Enhanced Shoutbox

On the public boards, have the shoutbox open by default. Its not really getting used. Having it open would help draw people into it.

Maybe add something to the Shoutbox that shows who is viewing. I may be wrong, but I think the only place where it shows who is viewing the board is through the hyperlinks at the top and bottom of the board messages. if we can add this to the shoutbox panel itself, that would be ideal so people can see who is waiting to chat.

Another idea is to have a “global” shoutbox. Maybe there is a setting on the shoutbox somewhere so users can toggle between the shoutbox on their board, and the shoutbox that covers the entire site so they can chat with anybody who might be on.

This would probably work best by showing a list of online users who are browsing any boards of the site. That way you can see that people are really online and doing stuff.

Just spitballing ideas here.