We’re testing a live chat for Monday’s game, come check it out!

For nearly two decades, Game Threads have been a hallmark of the Athletics Nation community. Every day we log on and watch the A’s game together, celebrating every highlight and bemoaning every misplay and making endless puns, all in real time.

On Monday, we’re going to test out something new. SB Nation is developing a Live Chat tool to use during games, and we’re giving it a spin for Oakland’s evening affair against the Arizona D’Backs, in place of the normal Game Thread.

To be clear, this is only a test. We’re not rolling out a massive new permanent change out of left field. We’re going back to the usual Game Thread on Tuesday. The goal here is to fully try this thing out once in real life and get everybody’s feedback, and there will be a survey available afterward for you to tell us what you thought of it.

Here’s how it will work. You’ll see a new article in the top spot of the front page like always, and the chat will go live 10 minutes before first pitch. Note that it might ask you to confirm your email, but you won’t need to sign up for anything new beyond just logging in to your existing AN account. Just enter your email so we can spam your inbox verify you.

Rather than a comments section at the bottom, you’ll see a chat window that looks mostly similar to what you’re used to. Type your comment and post just like always.

What differences will you notice? The thread is purely chronological, so even if you reply to a previous comment, your reply will show up all the way at the bottom of the chat as the newest entry (with a notation about what you were responding to). That removes the need for a “new comment” indicator, because there’s simply a line underneath the last comment you read so you know everything below has come since.

The chat also has some auto-moderating features. However, they’re aimed at abusive and offensive language rather than mere obscenity, so the goal isn’t to stop you from dropping f-bombs while watching sports.

Across the Bay, the McCovey Chronicles community took their test drive on Friday, and you can click here to see what it looks like. Warning that the link takes you to a Giants site, gross, my apologies.

See you Monday at 6:30 p.m. PT for our turn! If you have any further questions, I’ll answer what I can below in the comments.