The h Bar is always open! (Chat Guidelines)

Question

The main chat room for Physics SE is called the h Bar (yeah, it's a cool name); it has been an active place for a while now, and a lot of you have probably popped in at some point of time. However, some of the regulars recently got the feeling that chat isn't what it once was, and the consensus of that discussion was that codifying a bit of the room culture is certainly a step in the right direction. So we'd like to clarify some things:

• What are the rules?

• What to do when you're uncomfortable about something?

Answer 1

What are the rules?

• Be nice. Although chat is a place for casual conversation, swearing is generally frowned upon on SE, so be polite too. This is something you need to be particularly careful about when discussing sensitive topics like politics, sex, and religion.

• Don't use chat as a 'replacement' for the main site. Though we'll obviously talk a lot of physics, some questions are better off on the main site. In chat, people's answers won't be consistently indexed by search engines like Google, so they won't be 'contributing to a body of knowledge' or 'gaining internet points', so clearly questions are a lot more useful on the main site. Some questions which aren't great for the main site (I'm thinking of the opinion-based ones) are great for chat, but if someone tells you that the questions you're asking aren't suitable, please listen.

• Some things are better suited for other rooms. Homework-like questions are more welcome in the problem-solving room. That room has a few requirements which can be read about here. That being said, there's no requirement that conversations in the h Bar must be about physics.

• Try to use MathJax for typesetting mathematical expressions. It isn't enabled by default, but if you can follow the suggestions here, you can enable it for your browser or app. Here's a basic tutorial.

• Don't advertise your recent questions. If you just posted something on the main site, give it some time, and don't tell people to go there and look at it. Particularly by pinging people. That's rude. Those who can answer are already watching the queue on the main site!

• Don't interrupt ongoing conversations. One of the great things about Stack Exchange chat is that the reply system allows multiple conversations to take place simultaneously. But that only works if you're discreet, and you don't post walls of text which occupy space on the screens of people who're talking about something else. If there's a discussion taking place, scroll up to figure out what it's about, and don't force a change in topic (unless what's going on is actually harmful, of course).

• Don't ping random users. You may use pings, but responsibly and sparingly. Err on the side of not pinging when you're unsure that the pingee(s) would be interested in your message(s).

• Be patient. Don't appear entitled. Don't post the same thing multiple times just because the last version disappeared at the top. Even if there's another discussion going on, or nobody has acknowledged your message, understand that it's not considered important or actionable by the current residents, and don't push it again. You'll probably have better luck if you ask your question on the appropriate main site.

• Use correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar to the best of your ability. Avoid rapid, short messages and txt spk/l33tspeak. These are often hard to read and take up valuable screen space. Txt spk may save you time typing, but it imposes a huge reading overhead on others - you're simply offloading your communications work onto everyone else.

• Use stars reasonably. Read What are chat stars?. Stars shouldn't be used as "thank you" indicators. They should be used for useful/interesting stuff which you think should be seen by people who come by after the conversation has finished.

• Avoid speculating about user suspensions and pinging suspended users. The mods here prefer to not discuss suspension reasons in public and it's bad form to intentionally ping someone or talk about them when they can't reply.

• Don't expect users to respond in real-time. Think of chat as an asynchronous communication protocol. Instead of asking "Are you free for X minutes?" or "Can you answer a X minute question?" every time, directly type out the question you want to ask. That way, even after you've logged off, others can answer it. Then you have the answer the next time you log on. But if you just ask "Are you around, user X?", then, if user X is not around, you haven't gained anything. A late response is better than no response at all!

Yikes, that's a lot! What can I talk about then???

Anything! As I mentioned earlier, conversations are not restricted to physics, though we do like to move the homework and meta-physics SE-discussions elsewhere. Don't ask about asking, just ask! Really, The h Bar is full of people who're interested in all sorts of things.

Something's wrong...

If you see some obviously offensive or inappropriate messages, flag them. They will be dealt with appropriately. If there's a more general pattern which is worrying you, ping one of the room owners (ROs) or active moderators for anything that can wait, possibly with a request to talk privately if it's not suitable for public discussion.

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_{Note: 1. Parts adapted from the Math SE chat room guide and the Stack Overflow Python room rules. If you're new to Stack Exchange chat as a whole, also read through the chat faq. 2. A few edits were made while this post was part of the 'question', see the question's revision history for a list of edits. 3. This is a community wiki post for a reason! Feel free to suggest improvements by editing it. If you have some drastically different rules in mind or opinion about whether we should have rules or not, please write another answer.}

Answer 2

This is feedback for the content in the answer by Chair.

I think several of these points are well-intentioned but either overshoot their intention or make a point not actually in line with what is current practice in the room:

Some things are meant for other rooms: Meta-issues are frequently best off in the Physics meta chat room, and homework-like questions are more welcome in the Problem-solving room. The meta room is quite still, so you'll probably need to ping a person you'd like to talk to, and the problem-solving room has a few requirements which can be read about here. That being said, there's no requirement that conversations in the h bar must be about physics.

Remove the explicit mention of meta issues or the meta room. Meta issues are just fine in the h bar, as long as they don't drown out any other conversation, like any other topic. The meta chat room has always been used as an overflow room - i.e. a room to shift a meta discussion to when the h bar was otherwise busy or the discussion went on for a very long period of time - not as a "room for meta issues".

Avoid sensitive topics: These can range from local stuff like suspensions of users on Physics SE (which the mods here prefer to not discuss in public and is bad form when the user can't reply), to broader issues like politics, sex, and religion. They aren't strictly off-topic in the room, but we try to avoid them.

Split this into two parts. This point lumps together things which don't belong together. That we discourage discussion of suspensions and overly and/or unduly negative discussion of other users' behaviour is indeed a rule the moderators have adopted, and such discussion should indeed be avoided. However, discussion of other sensitive topics should not be avoided as such - you should just be especially certain that you discuss them in a respectful and considerate manner, and that you should be more than willing to drop the issue if someone expresses their discomfort with the topic. The canonical network-wide post on political discussion in chat is here. The bottom line is be respectful, not "don't talk about this".