How about add a chat room to my forum?

[Sun_siguo]

I have a forum for English learners. I plan to add a chat room to my forum, so my members can chat in English to practice their English, How about it? Is there any risk?

Thanks for your reply.

[cheekui]

I think that will be a great idea :)

[Alpha_Male]

Yes, A chat is a great tool for members i have a chat on my site and members love it.

[YLinc]

But be careful, so that chat wouldn't replace forum totaly. In this case people will use chat and never add content to your site

[camweh]

Set a specific time period for your chat sessions so they don't detract from the normal forum. Use GMT time for scheduled sessions to avoid confusion.

[androidtech]

What software or tool are you all using to add chat to your sites?

[Sun_siguo]

I have added the chat room to my forum, most members looks very like it.

I developed the chat room myself using asp and XML, a 200x150 chat box in the homepage. It works very well.

[Alpha_Male]

flash chat is a very good program and it only cost 5 bucks all my members love it

[vinnydarat]

Yeah, i'm with you alphamale, flash chat is great.

It also depends on what type of community builder you are using. example is if you are using something like Joomla (I know it's a CMS, but the forum capacity is very good) then there is a chat function addon which works amazingly.

I think you do need to be careful about when people use it though so your posts don't die

cheers
Vince

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[edited by: tedster at 1:32 am (utc) on April 22, 2006]

[Mistra]

I prefer users to chat through forum and at the same time creating content and generate income for me. All chats no post makes Jack a poor boy. :S

Just make sure that the chat software would not stress your server resources and if you are using shared hosting make sure that they allow it to be installed. Good luck with your chat.