If
@DNF Admin is going with Chat 2, both of these problems have solutions:
Chat takes away from the forum database because there is no history.
A thread number (or a specific thread, rather) can be set to archive chat so that it is searchable.
This is how it is (or was, as I haven't visited in ages) on NamePros with 1 thread having 1 message archive 10-20 of the last messages and posting a new message following it with the next 10-20 chat messages (therefore arguably inflating and throwing off the true board's message count).
Good suggestion. Moreover it will also need a 24/7/365 moderator in there otherwise it tends to get spammed quite a lot.
There can be a minimum time between messages (kind of like "slow mode" on YouTube Live). However, I would employ something like a new user group permission where someone must be a member for at least an hour (or whatever arbitrary number that DNF picks) before anyone can send a message to the chat. Or, the best of both worlds and have both enabled so that moderators don't have to feel like they're going to be overwhelmed babysitting (if it comes to that).
These solutions are based on Chat 2 by Siropu, which is a much heavier application for a chatroom (with private rooms/messaging/etc.).
I would go with something like Shoutbox as it would be just 1 chatroom at first to see if it's worth having. If there's too much cross-topic chat, then a change to Chat 2 would be something to look into... but I think chat would be rather slow. That said, you can still archive, albeit in a different manner than threads (which is why I like Chat 2 better for that), and offer user groups to enable the shoutbox.
I would be in favor of Chat 2 with features disabled, until a need for them arises (except for archiving and spam avoidance systems), over Shoutbox because you might have to double-spend if you do upgrade to a better system.
One cool feature that I didn't know existed (to this extent) is more commands,
in particular. It can give you an AI-generated response, which would in turn be archived (unsure of SEO repercussions on that).
Here is the output for:
Code:
/ai is .com better than a .net domain?
I suppose
could be the last resort for the search function... and might actually require a separate chatroom so that AI messages don't clog normal chat flow.
Looking forward to seeing how you can turn this show around.
If you need help setting either of these up, I'm here to lend a helping hand for the greatest domain name forum.
-amp