[Suggestion] Shoutbox?

[Exodus]

Personally I think it's a good idea. It will help eliminate some of the spam and also could help boost activity. I know a few forums that have shoutboxes and are pretty successful with them. It's also just a good way socialise with people to.

[Mujklob]

No.

It doesn't help eliminate spam; it creates it. If you have something so mindless to say that it doesn't need to be posted, use an Instant Messenger. If you need to contact somebody, use the Private Message feature. I like to think of forums as a place for a more formal discussion. A shout box defeats that purpose. They are annoying to look at (especially if they are loaded onto every page) and are a potential psychological hazard. As well, somebody could come on and impersonate another user or spam up the box.

[Punishment]

Well what Exodus is trying to say is the shoutbox can be an emergency valve for spam. It is better for members to post mindless chatter on the shoutbox then in threads.

I'd like a sohutbox but it is all up to Koby.

[Exodus]

I don't know what kind of shoutboxes you've been using, but the ones I've seen at FFR, FFS, FFE, and so on aren't on every page, but the index. You also can't impersonate anyone as when you post, the name used is your username, you aren't allowed to use someone else's.

And as for creating spam, shoutboxes are a place to just chill, relax, and talk about whatever is on your mind. It will at least detract the spam in threads where actual discussion is supposed to take place.

[† Emotional Outlet]

We had a shoutbox before. I don't like it. When people were being dicks on it and Koby wasn't around, we couldn't do anything about it. I don't think it did much for activity either.

If people need to spam, as Mikey mentioned, there's the forum games to hit up and IM/PM. And socialising? What's the forum for then? If I want a chatroom, I'll go to one.

As for spam in threads--eh. I don't think much of it. Like any conversation in real life, people don't remain on the same topic for the entire duration, and I think it's silly to expect the same from a forum. One of my favourite fora has no rules aside from "Must act convincingly over 12"--when someone's an idiot, there's no mod to step in. Rather, the forum regulars step in and effectively squash the hell out of the idiot. They also have a no necromancy rule, which, nisi erro, applies to posting to threads more than a few months old, regardless of the quality of the message.

I'm not a stickler about spam--as long as it's conducive to conversation, not really a big deal.

[Punishment]

Pardon the pun but sometimes people need an emotional outlet. XD

There are benefits and disadvantages to having a shoutbox. Well the shoutbox can be moderated but it would be a hassle just to create a bureaucracy of staff for it. Whether it flies or not I really don't care.

The same can be applied ot other forum hacks such as the Arcade. If I wanted to pay games I would go to Miniclips or something.

[Exodus]

I don't like it. When people were being dicks on it and Koby wasn't around, we couldn't do anything about it.

That's what moderators are for. If things get too bad, you prune the shoutbox. And if someone is being a dick and constantly flaming/spamming it up big time, you just hand them a warning like you would any other time.

I'm not going to make a big deal out of it though, I could care less, only a suggestion. Forums I belong to have Shoutboxes and they do fine with moderating them and the like. And activity wasn't effected negatively at all by them either.

[Koby]

I will consider the shoutbox... But seeing as our current host limits MySQL Databases to 100MB (pretty small) I don't want to install a whole bunch of stuff that will make the mysql space usage go way up. However we could prune the shoutbox often. =P

I will be changing hosts when our forum starts to outgrow the mysql limit. Hopefully by then we will be able to get a faster internet connection. =P

[Exodus]

Alright, that sounds fair enough. 100 MB isn't much at all, not for a forum like this.

[Koby]

I know.. its already at 10mb.. O.o I asked my host to up the limit.. or take a couple of my mysql db's away and make this one be able to hold more.. but they said no.. They told me either buy my own server or find a new host. O.o Servers cost like $100 a month.. Well my old host told me my site was so big and active that I needed a server to support it anyhow.. but I can't afford that.. =P

[† Emotional Outlet]

"That's what moderators are for."

None of the mods knew the password to get into the shoutbox and thus couldn't prune it--as far as I remember anyway. As far as I know, we've never been without other staff besides Koby for extended periods of time.

I don't use the arcade that often--no more than I would play games on my phone. Passes time if I need it, but hardly anything I would use regularly. I don't think it necessary--no more than the shoutbox. Most other fora set up a channel on IRC, if that.

[Punishment]

None of the mods knew the password to get into the shoutbox and thus couldn't prune it--as far as I remember anyway. As far as I know, we've never been without other staff besides Koby for extended periods of time.

I was a mod for a forum with a shoutbox and editing/pruning the shoutbox daily was as easy as pie.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I'm sure it would've been easy if anyone besides Koby knew the password to actually get into the thing and edit it.

Which was the point I made the first time around, and am now making for the third time.

[Punishment]

I'm sure it would've been easy if anyone besides Koby knew the password to actually get into the thing and edit it.

Which was the point I made the first time around, and am now making for the third time.

Do you have any vBulletin forum experience? Becuase those only allowed to prune the shoutbox are those with admin and mod status. Koby can set permission to usergroups.

And if we have corrupt mods everything done on the forum is put into a log.

I don't really care how this goes either way. It is up to Koby after all. There are some good and bad sides to having a shoutbox.

[Exodus]

I'm sure it would've been easy if anyone besides Koby knew the password to actually get into the thing and edit it.

Which was the point I made the first time around, and am now making for the third time.

What password? The password to the mod/admin cp? Because that's how you prune a shoutbox, at least the vB one. And the password to the mod/admin cp is your very own password you use to log on here. As Punishment said, only mods and admins can prune a shoutbox. And to edit/delete comments, a password isn't even needed, you can do it on the spot, so long as your permissions are set to. And if you're a mod, chances are that they are.

And again, merely a suggestion is all this is.

[Koby]

Stop arguing you are both right. Though you are both talking about different shout-boxes. EO is talking about the free hosted myshoutbox.com one (where only I had access to mod) and you are talking about a vB integrated one (uses member accounts, can mod in mod cp, etc).

[Exodus]

Alright, fair enough.

[Evangelion]

I think we should wait for it, the shoutbox draws attention but not to the forums, until you see activity in most of the rpg related forums wait a bit.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Didn't there used to be a shoutbox on the actual site? I wouldn't mind seeing it there, considering I don't actually go to the site often, if at all.

I don't want to see it on the forum index--if people want to gauge the type of community this is, the forum is open for anyone to read. If people need instant interaction and people aren't posting quick enough on the board, they can take it to PM/IM or we could set up an IRC channel--most other fora do that.

In any case, I don't think of the forum as being so restrictive that there's no room for levity in posts. How strong are the urges to spam and how much do you need to say that you can't toss in a few silly comments or find a way to make your otherwise off-topic comments on-topic and be satisfied with that? Go scream in a pillow or something.

[Azerty]

Shoutboxes aren't always bad. However, I think the forums will live if we don't have a shoutbox. They're usually great on the main site, but on forums...if they appear on every page, then it gets annoying. Plus, the vBulletin shoutbox doesn't render right in the Opera browser.