what about a shoutbox like fstoc or somethink along them lines, think it would help as ive noticed alot of the same posts being put up, they could just ask thru the shoutbox and we could all have a chat and get to know people better

This has been thought about before but its alot of work to get it to work. Also from a moderating point of view it will be a nightmare. I wasn't around last time this was mentioned but Scotty or Chris should be able to elaborate on why it's not been used.

Hi Kenny,

I understand what you're saying and I can see the advantages of having one, and it has been talked about in the past. At present we couldn't have one anyways since the curent version of the forum software doesn't allow it, although we are hoping to upgrade at some point. This would allow one but and we would be reluctant to have one for a few reasons.

The first is the one that Micky mentionned above regarding moderation of a shoutbox. The problem comes from the fact that with it being essentially a live chat system people think less before they write, compared to when posting up. This can lead to flaming and people causing trouble etc. I believe that at one point Jim removed the one on stoc for a time for this very reason. Because of these sort of problems you need quite a large number of staff on the site to adequately manage it to make sure no trouble is occurring. Myself and the rest of the team do devote a lot of time to the site, but it just isn't possible for one of us to always be online at any given time.

The second reason actually refers to what you've put above regarding questions being asked again. At present, if I see someone asking a question, then even if I don't know the answer straight away if I remember it being asked before then I can go and do a quick search for it. I can't imagine I'm the only one who does this. The problem with technical questions etc being asked through a shoutbox is that the responses aren't archived, so once it's fell off the bottom of the screen or whatever then it's gone and can't be found again, which would be a pity especially if someone came up with a good answer to something.

Thanks for your suggestion anyways. I hope that the above helps answer why we haven't decided to have one on the site.

Chris

thx for your reply chris
it was worth a try