I have 2 ideas

[Rachel]

My first idea is we should have a section on the forum about food/drink.
My second is we should have a chat box on top of the forum or something.

[GommeInc]

My first idea is we should have a section on the forum about food/drink.
My second is we should have a chat box on top of the forum or something.
These have been implemented before and didn't really work :)

1. Food and drink are rarely talked about, and now come under Discuss Anything. There once was a Food/Drink forum but it had barely any activity. There's not much to talk about :P

2. Chatrooms/Shoutboxes don't work, no one really uses them. The last time one was added to the forum it got used for about a day and then nobody used it as the forums are more interesting. They're also incredibly difficult to use on the front of a forum given the large amount of activity the forum gets. Your posts will be lost in the mix of other replies and the lag they sometimes give off is horrific :P

[Sharon]

Also the chatbox idea, I swear we used to have one and it got removed in the end as no-one used it, it always broke and it was some extra expansive or something.

[GommeInc]

Also the chatbox idea, I swear we used to have one and it got removed in the end as no-one used it, it always broke and it was some extra expansive or something.
The last one added was pretty reliable and it was the only time I saw managers and management be dirty and get away with it. The only problem was people got bored and preferred what the threads in the forums had to offer. They're a novelty item at best :P

[Catzsy]

Well it is nice to see a new member jumping in with ideas! +Rep on that. I think chat boxes do work in some forums but Habbo is quite unique really and it didn't really work on here for whatever reason, I don't know. The forum did get quite large with many forums and it was getting harder to navigate so the least popular ones were pruned and merged into 'Discuss Anything' and it does seem to work quite well. Keep coming back with the ideas though. :)

[Phil]

I think a shoutbox at the top of the forum wouldn't work but although this isn't possible, it'd be cool to have a shout box at the top of each staff forum.

[Stephen]

Everynight I still poke a pin in my voodoo copy of management for getting rid of the food and drink forum

[FlyingJesus]

Chatbox may have worked back when we had it if the comps and events teams had actually got involved with sparking interest in it like they always said they would (akin to the "we're having big changes next month!" that we heard from comps for about a year) but now I don't think there's any call for it at all. It was only ever really used for e-rebz to get away with swearing as Ryan said

Food&drink forum never really had anything other than "I LIKE ______ DO YOU LIKE ______" threads which aren't exactly wonderful discussion. If anyone has good recipes or big food topics to share that's wonderful but they can fit fine in Discuss Anything for now

[GommeInc]

e-rebz to get away with swearing as Ryan said
I said no such thing :O That said, the swear filter was lousy. Penis was filtered but vagina was most welcome... Sexist swear filter :@

[Stephen]

it would of been cool if quizzes and stuff were done in the chat for vip etc but it was just left to die. I don't think there was even an attempt to get people using it more was there? or is my memory crap

[Rachel]

I just had ideas so it's okay if we don't :P

[FlyingJesus]

it would of been cool if quizzes and stuff were done in the chat for vip etc but it was just left to die. I don't think there was even an attempt to get people using it more was there? or is my memory crap

Well I tried getting comps and events to work with it (it was one of the tasks as community manager I was actually given the power to do...) but as I say there was little to no response, and they never actually put anything in motion. I think the most action that the chatbox got was if someone was kicking off and there was some bullying to be done, but that only happened on like 2 nights that I ever saw

[iLogan]

I swear there was some flash chat box at the bottom of the forum.

[Eoin247]

Knowing for a fact that many people on the forum chat to other forum members on msn and seeing how spam is the most used forum, i don't personally see why a chat box wouldn't be used. Maybe conditions have changed since this chat box was taken out?

Maybe a compromise for people who want the food & drinks forum back would be to make a sub-forum in discuss anything for it?

[Rachel]

Maybe try the chat box again? I mean if it didn't change well take it off, simple right? ;)

[GommeInc]

Maybe try the chat box again? I mean if it didn't change well take it off, simple right? ;)
It wasn't that long ago, and conditions haven't changed. Chatboxes on forums tend to not work, the forums are where you discuss things while a chatbox tries to leech off that but goes no where because chatboxes rely on chat in real time, while posts are immortalised forever.

There literally is no reason to use it. If people want to chat about anything, they can do so in the Spam Forum where anyone can get involved. A chatbox conversation relies on people being on at the same time, which doesn't happen that often on here which is why the forum is a better place - a conversation can go on for days, while a chatbox conversation doesn't last long at all :P

[Stephen]

Didn't the chatroom software they used cost like over £100 for a licence thingy lol

[Eoin247]

Didn't the chatroom software they used cost like over £100 for a licence thingy lol

Really? I'm pretty sure i've seen chat box software for forums being licenced out for a lot less than £100.

[Narnat,]

I think chatboxe's look quite tacky tbh.

[Richie]

1) The chat box would defeat the purpose in the forum and would lower activity around the forum.

2) Food and drink isn't a huge topic.