Chatbox on a forum?

[JennyorAlice]

Do you think it is a good idea to add some kind of a chatbox or shoutbox to a forum? Why or why not?

Would you add one to your forum (or have you added one to yours already)? Do you think adding one takes away from the discussions on your forum?

 

[Drew]

It all depends on the forum type and size in my opinion. I think gaming forum and forums of that sort should have a shoutbox, I don't think forums like WebsiteForums need a shoutbox. That being said, a gaming forum with 2 million registered users isn't going to have a shoutbox, take se7ensins.com for example.

 

[Cam]

Waaayyyy back in my youth when I was like a 13-14 year old, pretty much all of the forums that I was on had a chatbox. Including my sports forum. I was on a bunch of different sports forums, and having a chatbox was practically a standard. Typically either a Chatango chatbox or a XAT chatbox. Given the development of instant alerts and other things of that nature on forums, I don't really see a purpose in a chatbox anymore. I guess it really just depends on the niche of the forum, but I probably wouldn't have a chatbox on my forum at this point in time.

 

[Allan]

I have always thought that a chat box took posts away from a forum.

 

[xXInfectedXx]

I used to think chatboxs were good on forums. Doing some research, I learnt that chatboxs decrease the forum activity because members focus chatting most of the time. Forums are not that active anyway so you want your members posting.

 

[zoldos1]

Do you think it is a good idea to add some kind of a chatbox or shoutbox to a forum? Why or why not?

Would you add one to your forum (or have you added one to yours already)? Do you think adding one takes away from the discussions on your forum?

I run two forums, and one is about 3 years old. IM chat was a highly suggested feature, and one of my members even paid for it, so I installed Cometchat. Everyone loves it, and posting has not decreased at all. On my new forum, I'll hold back and see how things go!