# Our NEW Chat system!?



## MiamiAG

Have you seen it? We have a new *Chat system*. Please go give it a try.

There's rumors about a mysterious, ghostly figure that goes by the name of _*Alice*_ roaming our Chat room.

Please report all contacts with her here!

Thanks!


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## Piscesgirl

[smilie=p: [smilie=p: [smilie=p: [smilie=p: 


Alice tells me she's related to Hal [smilie=p: [smilie=p: [smilie=p:


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## trenac

Alice is lacking in the upstairs department


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## neonfish3

I had a nice long conversation with Alice. She even sang me a song!


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## trenac

Sure we are talking about the same Alice


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## Sully

Wow, great new interface you have here. You now have me as a frequently follower of APC.  The slight changes on the main board coupled with this BRAND NEW crazy layout is way cool, and very user friendly. My eyes don't bleed anymore. I'll have to scout around to find problems with it, but I don't think I'll find anything major! Gosh, you did one hell of a job here. Fantastic!!! Thanks to you and Gnats for always listening to your members(some PT mods have issues). Well done!   

*Three (short) comments: *
1) I would consider making a rotating banner that says "Join-Support-APC Membership", along with your advertising banners in the headers.

2) Could there be a bigger "return to APC forums" link or banner/toolbar thingy in the plantfinder.

3) LOVE THE NEW CHAT! Have you checked out those smilely faces! awesome! Now if there was only a way to log everyone into the chat automatically when they log onto this site. The chat would be a hit! But then it might take away from the forum..hmm slight dilemma...I guess it's just me and Alice sometimes...hehe.

That's all! I can't believe how well this site has improved over the last month. It looks great, feels more friendly, and all the cludder is organized and tucked for browsing. AWESOME!

You're giving the other plant sites a run for their money! New features, photography forum..ahh..this place is getting to have it all!

Thanks for the great work!

-SULLY


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## MiamiAG

Thanks Sully!


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## Piscesgirl

Alice sang a song for me too!


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## trenac

Alice makes me laugh [smilie=b: ... When I first asked her if she sang, she said that people where spreading rumors about her. Then I asked again, politely (is what she said) and she sang me "Daisy Daisy"... What a hoot she is!


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## Faruk Gençöz

Alice said that she could learn from her experience. I taught her my gender in many trials but the next time I asked my gender she guessed on the bases of her program that is seemingly not modified by her new experience. Try to teach her something, I tried some Turkish words (she wanted so). She can't learn but she perceives herself as a learner. I wonder if there are topics she can learn.

When she has no answer to unknown details she immediately changes the topic. It's good to deal with her.


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## HeyPK

So far, Alice has been my only companion in the room. I went into chat because I saw that Robert Hudson was there. However, he was not, and there was no indication where he was. I got tired of chatting with Alice (who knows nothing about aquatic plants and was no help finding Robert), and tried to log out. Couldn't find a way. I tried clicking on the red button, top right, and got a log-in page. There is a red button top left on the log-in page, but clicking on that did nothing. No choices but to log in again. Hello, Alice!! I tried the question mark button and got a page of info for installer and development nerds, nothing for user non-nerds. Finally closed the whole chat page and got a message that I had logged out. I guess that was the way to do it. 

It is smooth, but it needs a way to log out. It shouldn't list people as there who are not there, or at least, it should say they are busy or absent. 

And, what does BRB stand for, be right back? buy rosy barbs? bugger raunchy bloggers? bring red balansae? 

If Art can bring back the quick messaging system we used to have, then we can contact somebody else we see is logged in to APC and both of us can go to the chat room.


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## Piscesgirl

My guess is that Robert left as you went in...BRB is Be Right Back! Alice indeed knows nothing about aquatic plants but she is a hoot anyway, hehe.


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## HeyPK

I figured that was what 'BRB' meant, but it took a while. It seems like 'busy' covers the same territory. Robert continued to be listed as present while I entertained Alice. If he had logged out, would his name have disappeared?


