[Debate] Using Chatrooms On Your ProBoard

[myke]

Chatrooms - Not to be confused with shoutboxes or c-boxes chatrooms and c-boxes/shout boxes are two different things completely.

Remotely hosted chatrooms seems to be a rather common addition people are making to their ProBoards forums these days, but are chatrooms an addition you want to make?

Some people will tell you that open chatrooms added to a forum is a good way for a community to keep in touch by taking part in live chats. They will say that it brings extra opportunity to a forum for it's members/community to get to know one another, which will in turn make them want to come back to visit the forum.

Some people will tell you that a chatroom defeats the purpose of a forum, since the forum itself is a forum for members to to chat and hold conversations. Some people will also say that having an open chatroom on your forum will reduce the amount of activity and posts on a forum because people are too busy talking in the chatroom, thus the forum suffers as a result, and eventually no one will want to return to the forum because it's become inactive.

So, what's your opinion on using chatrooms on a ProBoard? Do you think it's a good idea or do you think it can potentially harm a forum?

Debate!

[o.O]

I personally do not like chatrooms/shout boxes, espically the ones from C-Box and SayBox. They have pop ups and that is really annoying, it makes the appeal of a forum go down greatly in my opinion. Though another thing they sometimes take a while to load.

I hate about it, that it is a different system, different rules, and not really under your control. They lag the loading of a message board, stretch the page, and overall suck in my opinion.

Though a plus side it allows people to spam it and not the forum, but isn't that what General boards are for?

I rather people to talk in the General board than in a shoutbox/chatroom, if it is peronal of a comment it can be PMed or IMed.

Overall I think this can harm a forum.

[myke]

This thread is about chatrooms on a forum, not shoutboxes. Chatrooms and shoutboxes are two completely different things.


Edit: LoL, member deleted their post, the one time I forget to quote.

[o.O]

myke said:

This thread is about chatrooms on a forum, not shoutboxes. Chatrooms and shoutboxes are two completely different things.

Like 'proboards' over AIM? If so, my opinion remains the same, it draws activity away from the site, too much spam, and so on...

[britt86]

I think it's harmful to a site for the reasons you've outlined Myke. I think if members want to chat with another instantly like they can in a chat room, there is AIM, MSN and YIM for them all to do so. If they're all in a chat room talking, then that means, most likely they're not on the forum posting. AIM, MSN, and YIM are outside programs so people tend to have their IE (or whatever else they use) open at the same time, which means they'd be more likely to post on the forum, thus continuing its longevity.

It's part of why I won't put one on my forum, nor will I put a chatbox/shoutbox up like it's been requested multiple times. But that, is a discussion for another time.

[Derek‽]

secretrater said:

myke said:

This thread is about chatrooms on a forum, not shoutboxes. Chatrooms and shoutboxes are two completely different things.

Like 'proboards' over AIM? If so, my opinion remains the same, it draws activity away from the site, too much spam, and so on...

The "proboards" chatroom on AIM was, at one point, populated by a select group of friends and acquaintances. It never was harmful to the activity of this forum. Even now that it seems to be populated by more, newer members, it still doesn't appear to be harmful to the activity of this community.

But no, I would not put a chatroom on my forum. It clutters it, IMO, and never goes with the skin. Some of the remotely hosted services do have pop-ups/unders, which can push people away from your forum. I don't think that chatrooms are necessarily bad in the sense that they cause lower activity, but I think that you should probably schedule meet-ups in them, or via an instant messenger.

Scheduling a meet-up online for members could be seen as a fun "extra curricular" activity. These kinds of things could increase activity on your forum. I'd suggest having these meet-ups like every Thursday night, or every other Thursday night, etc. Leaving a chatroom open 24/7 for members and guests could cause a problem with spam or flaming.

[leah]

I definitely wouldn't put a chatroom on my forum. I agree with Virus about how they clash with the board. They also cause many problems.

I was on a rather new forum for a while, and they had a party, using a chatroom hosted by, I believe, SigmaChat or something along the lines of that. People who weren't even members came, because he had advertised it, and left it open for about a week before the so called "party". People ended up playing R-rated games and doing stupid things, and the administrator couldn't be on the whole three hours. This is one reason I won't put one on my board.

The other two are, one, as Virus said, it clutters up the board, and two, it doesn't match the design. You could just figure out which IM program people have most, like MSN, YIM, or AIM, and just maybe have a little meet-up there. They can still post on the board without having to switch back and forth from the chatroom to the boards, and they can talk to eachother. A simple solution.

[¿J-pop?]

I don't really have a board anymore, but I say it could be good. When users aren't on the forums, they can go into the chat and have more fun. Some people don't have messengers like other people, and would like to find other ways to chat. If I remember, SSD had a chat, and it was set up, at different times, I think. I never went in there, but I think that idea was good. I don't think it draws members from the forum, as long as its on the forum, and not some other web page, then you're fine. I don't think everyone will be in the chatroom, so it's fine. But like vrirus said, having it open 24/7 can have spammers. But you may be able to prevent that if you had staff in the boards also..but I don't think people can do that

[mrsyukisohma]

If you get a chatroom, and it doesn't cause any problems for your forum, than there's nothing wrong with having one. It really depends on the kind of members that you have. If I really knew my members, and they're going to play rated r games, I wouldn't allow it. If you're members are good, and you know them well, than I'd recommend having a chatroom. Are your members well behaved? Do you know what kind of behavior the member will have?

