Hello,
Currently, channels are only used for administrators and helpers.
That's a great debate, whether or not they should also be available to everyone.
The big questions are always the same, it's essentially about moderation and potential abuses.
If we want to make channels available to everyone, we need first to set clear ruples on what is allowed or not, who can create/join/kick, who can see where you are, etc.
In fact it's quite complex, much more than tables, because you can be in many channels at the same time.
I understand the interest.
It's true that it could be interesting to have channels for specific topics, or for users of languages that don't have official translations.
I'll try to talk about that possibility again to other admins and helpers.
However, for globals like shout or goship, it's a clear and definitive no way!, because it would allow to work around the chat interdiction in the home room.
We have forbidden chat in the home room because helpers aren't and can't be active enough to ensure near 24/7 presence.
We have seen it often enough in the past: if there's nobody to keep an eye on what's going on, problems come very quickly.
YNWA didn't brough it very well, but there's also still the question of duality between channels and free tables.
If channels were there, what would be the usefulness of free tables then ?