Diana Notacat

Customer
It's very trendy to have both a forum AND a chatbox. But not every community uses both features equally, so it's interesting to see the differences from site to site.

On your community (if you use both forum and a chatbox), how often do your members use the Chatbox? Do you have regulars that sit in there and chitchat? Does your chatbox affect how much activity you get on the forums, or has it drawn members together and boosted activity on the site? Do you ever have issues with Forum People VS Chatbox People?

Inquiring minds want to know! If you have your own related questions for comments and debate - do ask!
 
I have both.

I think if anything having the shoutbox helps things, my shoutbox is used by people just hanging out more than anything. Idle chatter that doesn't need to be in a forum post. It's also good for people when they want an immediate answer to something. I run a gaming related forum and people frequently post links to the information people are looking for, etc. So people get that immediate satisfaction that is pretty much rampant due to the internet and society nowadays.

Overall, I think it brings people together more. Let's you get a better idea of the persons personality. It's immediate, so it's not like people have the time to formulate a message like they do in a forum post. At first, I was hesitant to add a shoutbox, for the very reasons you mentioned. Fearful it would detract from the forums themselves, but then I realized the idea is to bring people together, whatever the medium is.

Not having a shoutbox is just keeping some people a part, and ultimately, I don't think it's decreased my forum activity at all. If anything it's probably increased it due to people getting to know each other and being more comfortable replying to a thread.
 
On my old forums (which are technically still up, but not even its two owners visit anymore xD) the Shoutbox was really all that kept it going near the end.

It's like people say, for random bs or idle banter, a Shoutbox is great. Nobody's going to have a serious discussion in a Shoutbox, though.
 
my old forums incorporated both chatbox and forums and it worked well, member use the chatbox as a means of venting normal conversations to each other whilst leaving the forums free for posting the correct non spam kind f chat in there. a chatbox boost activity as people who visit a site will see an active chatbox and thing the site itself is active regardless of posts in forums. combining the two gives a happy medium and benefits both user and admin.
 
It's like people say, for random bs or idle banter, a Shoutbox is great. Nobody's going to have a serious discussion in a Shoutbox, though.

Actually, we plan to use ShoutBox for online training and class discussion, which we think it is serious stuff
 
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thats one of the beauties of a shoutbox, is the fact it can be used for anything, some people even use it for live support to which is also another idea.
 
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