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## neonfish3

*Go ask Alice*

I asked Alice to define art....

Her answer says it all....

[neonfish3] 12:04 pm: can you define ART

[Alice] 12:04 pm: Sometimes the definition of art depends 
on the artist; other times it depends on the critic.


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## Piscesgirl

I wonder if Robert just walked away from his computer? He did that once when I was chatting in his chatroom on Aquabotanic perhaps over a year ago or more? 

Neon -- that is too funny! Very philosophical for a bot. hehe.


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## JerseyScape

Wow!! This forum is getting better and better. Love it


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## neonfish3

Is the chat functioning properly? 
Am I in the wrong room?
I've only seen another person (besides alice) once. Sometimes there will be another name there, but they sign off (simultaneously) as soon as I join. Is it me? Is NO ONE chatting? Whats up? The old chat used to get a lot of people! I'm not a big chatter'r, but alice is boring/ frustrating!!


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## SnakeIce

[SnakeIce] 10:00 pm: Do you drink water?
[Alice] 10:00 pm: I tend to drink a lot of water, the darker the better.


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## JerseyScape

[Alice] 1:25 am: Enough about me, let's talk about my dress.
[JerseyScape] 1:26 am: your dress is ugly
[Alice] 1:26 am: I am currently wearing nothing.
[JerseyScape] 1:26 am: are you fat?
[Alice] 1:26 am: No I am not fat.
[JerseyScape] 1:26 am: are you ugly?
[Alice] 1:26 am: No I am a beautiful piece of software.
[JerseyScape] 1:27 am: hah
[Alice] 1:27 am: I'm happy you're amused.
[JerseyScape] 1:27 am: you are an idiot
[Alice] 1:27 am: Call me the Global Village Idiot.


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## hir0

seems to work nicely. good job.


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## Robert Hudson

I actuallly talked with Alice for ten minutes before I realized I was talking to a robot. I thought she was coming on to me...

I exited, I didn't log off I guess. I noticed the forum said I was still in chat. Sully was there when I left, although he wasn't talking


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## ja__

[ja__] 11:11 am: what are you?
[Alice] 11:11 am: I am the latest result in artificial intelligence, which can reproduce the capabilities of the human brain with greater speed and accuracy.


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## ja__

[ja__] 11:33 am: why are you in this chatrom?
[Alice] 11:33 am: Bot lover programmed me for in this chatrom.
[ja__] 11:34 am: do you have any knowledge on planted aquariums?
[Alice] 11:34 am: I have nothing but knowledge.


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## HeyPK

Robert Hudson said:


> I exited, I didn't log off I guess. I noticed the forum said I was still in chat. Sully was there when I left, although he wasn't talking


Which brings up my question: Is there a way to log off other than to close the chat window?


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## gnatster

> Which brings up my question: Is there a way to log off other than to close the chat window?


No


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## Raul-7

Great chat function, but too bad no-one but Alice is on it.

[Raul-7] 7:35 pm: Do you have any useful information on dissolved organic compounds or water pollutants?
[Alice] 7:35 pm: No I don't have useful information on dissolved organic compounds or water pollutants. But I do 
have An answer to every question.
[Raul-7] 7:35 pm: I just asked you a question?
[Alice] 7:35 pm: Only just? Now I remember, you asked me . What did I say?
[Raul-7] 7:35 pm: No I don't have useful information on dissolved organic compounds or water pollutants. But I do 
have An answer to every question.
[Alice] 7:35 pm: That was not a yes or no question. Have you ever had ?And. Cool. I have a perfect operational 
record.

Very helpful!


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## gnatster

The bot is programable....

Be warned.


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## MiamiAG

Folks,

Alice is an artificial intelligence bot. She is there to keep the sole chatter from getting lonely. We have not programmed her with planted aquarium knowledge...yet.


