On September 2, 2009 we made a major change to how the chatroom operates. Previously, when a guest in the chatroom became unruly, our only option to stop them from disrupting the chatroom was to kick them out of the chatroom completely. This stopped the disruption but it also caused another problem by denying the guest access to emergency information.

To prevent this, we have enabled a new feature called "voice." As many guests have asked, "voice" does not mean the chatroom now has audio. It means that as long as you have that speaker next to your chat nickname, other guests in the chatroom can see what you type. When a guest joins the chatroom, they are given the ability to chat with everyone in the chatroom just like they always have. But if the guest becomes unruly and disrupts the chatroom, our moderators have the option to remove their "voice" which will prevent them from typing in the chatroom while still being able to see what is being said by others. This new feature allows us to stop the disruption while at the same time not denying anyone access to information they need in an emergency.