Chat/Shout box?

[Whitney]

I've seen some other forums have one of those chat or shout boxes, what are your guy's opinion on them. I think they are kind of fun to say hey to people you notice on at the same time. I also think it would be cool to chat in real time with one another.

[Piece0fSheet666]

Good idea! +1 It's nice being able to discuss anything and don't have to keep in mind that you have to limit yourself and keep what you say closely related to the topic or just leaving a reply. This is way different and more lively and you can say all different sorts of stuff and have a wider field of discussion.

[twistedsynergy]

Yeah, a chat or shoutbox would be very useful. I reccomend tinychat.com.You could create a room on tiny chat and link it or embed it in the site.

[iodinesky]

As long as it isn't overrun by Cialis and Extenze ads, I'm all for it!

[Ratiocinator]

I haven't used shoutboxes at all on forums before but I can see how that'd be fun to add. There is a problem, though. If I were to implement one it'd have to be "officially" released by phpBB.com for phpBB3. I looked into it and all chatboxes/shoutboxes out there (through phpbb.com's MOD development forums) are still in development and in alpha/beta stages. It's out of both personal preference and for safety precautions that I don't install or use phpBB MODS that aren't gold/finalized.

@ twistedsynergy
I saw some other forums do this but there's a catch to it: Most external shoutboxes embedded to forums don't use the forum's database for member's logins. Meaning, the shoutbox won't know if you are logged into silenthillcommunity.com and won't use your login/username to post on the shoutbox.

[Whitney]

I haven't used shoutboxes at all on forums before but I can see how that'd be fun to add. There is a problem, though. If I were to implement one it'd have to be "officially" released by phpBB.com for phpBB3. I looked into it and all chatboxes/shoutboxes out there (through phpbb.com's MOD development forums) are still in development and in alpha/beta stages. It's out of both personal preference and for safety precautions that I don't install or use phpBB MODS that aren't gold/finalized.

Ah okay I didn't know it wasn't something "officially" released yet! I'm cool with waiting

[twistedsynergy]

@ twistedsynergy
I saw some other forums do this but there's a catch to it: Most external shoutboxes embedded to forums don't use the forum's database for member's logins. Meaning, the shoutbox won't know if you are logged into silenthillcommunity.com and won't use your login/username to post on the shoutbox.

Tiny chat is amazing, you can create your own account and set up a password protected chatroom. I would definately look into it. It may not use login information, but you can just type your username into the chat.

[Ratiocinator]

I'm keeping my eye out on this one. Once it's validated for gold release I'll see about implementing it:

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopi ... &sk=t&sd=a
Working demo: http://startrekguide.com/community/chat.php

[Silent Evil]

The only forum I'm on that has a chat/shout box is this place:

http://helldescent.com/forums/

I don't even use it, because I don't really know anyone else there. But I would definitely make use of it in a forum like this!

[Ratiocinator]

I'm gonna contact the creators of the phpBB3 AJAX ShoutBox and get the complete 411 about it. Specifically:

• What is preventing this from going gold as of now?
• Will this eat up bandwidth/memory?
• Will it cause any lag time whatsoever or server complications?
• What all features are currently in it?
• What features are still planned for it?
• Is there moderator control over posts made on it?

Some are probably already answered (haven't checked over it yet) but this is to give an idea about what I'll be asking. Anyway, if it all works out and there are no other major features waiting to be added I'll see about getting it on here in the future.