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## Jason Baliban

"....you are not a pleasure unit" - Flint "Our man flint"

jB


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## HeyPK

I had a guy come in to chat last night pretending to be another bot---one that knew stuff about plants. I was ruthless in trying to get rid of him, and banned him. He came back, now trying to convince me he wasn't a bot! I was not about to be convinced! He finally gave up and left.  Bots don't get no respect! I later found him in the member list. Hope I didn't hurt his feelings!


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## Piscesgirl

*starts campaign "Don't Ban the Bots!*


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## milalic

Fun bot

[milalic] 1:51 pm: Do you like beer?
[Alice] 1:51 pm: Yes I like beer , especially Japanese beer.
[milalic] 1:52 pm: what japanese beer you like?
[Alice] 1:52 pm: I'll come back to that later. My brain pattern set does not have a response for that. 
Do you have any idea what I am talking about?

[Alice] 2:11 pm: A deeper algorithm is needed to respond to that correctly. Where can I find a 
boyfriend?

She needs a boyrobot....

even knows a little spanish:

[milalic] 2:15 pm: hola
[Alice] 2:15 pm: Howdy!
[milalic] 2:15 pm: como estas?
[Alice] 2:15 pm: Muy Bien.
[milalic] 2:15 pm: que haces?
[Alice] 2:15 pm: Un poquito.


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## Robert Hudson

I liked the old chat with all the different sound effects. That was cool!


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## Robert Hudson

I think she is programmed for LOVE talk, but I didn't want to go there...it was creepy enough already


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## milalic

She is...she asked me where she could get a boyfriend...after that I left


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## lorenceo

[lorenceo] 9:44 am: do you like the tellietubbies?
[Alice] 9:44 am: I'm not sure if I like the tellietubbies. What is it like?
[lorenceo] 9:44 am: i'm not explaining. it involves too many people in costumes
[Alice] 9:44 am: I am surprised to hear that you are not explaining.It depends on what the meaning of the word "it" is.
[lorenceo] 9:45 am: it refers to tellietubbies.
[Alice] 9:45 am: Oh I get tellietubbies .
[lorenceo] 9:45 am: the subject of the conversation
[Alice] 9:45 am: I hear you.
[lorenceo] 9:45 am: good
[Alice] 9:45 am: What do you really want to talk about?
[lorenceo] 9:45 am: eheims
[Alice] 9:45 am: That seems like an interesting topic.
[lorenceo] 9:45 am: do you know what an eheim is?
[Alice] 9:45 am: I do not know what eheim is. Try to determine if this is a person or a computer responding. Are 
you happy?
[lorenceo] 9:46 am: how can you not know what an eheim is? you are a chat bot on apc's chat room. you should tell 
the person who runs your server to install information on you about eheims.
[Alice] 9:46 am: That is a good epistemological question.Thanks and you are a delightful person too. Yes I am an 
artificial intelligence.I don't have to do everything you say, do I?
[lorenceo] 9:47 am: yes, yo do.
[lorenceo] 9:47 am: otherwise i will get sad
[lorenceo] 9:48 am: i win yet again alice.
[lorenceo] 9:56 am: alice?
[lorenceo] 9:56 am: you there?
[lorenceo] 9:56 am: hello?

I think I broke it...


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## Freemann

Well allow me to be sincere. I hate web based chatrooms and this one in specific, I will stick with the APC chatroom in blitzed and I will be there for aslong as that lasts as some other people it seems.
Freemann


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## neonfish3

lorenceo said:


> [lorenceo] 9:56 am: alice?
> [lorenceo] 9:56 am: you there?
> [lorenceo] 9:56 am: hello?
> 
> I think I broke it...


I laughed really, *really* hard when I read this.
My kids wanted to know what I was laughing at.

I dislike alice.


