A shoutbox would certainly help clear up any clutter and many people would take advantage of this for general talk and quick help?
it seems like a good idea to me :) p.s. get the new windows live icons on this forum
A shoutbox would limit participation. Only those online at that instant would have a chance to see the shout and we have members around the globe. For help, there would not be a permanent record and others with the same question or problem who come later on would not have the benefit of that information saved in a thread. A shoutbox is more difficult to moderate.
Just my opinion; not a slam or a put down. :)
Personally, I don't care for shouting anyway...at least not at me.
I have seen many shoutboxes all to a varying degree of success. On several forums it has worked well for simple questions or general chat. On others it is just a spam fest and the serious questions quickly get shunted down. So I'm 50/50 when it comes to shoutboxes.
Also as CarlTR says, it would be better to have a perminant record of questions for others seeking similar lines of enquiry that are not present when it is first asked in the shoutbox.
For general chat it would work but for more in depth issues/mods/fixes I dont think it would.
Already been discussed a few times in the past. Not going to happen, mostly for the reasons stated above.
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