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Would there be an interest in having more specialized chat rooms, like the one for homotopy theory that currently exists?

So far, the homotopy theory one seems to be fairly successful, and it seems that other topics might also enjoy a chat room like it.

Obviously, if such a chat room is to be useful, it will need to have at least a few experts interested in frequenting it, which would then mean that people should be at least somewhat sparing with pings.

I am posting this both as a general question about whether people would be interested in such chat rooms, and as a place where people can plan such chat rooms.

If you have a topic you would like a chat room for, put it as an answer. Upvotes for that answer should then be interpreted as someone saying "yes, I would use such a chat room to at least some extend" (preferably with a comment so it can be gauged who those people who are interested are).

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    $\begingroup$ I will add a link to a similar (at least to some extent) post on Mathematics Meta: List of chatrooms. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Sep 28, 2019 at 22:32
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps it is worth mentioning that there is a separate discussion here on meta related to the Homotopy Theory chat room: Homotopy chat room. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Sep 21, 2022 at 5:17

7 Answers 7

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July 3: Well, it is gone now; it is worth starting a chat room and just chatting with random strangers, until such time as people interested in that topic begin to post there. Jon started a Homotopy chat room. It turned out not to have MO as a parent. So I started one, and Jon and I chatted, then some homotopy people. After a bit, it was revealed that my room was also not MO. So Manish merged the two rooms, mushed the posts together.

So, I think the thing to do is settle on a title, begin chatting in the new room with anyone at all on MO, and try to get graduate students involved, because they are sufficiently hyper to keep a room going. Should that work, look for postdocs and new assistant professors in or near the field. Online chat does seem to be a matter of taste. The relatively stable configuration is one or two established people peering in when they have time and are in the right mood, answering questions. Time will tell whether it is possible to hold scheduled sessions with larger numbers of people peering in, informal seminar. Jon is trying something along those lines, so maybe we will be seeing that in the coming weeks.

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Some friends and I wanted a chat room based on geometry and QFT (and also whenever topology, representation theory, ... comes in). I've gone ahead and created it: https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/82100/geometryphysics. If you're interested, feel free to stop by!

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    $\begingroup$ The room has bee frozen for inactivity. If there is interest to discuss topics in that room again, any moderator can unfreeze it. (In fact, it can be a moderator from any site, no necessarily MathOverflow moderator. I have mentioned basic advice on unfreezing also in chat.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Sep 7, 2020 at 7:14
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It is a bit backwards to post here after creating the room, but well:

I created a specialised room though not in a math sense, but for questions related to editing, tagging and so on; it is called MO editors' lounge.

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    $\begingroup$ So if now one person joins the room it will be empty :-) $\endgroup$
    – user9072
    Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 7:16
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I think that adding a list of past chatrooms which are now frozen but have been active at least for some time might be a useful addition to this question.

If somebody considers creating a new chat room, looking at an older room with similar topic might help to see how much interest was in discussing that particular area in chat at that time. And additionally if somebody wants to start a room on the same topic, they might unfreeze the older room instead of starting from the scratch if they consider it for some reason better. (E.g., if the older room contains some interesting conversations, they would be more visible.)

I added the rooms I am aware of and made this post community wiki. Feel free to update the list of rooms.

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I would like to have a chat room for representation theory (though possibly "algebraic representation theory" would be more precisely the subject I mean when I say representation theory).

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  • $\begingroup$ It might be more effective to just start a room, and inhabit it for a while. If one doesn't have enough reputation to start a room, answer or ask enough questions in that area until one does. $\endgroup$
    – The Masked Avenger
    Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 13:07
  • $\begingroup$ @TheMaskedAvenger An unused chat room with just 1 person in it will not seem attractive to most people, so it will not in itself make people start using it. That is why I made this thread. $\endgroup$
    – Tobias Kildetoft
    Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 13:24
  • $\begingroup$ Indeed. So when you make it, start using it. People will then get a good idea from the existing transcript if they want to contribute, but people are more likely to join/contribute if there is an existing room as well as a (non-meta) question and comment pointing to the room. $\endgroup$
    – The Masked Avenger
    Commented Jul 3, 2013 at 13:30
  • $\begingroup$ Room created and an initial question/topic for discussion posted. Come one come all! $\endgroup$
    – Tobias Kildetoft
    Commented Jul 8, 2013 at 9:37
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I want to start chat room/reading room for

Is there any one interested for the same?

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I would like to see a chatroom that deals with group theory and group theoretic approaches to geometry. I know that geometry isn't a really fashionable subject right now, but I would like to talk to people who are interested in it.

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  • $\begingroup$ I don’t know what geometry you are talking about.. can you tell something more.. $\endgroup$
    – Praphulla Koushik
    Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 17:55
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    $\begingroup$ Not too long ago a Group Theory chatroom was created on Mathematics site - although so far it has not generated much activity. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Commented Aug 23, 2018 at 12:49

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