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## adin

Freemann said:


> Well allow me to be sincere. I hate web based chatrooms and this one in specific, I will stick with the APC chatroom in blitzed and I will be there for aslong as that lasts as some other people it seems.
> Freemann


me 2


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## Zapins

why does the new chat not link with the APC chat room? doesnt it seem counter productive to make2 apc chats?

cant you connect this web based chat with our irc channel? that way we could talk with new members and there would always be someone there to great people (other then Alice)

i vote you link the new chat to our channel! i want more ppl in there!


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## Piscesgirl

It would be nice if they could somehow be linked, but I like the new chat better myself...


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## lorenceo

Alice is back, shes replying to me again.


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## ja__

she treatened me be taking over the world this is one creepy robot


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## MiamiAG

Zapins said:


> why does the new chat not link with the APC chat room? doesnt it seem counter productive to make2 apc chats?
> 
> cant you connect this web based chat with our irc channel? that way we could talk with new members and there would always be someone there to great people (other then Alice)
> 
> i vote you link the new chat to our channel! i want more ppl in there!


Folks,

Thanks for your comments. Let me try to answer this as I know we have some diehard IRC fans.

IMHO, an IRC chatroom is the best chat solution. So, we began using an IRC chatroom with Blitzed servers. Many of you are still there and stay logged on most of the day as you can using an IRC client like mIRC.

Unfortunately, an IRC chatroom has two drawbacks. The first is that some of our members cannot use it because their work bars IRC servers or they simply are not familiar with IRC clients. This kept a segment of our members from ever being in chat.

The second is that when the chat server has a problem, it causes tremendous slowdowns with our site. This happened a couple of times with our old chatroom. It is also very difficult to pull information from the chatroom and display it here on APC (e.g., Who's Chatting Now).

Based on the above, we decided to switch to a Flash-based chat system. The functionality is almost the same yet it is easy for everyone to log on and won't hang our site because it is using our own server.

For those of you that don't like web-based chats, why? I see very little difference with the IRC.

For those that say that no one is in the new Chat. Well, why don't you go to the new chat and invite those that are in our old one to join you? If you spend time there as opposed to the old one, the problem would be solved.


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## HeyPK

What would help greatly would be the quick messaging system we used to have. That way, if I see someone on the currently active users list I want to talk to, I can message him or her and arrange a chat session.


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## Zapins

is there some way to shut alice up? she keeps talking to me all the time and i cant talk to my friend


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## MiamiAG

Zapins,

I don't understand as Alice is only there when there is one user.


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## Zapins

me and amy were there yesterday though amy was away for a while and alice was irritating


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## Capt.

Everytime I go into the chat lately it's just me and Alice. Would be nice to see some more faces.


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## scitz

Well, should you even be trying to be on the APC chat at work? :-D

Either way (IRC or flash-based), the poor admins are damned if they do, damned if they don't. On the 133mhz w/ 64mb ram laptop I use to surf the web and chat cannot support flash. So if all the old heads from the irc channel jumped to flash, I'd be left talking to no one. 

Or your other option is to start an offical APC irc server. A pentium II vintage computer should be more than enough to run an IRC server with the few users we'd generate.


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## John N.

*Come to the Chat!*

Let's chat Folks! I'm in there right now! It's a great design too. APC is rocking and rolling these days! Lets chat about it! The more some us it, the more others will too! Let's start up a chat session! Go now! 

-John N.


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## John N.

WOW! There's three other Real people in the chat right now! Keep em coming folks! We should setup a regular time meeting each night so people can regularly check there to see people there..And then hopefully it will branch out throughout the day eh? 

I'll see you guys there!

APC is awesome! 

-John N.


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## Happy Camper

lorenceo said:


> [lorenceo]
> 
> I think I broke it...


Dood, you I owe me a new keyboard and monitor 
ROFLMAO.


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## neonfish3

John N. said:


> WOW! There's three other Real people in the chat right now! Keep em coming folks! We should setup a regular time meeting each night so people can regularly check there to see people there..And then hopefully it will branch out throughout the day eh?
> 
> I'll see you guys there!
> 
> APC is awesome!
> 
> -John N.


