Private Chat System

[MasterA]

Do you think having a private chat system on a forum is a good idea? By private chat system, I do not mean a chatbox. I mean a private/group chat like the Facebook chat. There are lots of people who say that chatboxes kills forums but do you think it will work if it is a private chat as opposed to a public chatbox?

 

[Hikari_Al3x]

on my forum we have this for staff because theres things we need to talk about in private. i think its good in certain situations such as my gameserver community.

 

[Teg]

Honestly, most forums already have a private chat system. It's called private messaging. While it isn't necessarily a "live" chat, most of them allow group chats in a single private message which makes them a private group chat. I don't think an actual chat system or messenger system like Facebook is needed on forums.

 

[Allenafaith]

I think it is, everyone needs privacy...if you make friends you might want to privately exchange info too.

I have a PM log, so if something happens I can review.

 

[Deleted member 1609]

I think that a private chatbox would be "neat," but it seems like a superfluous feature to have. I think that people would generally just use Skype or something like that if they want to talk to people in real time.

 

[Cierra]

I think it would be cool to have. Currently I just have private messaging which works well, but it's an idea I want to use in the future. I tried 123Chat before and thought it was good.

 

[KnownSyntax]

I've had it where there was an IRC client box, in which any active account could simply visit the page, sign in and talk with people who also were active. I've also seen (not personally used that much) a plugin for MyBB in which it has a similar appearance to Facebook messenger that would have tabs at the bottom, and a list of active users who you could talk to.

 

[Reverie]

I sometimes feel that members will message a lot in the their mail box. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It means they are choosing to use your forum for the purpose of talking to friends. Now - if that becomes taxing to the communities activity. Maybe PM those people yourselves. Start new conversations. Start new events that those members might really like participating in. 🙂

 

[Mikaya]

One exists, because it's quick and easy to message another member in real-time, as opposed to using the general PM system. It can be disabled if need be via the profile settings. I think it's a very useful feature. 😀