If it sways members away from posting, perhaps you can come up with ideas to keep them posting?

If you're going to have a chatroom, there should be some guidelines. If they do not follow the rules and guidelines, take the chatroom away. It's that simple.

Many of you are suggestions messenger chats, but you still don't have any control that you would if you had one on or for your message board. The same amount of chaos can still occur. In a chatroom you can't even post any rules or anything like that. Everyone is pretty much free to say what they want. It doesn't make much of a difference.

Also, with a chat room, it depends the acitivity of the board. If your board is active with topics, but there aren't normally a lot of members on at once, there most likely won't be a lot of drawn attention to the chatroom.

You could always seperate the code from the forum depending on the code. If you don't want there to be too many members or whatever, you could only invite members who have 0 warnings, or members who have a certain rank.

Shout Out Boxes
To the member referring to shout out boxes, honestly, they don't take that much attention away. There's usually not a high demand in posting because you can only see so many posts at once. Normally members or guests do not stay on for hours just posting in a shout out box. Members tend to really enjoy them. I'm sure it wouldn't even cause as much attention as it would a chat room. Members can only post so much.

[Lee]

My opinion it reduces the activity. I have seen forums have no live chat rooms. Then people suggest it and they put it in. Then bam. The site falls apart.

I like them because its a quick chat thing but I think they get over used. People spam them, advertise in them and hate in them.

~Mark

[periwinkle24a]

I would actually like to add a chatroom. I am new at this and don't know how.

Surely there are directions somewhere in this mass of info, I just can't find them. So while I hate to interrupt your debate with my ignorance, can someone point me in the right direction for finding the info.

Thanks.

[Joy]

ProBoards is our chat room. Within that we chat in the general area, we chat in the games areas, we chat in the members personal area, we chat all over the board. Nothing else is needed.

[Ímþ®óvîšâ†ó®]

myke said:

Chatrooms

Remotely hosted chatrooms seems to be a rather common addition people are making to their ProBoards forums these days, but are chatrooms an addition you want to make?

Some people will tell you that open chatrooms added to a forum is a good way for a community to keep in touch by taking part in live chats. They will say that it brings extra opportunity to a forum for it's members/community to get to know one another, which will in turn make them want to come back to visit the forum.

Some people will tell you that a chatroom defeats the purpose of a forum, since the forum itself is a forum for members to to chat and hold conversations. Some people will also say that having an open chatroom on your forum will reduce the amount of activity and posts on a forum because people are too busy talking in the chatroom, thus the forum suffers as a result, and eventually no one will want to return to the forum because it's become inactive.

So, what's your opinion on using chatrooms on a ProBoard? Do you think it's a good idea or do you think it can potentially harm a forum?

Debate!

If you mean (i.e. Java Chatrooms etc), then here's what I can say about chatrooms:

When I first intergrated a chat room into my forum (mind you I did it in place of a general talk board lol - BIG MISTAKE!!!), not one member bothered to post in it, they were too lazy to enter it (without regarding the amount of indications I put up to show that it was available).
Eventually, I learned that a chatbox (or should I say a sayboxs), are prone to attackers unless hidden from guest-bots or just guests in-general, that try to ruin a forum for sake of revenge, or other low-life excuses like that. I personally find chatboxes to be a waste of valuable space, when you have IM programs, which fill a similiar purpose.

Forums + an intergrated chatroom (WITHOUT PROPER SECURITY I might add) = spammo-mania lol.

periwinkle24a said:

I would actually like to add a chatroom. I am new at this and don't know how.

Surely there are directions somewhere in this mass of info, I just can't find them. So while I hate to interrupt your debate with my ignorance, can someone point me in the right direction for finding the info.

Thanks.

There should be one in the code database. Perhaps you should check there in future. Press Ctrl+F on your keyboard and type the word "Chat" or something similiar, and you should find it

[myke]

periwinkle24a said:

I would actually like to add a chatroom. I am new at this and don't know how.

Surely there are directions somewhere in this mass of info, I just can't find them. So while I hate to interrupt your debate with my ignorance, can someone point me in the right direction for finding the info.

Thanks.

improvisator answered your question, but please know this thread is not meant to be a thread on how to ask questions about how to get chatrooms. This thread is reserved for debating whether or not it's good idea to use chatrooms on a forum.

Before adding a chatroom to your forum I advise you to read the posts in this thread, then make up your mind as to add one or not.

[The Hero of Time]

Well....Cbox's always present the problem of other people advertising in it and they do get spammed. I have heard a recent member has had trouble with Cbox's because someone had been posting perverted things in it and he had young members there and he had to resort to getting a Cbox premium i think. Take my KH site for example. A member had been advertising in it and other people had been joining. Therefor I lost my members. So on my new Zelda site I have decided not to get a Cbox