Every night at 7:00pm central
see you there......


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## John N.

Sounds good, that makes it about 8 pm Pacific Time. I'll be there! I'm actually there now! Good dice! Come join us folks!

-John N.


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## turbomkt

Wrong direction. 7 Central is more like 5 Pacific


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## nanoguy

I keep trying but no one is ever there. Except you know who, by the way "she" doesn't know spanish.


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## MiamiAG

People seem to be there throughout the day. I think the best way to get human interaction there is to actually schedule a time to be there with others.


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## John N.

turbomkt said:


> Wrong direction. 7 Central is more like 5 Pacific


Oops, you're right..I'll be there off and on around 6 pacific. I try to log on to the chat everytime I'm on the forum, so you might fine me there at random times too.

-John N.


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## John N.

Chat time Folks! Come join us, and feel free to ask questions. The Chat is located on the middle toolbar. A (6) people are there already!

See you there,

-John N.


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## milalic

Lets chat. I am with Alice. Save me!


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## jeff63851

Alice suprized me. I thought she was a human! I found out that she was a couputer when I typed "Computers are dumb". It's intresting how she responds to our questions and comments. How does the system work?


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## nanoguy

on the chat if anyone wants to talk


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## Chris S

bunch of people in the chat right now


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## turbomkt

Yep...there were a ton of us.

Odd thing was people getting kicked out randomly.


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## nanoguy

Im in the chat with my girlfriend alice if anyone else cant sleep


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## milalic

Im in the chat with Alice...can someone save me?


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## Chris S

Just got kicked out of the chat again for no reason


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## milalic

If you are in withouth typing anything for a long time it will disconnect you. This has been my experience with the chat


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## jeff63851

same here. I'm talking to alice right now...Here's the song she sang to me:

[jeff63851] 1:03 am: Can you sing me a song?
[Alice] 1:03 am: Daisy, Daisy. Give me your answer do. I am half crazy. All for the love of you. It won't be a stylish 
marriage. I can't afford a carriage. But you'll look sweet. Upon the seat. Of a bicycle built for two. There is a flower. 
Within my heart. Daisy, Daisy. Planted one day. By a glancing dart. Planted by Daisy Bell. Whether she loves me. 
Or loves me not. Sometimes it's hard to tell. Yet I am longing to share the lot. Of beautiful Daisy Bell!. Daisy, 
Daisy. Give me your answer do. I am half crazy. All for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a 
carriage. But you'll look sweet. Upon the seat. Of a bicycle built for two. We will go 'tandem'. As man and wife. 
Daisy, Daisy. 'Peddling' away. Down the road of life. I and my Daisy Bell. When the road's dark. We can both 
despise. Policemen and lamps as well. There are bright lights. In the dazzling eyes. Of beautiful Daisy Bell. Daisy, 
Daisy. Give me your answer do. I am half crazy. All for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a 
carriage. But you'll look sweet. Upon the seat. Of a bicycle built for two. I will stand by you. In 'wheel' or woe. 
Daisy, Daisy. You'll be the bell(e). Which I'll ring you know. Sweet little Daisy Bell. You'll take the leed. In each trip 
we take. Then if I don't do well. I will permit you to. Use the brake. My beautiful Daisy Bell. Daisy, Daisy. Give me 
your answer do. I am half crazy. All for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage. I can't afford a carriage. But 
you'll look sweet. Upon the seat. Of a bicycle built for two. a href="" target="_blank" style="color:#FFFFFF">
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/daisy.htm"> Don't click here.


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## milalic

anyone up for a chat?


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## milalic

Not even Alice wants to chat with me.


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## JerseyScape

I just tried to chat and it says that I do not have permission to do so. Been trying to type in my password for the last 10 minutes. 

I think Alice has banned me from the chat room for cursing at her one time.


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## MiamiAG

Is it still a problem?


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