Forum Advice Friday #5

by James on September 9, 2011


Should I add chat box to my forum?

I’m a big believer in letting the forum be your “chat box”. There isn’t any reason to add another place that members should chat; all chat should be on the forum itself.

One thing you can to to make sure that your members stay and “chat” is to have a general chat on your forum, in many cases this maybe your largest section on your forum.

Also I would not allow members posts to be counted in this section either. Most members may (do) use this section just to pad their post counts.

So no, I would not add a chat box to any forum under any circumstance.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

Shawn Gossman November 10, 2011 at 3:41 am

Hello there,

Great blog about the chat/shout boxes on forums. I too do not like them that much because they take away from the forum. People will find it easier to use the chat box rather than make a topic or post. I have one forum where the chat box was used often, then due to a security “bug” in it, I removed it and didn’t install another one. Now the forum is extremely dead. Even the staff used the chat box more than the forum and that isn’t good at all. I look forward to reading more great posts by you :)
Shawn Gossman recently posted..YaBB’s Future

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