresting and popular discussions from MiceChat, which is featured on MiceAge every Wednesday. Only MiceEars Crew Members can view and post in the MiceEars Crew Forum, which is used to discuss and plan upcoming roundups.

= Reputation =

MiceChat uses a system of reputation as a form of self-moderation. Members can give positive reputation to another member if they feel that member has made a positive contribution to the board. Members can also give negative reputation, which subtracts from positive reputation, if they feel someone has gone out of line or posted something mean-spirited or inappropriate.

The amount of reputation a member can give depends upon several factors, including, the amount of reputation they have, the amount of time they have been registered with the board and the amount of posts they have made. The reputation a member can give is called their Reputation Power Points , and is usually about 1% of their total reputation. The amount of negative reputation a member can give is about half of their reputation power points.

Members are limited in the number of times they give out reputation in a 24-hour period, and must give out reputation to several people before giving it to the same person twice.

All members start off with 10 reputation points. And reputation given by new members remains null until they have made 20 posts.

If a member s reputation falls below 0, they are only allowed to post in the Litter Box, which is separate from the rest of the board, until they receive enough positive rep that their reputation totals above zero and they can post regularly again. If a member s reputation falls below -500 they are automatically banned from the boards.

= Member Lingo =

Sock Puppet - A Sock Puppet is a duplicate account created by an existing member. Members are allowed only one account, and if caught Sock Puppeting may be banned.

Troll - A Troll is a member, usually new to the boards, who posts in an aggresive and mean spirited manner. Though members cannot be banned for being mean-spirited per se, such members are usually given plenty of negative repuation and are thus confined to the Litter Box or, in some cases, banned altogether.

YAGE - YAGE is an acronym for Yet Another Grand Exit . Usually used as a noun, the term is used to refer to someone who posts that they are leaving in an overly dramatic way.

Lurker - A Lurker is someone who browses or Lurks the boards without posting, or someone who says they are leaving the boards (See YAGE ) but continues to browse without posting.

= Links =

*[http://www.micechat.com MiceChat] *[http://www.miceage.com MiceAge]