A shoutbox?

[jzan]

Just wondering, since many other forums have them, but do you think we can have a box at the top or somewhere, where you can talk freely? It's a bit like live chat, and a good way for members to interact more

[Contention]

I sometimes think chat boxes can take away from what a discussion board was meant for in the first place.

I also think that chat boxes are mostly used on discussion boards with a predominately younger member base.

This is just my opinion. I'd like to hear other's.

[MasterMind]

I have seen that sites featuring shoutboxes are more likely victims of pharmaceutical spammy posts.

[johnboulder]

I tend to agree with contention

SHoutboxes are predominantly used by the younger audiences.

While it's true - in some cases a shoutbox can complemtn the appeal of a site, as well as making it appear more dynamic and so forth, I can't see the application of this on a forum such as this one.

The alternative is to have a synopsis of the 'general discussion' forum on the front page.

Another thing with shoutboxes - you dont always want to see the content they may contain - so it would be confined to a single page, which, again, defeats the object a bit.

Also just my own views.

[lymph node]

I totally agree with both john and contention's opinions on this one.

with those points being made, a forum administrator might wonder if something more is needed to boost the appeal of the site. if not a shoutbox than what?
I think we should turn the direction of this thread a bit to discuss that very question.

what would make a site appear more dynamic
what are some simple, but affective ways to boost the appeal of any site.

these are questions that would not only help us here, but help any webmaster.

[johnboulder]

In my opinion - A site's dynamicism (is that even a word?) is defined mostly by the quality and freshness of it's content.

Most of the usual tricks used to inspire a dynamic feel (such as shout boxes, tickers and other bits and bobs) I feel detract from the feel of a page. (That said - I have seen some extremely good utilisation of tickers)

Bearing that in mind - the easiest way to make a site seem more dynamic is to have fresh content easily visible - look at digg for instance - fresh content is always changing on the front page.

I dont know about everyone - but if I dont see something new to read, my interest in going into the site decreases, and I more often than not end up on the BBC news pages.

One more point - a lot of the means to add dynamic content (like shout boxes, chat boxes, etc) are difficult to control, and their content is probably not going to reflect the content of the site they were used on.

Regards

[danielmichel]

lol @ tickers and other bits and bobs. what are tickers? and what are these bits and bobs. lol - i kid around, but seriously, what are tickers?

I understand your point about the fresh content. I think I was thinking about that point when I added the random gallery images to the forum index page.

I was thinking about maybe adding a side panel to the forum index and maybe including some of these bits and bobs to keep it exciting. Maybe a member of the day or something along those lines.

Im not sure if many really visit the front index page @ www.ny-dev.com , but if you scroll down to about half the page you can see one section of the news that changes every 10 hours or so. While this isn't as dynamic as we might be looking to go, i think it's along the lines of what we are talking about.

I'd like to get some specific suggestions about what little "bits and bobs" we can add to get what we are looking for.

As for new and more exciting features on the forums in general, I am thinking (and we should talk about this) of adding shared revenue to the forums. This is when members add Google adsense IDs to their profiles and share a certain percentage of the profits generated from Google ads on our forums. If this sounds a bit confusing now, I will be explaining it in more detail in a later post.

[johnboulder]

A ticker is a widget developed in javascript that flashes news alerts accross a page, or any other form of alert for that matter.

Insofar as bits and bobs go - there's a host of stuff out there that can be added to a site to 'enhance' it's look - my point is usually that enhancement is not achieved through 3rd party bolt-ons to a sitem and can end up beaking a cohesive design...

Regards

[danielmichel]

ahhhh, a news ticker.
i totally agree with you about the fact that "enhancement is not achieved through 3rd party bolt-ons"

i think improving on what we have to work with is always best.
those third party addons can sometimes confuse users and give the site a cluttered look.

[spkmldotcom]

okay, I gotta chime in... I'm currently building a site using the Joomla CMS and if it weren't for the addons, extensions, etc... I wouldn't have much of a site. I'm quite fond of the shout box too. It will require moderation and what not... but anyway, that's my 2¢.