I’ve been monitoring the transcripts of the recent chats, and although I’ve been unable to attend any of them because of “LIFE” (if you know me, you know why) it has become clear that there really is no logical reason to continue paying for the chat room this time.

With the new season not currently schedule to start until January 2012, the earliest we probably would resume regular group chats would be some time at the end of December. Currently, it is not unusual for only 2-3 people to show up for the weekly chats, and even then the actual Southland discussions last about 5 minutes max, then the rest of the time is spent on personal discussions that could easily be done on personal Instant messaging or Facebook chat.

At our current rates, we are paying $15/month (thanks to paraChat giving us a DEEP discount) which would be $60-$75 between now and the end of the year. The problem is, I have received IN TOTAL only $117.00 ($111.42 after fees) in donations this year. So far this year, I have already paid $212.79 on the chat room and $578.23 total on the website, between the chat room, shipping for the charity auction and domain names. So, for 2011 alone, I am currently $466.81 in the hole, and that doesn’t count values brought forward from 2010.

Now, I love Southland, but we are NOT a 501(c)(3) non-profit or any other type of charity. I have to pay for this stuff out of pocket. If none of the users/fans consider it important enough to even contribute a measly $5 once in a while to help keep the site running, then I am not going to pay out of my pocket and take money from my family & my business to let people gossip and play around. It’s that simple.

Bottom line – if people want the site and the features it offers, then they need to put their money where their mouths are. Without the donations, and with everyone flocking here to Facebook instead of the website, I don’t see a need to continue the effort or the expenses.

Just shortly after Shawn Hatosy left our chat, C Thomas Howell joined us. This was the second time that he did! Per his request, we were not in the moderator’s mode so I hope you will be able to follow.

Also in the chat room at the same time was Lee Lofland, author of Police Procedure and Investigation, A Guide for Writers, host and founder of the Writers’ Police Academy, and who writes and maintains The Graveyard Shift, a blog for writers about cops and writers. Links will be found in the chat.

C_Thomas_Howell joined.
snowprince Just wanted to tell you Lee, great blog. Fellow retired bluesuit here
bob Tommy is back!
lisa0914 Wb, Cth!
coopman Cth
trojan yay!
gingercara Welcome back Tommy! (continue reading…)

Our regular Thursday night chat turned into a treat for fans when cast member Shawn Hatosy (Sammy) joined us for a Q&A chat. We went into moderator mode so as not to overwhelm Shawn with the nearly 175 questions that were submitted. Shortly after Shawn left, C Thomas Howell (Dewey) stopped by also. We will be posting that transcript in the next couple of days.

Make sure to join us every Thursday at 9:00 pm Eastern time for our weekly chat. We never know who will stop by to join us.

Below is a transcript and there are a couple of things you should know.

You will see the name of the person/chatter. The chatter’s name will have a letter in parenthesis after it, indicating that it is a Comment ( C ), Question ( Q ), or just a Post (P) to the chat room. If it’s a comment or question, then Shawn (“shawnyhats”) will have an Answer (A) following.

jbeaton(Q) Where was the scene filmed where the gang member had to dig the hole?

shawnyhats(A) Lancaster — way out in the middle of nowhere –the actor who played the banger was incredible

maryellen(Q) Shawn, is there going to be repercussions for Sammy for what he did to the banger?

shawnyhats(A) there might be more to this story — that’s all I’ll say

Kathryn(Q) What has been your favorite scene to shoot this season?

shawnyhats(A) All the scenes with Nate are memorable. I miss that guy — saw him last night at the wrap party (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: TNT/Doug Hyun

Our regular Thursday night Live Southland Chat turned out to be a real treat for fans of the show last week, as cast members Kevin Alejandro (Detective Nate Moretta) and Shawn Hatosy (Detective Sammy Bryant) joined us for an impromptu Q&A chat that was successful beyond our wildest dreams!

We quickly switched over to “Moderation Mode” in the chat room, so as not to swamp the poor guys with a million questions coming at them all at once. A million thanks to the very patient fans who sat through the crickets chirping for a long time of silence, while both the moderators and the special guests quickly had to learn a few tricks about how to use the tools, but then things picked up steam and we were off! According to my very able and brilliant moderators, @lvmyjags and @jennnoe13 (who did an OUTSTANDING job!) Kevin and Shawn responded to nearly 100 questions combined during the chat. That’s quite a feat!

Not only did we get this once-in-a-lifetime chance to chat with both of these wonderful men, immediately following the tragic events of Tuesday night’s episode, Code 4, focusing on them and culminating in Nate’s death, but we set a record for the site as well. We actually maxed out the chat room for the first time since we introduced our live chat service. Not once, but consistently several times throughout the evening we had full capacity of 50 chatters in the room! Not bad for an all volunteer, donation-only supported site, wouldn’t you say?
(continue reading…)

In anticipation of SouthLAnd‘s season 3 premier on January 4, 2010, SouthlandTvFans.com is going to be hosting a chat room party, SouthLAnd style of course!

Every Tuesday beginning December 7th at 9 pm EST until the premier, we will be having a LIVE chat in our chat room here on the site. Chatting is easy! You can chat from just about every current browser that supports Java (IE7 or higher, FireFox, Safari, Chrome and Opera), iPhones, iPads, iPods, and pretty much any current mobile phone. Why not try it out before the big event – just visit our chat room page at http://www.southlandtvfans.com/chat – the room is always open!

For our special hosted Tuesday chats, we will be discussing everything SouthLAnd: past, present and future. Everyone is invited. Hope to see you there!