Chat box feature and change to "member" under your name

Well first the chat box.... on www.upsb.info it works really well and there are lots of rules and stuff going along the top. Anyway I was wondering if we could have one almost semetrical to it but in a differant tone to match the background cheack it out PJK cos it works really well in UPSB.
Also can we move that donation thing and not have it where it says member but like a little badge which says "so_and_so has donated $xxx under everything else down that side. Because you know how it says member, that could be customisable like mine could look like this:
*LukeMayn*
Pwns this forum
That would be cool and add a funny thing to look at when you see a users name.
Thanks in Advance (Because I know you'll do it *smacks fist into opposing hand aggresivly*

Everyone is trying to make this forum very "serious and of high quality" so I don't think it will be so possible. (Just a thought)

Good ideas, but I like the forum as it is.

I didn't see what you were talking about at the link in regards to the chatbox. Keep in mind there is already a puzzle chatroom here.

Also can we move that donation thing and not have it where it says member but like a little badge which says "so_and_so has donated $xxx under everything else down that side.

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Are you talking about the donation box on the lower right of the homepage?

Because you know how it says member, that could be customisable like mine could look like this

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Are you talking about custom user titles? I have disabled that because I know it would get out of hand. Keeping everyone the same as a "Member" seems to be most appropriate.

A shoutbox wouldn't be a bad idea, though. I've been on a few forums that have one as well as their own IRC chatroom (as opposed to a general cubing chatroom not forum-specific at all that exists now).

I don't know what a "shoutbox" is but already the name suggests I don't want one.

pjk said:

Are you talking about custom user titles? I have disabled that because I know it would get out of hand. Keeping everyone the same as a "Member" seems to be most appropriate.

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I don't think it would be hard for a user or an administrator to say "Please change your title", and I don't believe that would happen often. I go to another site that uses vBulletin and they allow custom titles and have for years and they haven't had any major problems with it.

Custom titles are unnecessary though, just another stupid distraction. You already have your own custom avatar and custom signatures. You can already link to your YouTube account, instant messaging accounts, and WCA profile, so if you really do pwn everyone else at cubing, you can show it off in your official results. I like this forum because of its simplicity; you can focus on the discussion without all the bells and whistles some other forums have. Just because others have it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

shelley said:

Custom titles are unnecessary

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Of course they are.

shelly said:

Just because others have it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea.

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And that doesn't mean it's a bad idea either, it's just a little extra neat thing to have in my opinion.

But I'm not saying I think this feature would be the most awesome addition to the site.

@ stephan:
A shout box is like a small MSN type thing at the top which everyone can use. it kind of looks like the quick reply box that I am typing in now but tis would be the part that you could see the messages and where it says "options" underneith would be like a little box to type a message. You can also minimise it if you don't want to use it.
@PJK:
It is easier to get to and handy since you can always see if anyone has relied (assuming you haven't minimised it...)

Are you referring to something like on Macky's site? Honestly, for a forum, I don't see any point to it. The forum is to discuss. What would a chatbox/shoutbox offer that this forum and the chatroom don't?

instant messaging. but if its a problem, don't bother.
When I was talking about the donation thing I meant that, you know how when you donate your member thing changes to a different name, insted of that you have, under the WCA profile but before your little icons (youtube, AIM, MSN etc.) you have like a little sign which says, eg: "*LukeMayn* donated $10"

StefanPochmann said:

I don't know what a "shoutbox" is but already the name suggests I don't want one.

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We got one at the first page of SveKub and it is wery popular, it is there we post if we only got some short thing to say. (click the link in my signature and look at the right side of the page).

pjk said:

Are you referring to something like on Macky's site? Honestly, for a forum, I don't see any point to it. The forum is to discuss. What would a chatbox/shoutbox offer that this forum and the chatroom don't?

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For a forum, it's useful for people who want to just say something without going through the process of making a thread or posting a post, or to be able to chat with someone informally without having to use a chat client. It's for saying a short thing here or there.

Plus, unlike the chatroom, it'd [firstly] only be used by forum members, and [secondly] they wouldn't have to get an IRC client (or connecting to the server and joining the chatroom).

In any case, forums that I use that have one feel friendlier (whether that's just correlation or coincidence, who knows).

That's just another thing that has to load on each and every page I visit, that isn't really needed. Maybe its not that harmful but its just clutter, really. Doesn't add anything to the site, IMO.

theres a pen spinning forum? woah...

Seriously, relevance?

And even if there was some, was there a reason to resurrect a 2 week old topic that's already been resolved?

The pizzaguy was just delivering lol's