It seems that the use of the Shout Box is very sporadic. Sometimes I come back after a few hours and see that there are no new shouts.

My gut feeling is that it's a good idea, but isn't used well because members alternate shout conversations with reading and posting in the forums. Therefore, conversations in the shout box go so agonizingly low that people soon lose interest.

I wonder if a separate "chat room" could be made available instead and if members feel they would use it? I know I'd be interested in "live conversation" sometimes…!

Eh, I like it on the side. I know what you mean about the conversations, though. There was a separate chat on the community, but even when people were logged in, it didn't really get used. Of course, it was also slow as all get out, sooo....

I never even registered or went into the Community section. So many were reporting problems, I figured I'd let you all Beta it for me!

Right looks pretty much like a one-sided conversation between Mark and......Mark.

If you're using it to have a conversation, you should probably be using PMs, instead. On the other hand, I'm not sure if you're allowed to PM yourself.

I think that it would be good to have an option to open the shout box into a sepearte small window if you want.

I kind of like it.

Although, Mark has a self-perpetuating point about the level of discourse...

I think the who's online box should be moved to below the shout box, so it's easy to tell if the person you're talking to is still around.

Good idea!

Or . . . this is painful for me . . . we could move it to the right hand side. We could have a busier looking forum if you'd like, with things on the left and things on the right. Do you want to try it out?

I kinda like the clean layout. Change is hard.

I think the two-column layout is just fine. I don't favour "Busy" in this context.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the three column layout. I suppose you do want to keep the financing and newsletter box visible on the front, though.

Geez, it's like you're running a business here or something.

If you don't want financing and newletter to get buried, but them first, then shoutbox, then who's online. At least they are next to each other again. I vote for sticking with the two column format. Don't take more space away from the forums, as they are still the main feature.

A friend of mine who is visually impaired likes to lurk on these boards. Apparently, the shoutbox and other items on the left makes it very difficult for him to navigate with his screen reading software. I'm not sure if there's something you can do about that, but I thought I'd put it out there.

Thanks for letting me know, Ken - I'll check it out with UBBThreads to see if there is a workaround. Would you happen to know the name of the screen reading software?

If you hadn't asked me that question, I would! It's a one word thing... gotta think about it.

EDIT: Or I could just google screen reader. It's JAWS.

Thanks - I couldn't find anything in the UBB threads forums but I've posted a query. They're Axiom-Boards-Helpful over there so I bet I hear something soon!

Is it possible to put some kind of time stamp on the Shout Box replies?

There is one already if you hover over the screen names.

Thanks, didn't know that.