The Chat Box/Shout Box/TagBoard

[Harry]

I like a cbox on my sites, to an extent, but in my experience, they tend to abused a lot. I've found that that is where most, if not all of the drama is caused there. Excessive spamming also detracts from people posting, especially at times when the site is most active. Personally, I think it's a privilege, not a right. If you're really that desperate to talk to somebody, PMs are fine.

Then again, the longest I've taken away the cbox is about a day (because of spam) and I found that people just spammed the actual boards instead, so the whole thing was pretty pointless. I'd rather the spam keep to the cbox than cluttering up the main body of the site, if I'm honest.

[Andrea]

Sept 12, 2010 1:51:55 GMT -8 Xylish said:

If guests want to ask a question, join the board and ask it!

That's incredibly annoying, as a staff member, to force a guest to join a forum just to ask a question. Personally, this is why I make my questions board accessible by guests. Nonetheless, if it weren't, that's not fair to the guest to be forced to join just to ask a question.

I support Chatboxes on RPG forums. However, I do not support them on chat forums, as that kind of takes away from the whole point of the forum itself. On RPG's, however, because everyone is posting In Character, a chatbox is good to talk with other members Out of Character.

[garth]

I enjoy having a chat-box for my sites, but what I hate most is when a site has a both a Chatbox and a RPing chatbox, which makes many problems. The activity of that site has kinda died, although i do occasionally sign in to see whats going on. Anyways back to point, C-box's are a great way for guests to feel welcome, and an easy way for people to find an open thread.

[Ellis]

C-boxes/Shout Boxes are really a double-edged sword.

On the plus side, they allow quick access. Have a question about the board? Ask a member and get in instant response instead of having to wait for them to happen to look at the 'ask a question' board.

It draws in players for the fun of having the dang thing when otherwise they'd just check their posts and leave. The longer they're there, the more likely they are to be around to respond.

On the other hand, its fun can take away from RP if people live in the box and don't actually post that often (myself included).

However, I think on balance, it's a good thing to have.

[Owlstar]

I have one on mine for a few reasons. One is because it's easier to post than in boards. There's a general board and other boards so you can still have more in-depth conversations. It also helps if you're visiting a site and you can post a quick comment on the site, like, "Your affiliate is up on my forum." Or something. It also helps because if you're waiting for someone to respond to you and they're not one for reading PMs, you can just be like, "Hey, respond here!" So they can come in handy.

[tlbzeph]

The site I go on has one, and I am planning on putting on my WIP site. I find it fun to be able to chat with other members while you have nothing to do, and it seems to get mambers closer together. The site I visit is an RP forum, so the cbox is also useful for finding people to thread with you. Also, you can get some quick help or advise from other members without having to start a new topic. The only problems I have ever had with it is sometimes it won't load, but that is inevitable on the internet. So no, I do not think that cboxes stop activity on forums, at least in my experiance.

[Ara (Crow)]

I always include a chat on my sites, not only do they provide a way for members to communicate with each other without having to post over and over again on the boards, but they also make it easier for staff to take care of things. When someone asks a question in the chat it certainly takes less time to answer than if they posted a thread somewhere, or PM'd someone. They're also a reason for members to go to the site, so they can talk with their friends.

As stated before, it's also good for odd site relationships, such as a problem with advertising or for affiliating.

[Reverie]

I just recently added this to my forum. I'd prefer not to have it guest friendly. Someone mentioned that it's good for the guest to know that we can have fun. True but I'd be concerned about the guests spamming. There are blocking features but I'd rather keep the room open to members and let them enjoy it. It's something that will become big as the site grows.

In terms of addressing the point about its use on a forum: Yes, message boards allows members to post comments and give their two cents. It lets them interact with other members and discuss specific topics about music, sports, video games, ect. But the chat room I feel is a place to goof around and just relax. You're not restricted to staying on topic (assuming those are the rules for the majority of forums) and messaging is easier, quicker and convenient. In laments terms, a chat room is unrestricted and message boards are more organized.

[Former Member]

I personally think that a chatbox can be very useful to a forum and I don' think it takes away activity on the forum. It allows people to easily talk to each other on the forum instead of filling up all the threads.

[Des]

Well, see when I first started roleplaying, I used to go on sites without chat boxes. So in the end while I did end up roleplaying a lot I barely ever knew any of the members on the site itself. Unless we RPed together a lot and then ended up using PMs or whatever. After a while, I started joining sites with c-boxes, and I found myself feeling a little out-classed because loads of stuff would happen on the c-boxes while I was sleeping (different timezones) or because I was just shy and I'd feel unwelcome and eventually leave the site. However, now that I actually post in the c-box I've made loads of friends, had some awesome conversation, some whole scale drama in the in-character c-box and it hasn't affected roleplaying at all - in fact, its a place to plot, to ask people if they'd like to roleplay and make some friends [OOC] and to play out minor character plots that don't warrant a thread [IC]. So therefore, I really don't feel c-boxes take away from the site, in fact, I now would hate to join a site without one because again I'd feel like I don't know anyone - however, admins MUST try to make the new members feel welcome in the c-box and otherwise.

[Former Member]

Jun 29, 2011 9:34:05 GMT -8 Des said:

Well, see when I first started roleplaying, I used to go on sites without chat boxes. So in the end while I did end up roleplaying a lot I barely ever knew any of the members on the site itself. Unless we RPed together a lot and then ended up using PMs or whatever. After a while, I started joining sites with c-boxes, and I found myself feeling a little out-classed because loads of stuff would happen on the c-boxes while I was sleeping (different timezones) or because I was just shy and I'd feel unwelcome and eventually leave the site. However, now that I actually post in the c-box I've made loads of friends, had some awesome conversation, some whole scale drama in the in-character c-box and it hasn't affected roleplaying at all - in fact, its a place to plot, to ask people if they'd like to roleplay and make some friends [OOC] and to play out minor character plots that don't warrant a thread [IC]. So therefore, I really don't feel c-boxes take away from the site, in fact, I now would hate to join a site without one because again I'd feel like I don't know anyone - however, admins MUST try to make the new members feel welcome in the c-box and otherwise.

I completely agree with you

[Trublu]

Jun 29, 2011 9:35:44 GMT -8 @ncxpain said:

I completely agree with you

Hi,

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[Luke]

I would have to say I'm against them. Although my forum may have one, I feel as though it takes some activity out of the forum. Guests ask for code support and requests in there which could be useful posts/threads in the forum. With v5 i will keep the chat-box which comes with v5 though, as it's still a great part of your forum.

[niyx]

I love chat boxes :3 They are a great way to casually chat with your members and get to know everyone. I use the C-Box, which you have to refresh to check for messages, and I have never had a problem with it stealing activity from the forum. However, I once used an instant messaging chat/shout box that was really distracting. It was one of those ones that made a 'beep' whenever somebody messaged, and it definitely hogged most of the attention.

As for spam and advertising in the chat box, I've never had much of a problem with it. If a member is spamming then it's easy to give them a warning. An anon, on the other hand, is more difficult to deal with, although I have never encountered one in my experience. Advertising is supa easy to deal with since a link is provided to bitch said site out! Hah, but seriously, I've never had a problem with a chat/shout box so I like them.

[Raj]

True.Chat box is not really needed.It reduces forum's activities.People wil only talk through chat box.

Regards
Raj