Shoutbox: yay or nay?

So, I recently implemented a shoutbox on my community and members seem to like it thus far. So, do you have a shoutbox on your community or are you against having one?

 

I think it depends on the type of community you have. If you have a friendly community, then shoutbox is great. If you have a content whoreing who are only there for new content and not to chat, then I think you can do without a shoutbox.

 

I have one on my general forum that gets used sometimes.
I'd much rather those post go in the forum and building content for the forum though

 

I don't really know my opinion on it. Some users tend to think that the rules don't apply in the shoutbox which presents all sorts of problems. The main argument about shoutboxes is that the point of a forum is for users to communicate; if you want to tell a user something either respond to a post or PM them. But I can see where they can be useful if they're used as a more conversational Twitter.

 

If your board attracts good people then you won't have problems It has nothing to do with the presence of the shoutbox but the type of people you are attracting. I used a shoutbox on both boards I ran and it was used a lot by many but that didn't stop anyone from posting topics and replies either. It kept people on the forum instead of straying off to other places like most do when the forum gets slow for a bit and you start wandering to other places instead of sticking it out through a small moment when you ran out of things to reply to.

 

I think it really depends on the community you have. I have one on my writing site because there's a section to role-play and it's much easier to plot with someone within the chatbox rather than any other method. I never really saw it as an issue, but recently I've noticed people using it more than posting. I have plans to move it to a less prominent location, but I think it has it's pros and cons. I don't have any plans to add a chatbox onto my new family forum; though, down the line I may add it for VIP members, we'll see what happens.

 

Not something I currently have, if I did would probably only be for certain user groups though

 

That's exactly my chose of words. We implemented a shoutbox on my community the other day, and had it up for 3 days and it didn't get used too much so we removed it and focused back on the forums post. Our posts have gone back up since the removal of the shoutbox - some users got mad because they said it was easier to chat through that method, but I found no point in keeping it as it doesn't attract members or anything - content on the forums do.

 

We have a shoutbox and the members like it very much!

 

I'm not against having a shoutbox but I do have a chat system in place so there's no need for a shoutbox,
The chat system works fine for me,

 

I have a shoutbox. Though it does get crazy at times it's never a problem.

 

I have a shoutbox on my forum and I personally enjoy it.

 

I do not like shout boxes. One of my forums (the largest in its niche) went dead because of a shout box, I saw a trend of it being used more than the forum. Once I disabled the box feature, the forum remained dead so in a result of trying to shout box, I get a dead forum out of it. The forum is slowly starting to get active again but its taking a lot of HARD work and that shout box is causing me to do all the extra HARD work

 

I think it takes away from posting

 

It really does...

I mean is it more convenient for you to text someone when you are going to meet them than have to call them and hope they answer their phone? Of course, in most cases. However, you lost verbal communication with that person where details, emotions and other things were left out. In a way, we can relate that with the use of shout boxes on a forum If you make it simple for them to say something, they will likely use what is simple.

 

I think it detracts from the overall feel of a forum as a place to discuss and debate ideas. From chat boxes I've seen on other forums it seems to degenerate into Text-Speak (LOL...BFF...) and, to me, seems immature and not professional. I suppose, however, if it were a forum for 12 year old gamers it may work for you.

 

I tend to agree with what's already been said. Whilst your users might like it, it'll no doubt detract attention from posting on the forum. This might not seem like such a big deal, but less posts means less search traffic and less search traffic means less potential users.

That's just the way I see it. No doubt there are more plus points to having a shoutbox, but I think I'll stick away from one.