Just an idea...

[Ruzi]

You might have already thought of it and said no, but have you considered adding a chat so that people from the forums would be able to talk in real time, seeing as not everyone may have all of the messangers. As a site and forum owner myself, I know that chats can take time to watch and keep up with, but they can also be well worth it. There are a few good chat providers out there, both for free and for some money, but depending on what you want, it won't be too hard to find what you need. If this topic has been broaght up before, or if you already do have a chat that I didn't see when I looked around the site, then I apologize, but thank you anyway for taking the time to read my idea..

 

[Darren]

We did consider this before, but didn't implement due to security/identity issues, the time zone differences and also the load on the servers generated by realtime chat software.

If you can suggest some good providers or something to integrate with the forum software then drop me an email.

Thanks.

Darren.

 

[lies]

Maybe open an IRC channel, and throw in a bot?

 

[Darren]

After a quick look it may be possible to add a chatroom facility to the site. It would validate people against their membership to prevent bogus logins. It would be a single chat room with private chat facilities.

Only problem is that the chat software is commercial, so funding would be an issue.

Any thoughts?