Staffing A forum's methods of communication

[Josie 198]

When it comes to forms of communication on your forums, how do you prefer to do it? What do you make the most use of?

 

On my forums, we always have a cbox.ws cbox, but it does not get used as often as I feel other sites use their cboxes. The majority of our communication gets done on Skype, mostly because a lot of us are out and about much during the day and it's easier for us to chat with each other that way.

[Rune 1,099]

Personally, I value a Cbox over other methods for a variety of reasons. Having AIM/Skype/Discord/Etc is nice for personal plotting/personal chatter, but I feel the Cbox brings the site together and gives a central location that both proves you're active and can interact with people in a fairly controlled setting. I feel having a Cbox and then a big "We're not really here! We're actually on Slack/Skype/Other thing!" is pointless but I'm also old and grumpy and apparently hate change.

[VirusZero 176]

On my site we have a public chatango which gets used some... but it's not really super active all the time. (I've considered ditching it a few times...) We also use Skype (for when 3+ of us play Smash Bros) and Curse (when we play Starcraft 2 or Heroes of the Storm). I don't think anyone onsite (other than myself) has a Discord account though I've never asked so I could easily be wrong.

 

I considered cbox years ago, but the lack of an auto-refresh/live update (without paying for premium) bothered me. (Fact is I pay enough already for my hosting that I'm not really interested in paying more for an auto-refresh feature... which should be a standard feature.)

 

I've heard of Slack before but never used it and probably won't bother.

[Josie 198]

1 minute ago, VirusZero said:

I considered cbox years ago, but the lack of an auto-refresh/live update (without paying for premium) bothered me. (Fact is I pay enough already for my hosting that I'm not really interested in paying more for an auto-refresh feature... which should be a standard feature.)

Cbox.ws has changed quite a bit since then, and the free version does currently autorefresh.

[Elena 546]

I have c-box, e-mail, pm, facebook messenger, with each person what suits better. I would like to implement discord but my people are not for it.

[Morrigan 1,826]

I use whatever is available on a per site basis. For the most part I just Skype. It's far easier and lots more fun.

[Mistress Of The Obvious 73]

The cbox and pm gets the most use on my site.

 

I like the cbox for quick communication like to answer questions, interact guests, or light conversation with members. It's a great ice breaker. I think it gets enough activity for it to be an asset. I also have a custom bell sound, as custom sounds have been downgraded from pro to premium. I think it gives the site additional atmosphere.

 

Quite a few members come from site cultures where plotters aren't a thing and I've decided they're optional on my site. I like more in depth plotting through pm or skype over plotters anyway.

 

Outside of that, I go where my members go. I use skype because a lot of people have that, but if you want to use AIM or something like that, I'll download it.

[VirusZero 176]

I didn't know they make the auto-refresh a free thing. That's cool. Going forward I'll consider using it, but I'm not going to adopt it now. (Not much point really because most people have their chatango accounts already and I don't want to force members to make yet another account if I don't have to. If I recall right they do have forum integration as a pro or premium option but I'm not looking to get that.)

 

Even though I have skype I'm not overly fond of it. I find its too much of an internet hog (due to it using peer to peer technology). Plus I don't find the call quality as good as Curse.

[Icewolf 258]

I feel off-site ways of communicating leave people out so I'm only going to use the chat box or the forum for it. I've found the only computer I've ever had skype on (which I don't use, anyway) is my current one, which was a windows 8 (It's now a windows 10 because I was offered the free upgrade) so older computers won't have it unless its been installed by the user. (A process I found convoluted and didn't bother with it in the end on my older computers.)

 

I'm opposed to it because there's also a danger of creating cliques where people will think I'll give this person my skype, but not that person and so on.

[Robmin 10]

I tend to have two cboxes (one acts as a 'tag board' though) a discord (which I'm still working out how its going to be used, but its nice for people who aren't at their computer at least. These are used for highly informal communications. While I make my Skype available I don't expect it to be used by members to try and get a direct line to the admin (same with Discord tbf). If I'm doing formal communication though always by PM. Always always ALWAYS by PM.

[CovertSphinx 710]

On 11/20/2016 at 0:42 PM, Rune said:

 I'm also old and grumpy and apparently hate change.

 You and I both, my friend.

 

Traditionally I've always used Cbox/Chatango (sometimes both) and therefore made the forum the primary location of communications. Then, personal correspondence between members sometimes drifted over to MSN, AIM, FB, SKYPE, etc as people decided they wanted to exchange "contact information" with each other on an individual basis. We also at one point tried making a facebook page for the site - however that idea didn't really take off.

 

With my new sites, I was thinking about making a Discord group available, as an extra alongside the regular site's shoutbox so that if I'm on the computer I don't have to keep refreshing the RP and checking.

[Rune 1,099]

3 hours ago, CovertSphinx said:

 You and I both, my friend.

 

Traditionally I've always used Cbox/Chatango (sometimes both) and therefore made the forum the primary location of communications. Then, personal correspondence between members sometimes drifted over to MSN, AIM, FB, SKYPE, etc as people decided they wanted to exchange "contact information" with each other on an individual basis. We also at one point tried making a facebook page for the site - however that idea didn't really take off.

 

With my new sites, I was thinking about making a Discord group available, as an extra alongside the regular site's shoutbox so that if I'm on the computer I don't have to keep refreshing the RP and checking.

Cboxes have their own link that you can save on your phone and it brings solely that up. I abuse the crap out of it.

[Guest Archaic Cyborg]

Cbox, forever and ever and ever. I get questionable ad spam from chatango and such, and I refuse to usean offboard chat service. I don't want to sign up and log in to Skype, or an AIM chat room! I find that it encourages members to distance themselves from guests; when a guest finds a bew site, why make them hunt down a hidden group chat? It feels like one of those secret clubhouses where you won't know what goes on unless you know the sevret password.. Or something.

[Josie 198]

On 11/21/2016 at 0:04 AM, Icewolf said:

I'm opposed to it because there's also a danger of creating cliques where people will think I'll give this person my skype, but not that person and so on.

 

3 hours ago, Blackjack Bart said:

Cbox, forever and ever and ever. I get questionable ad spam from chatango and such, and I refuse to usean offboard chat service. I don't want to sign up and log in to Skype, or an AIM chat room! I find that it encourages members to distance themselves from guests; when a guest finds a bew site, why make them hunt down a hidden group chat? It feels like one of those secret clubhouses where you won't know what goes on unless you know the sevret password.. Or something.

 

These are interesting opinions!

 

From my experience, I can say that that is definitely sometimes the case- having the main chat being offsite can indeed encourage cliquish behavior and make the community feel more unwelcoming. I've been on sites where they had a Skype chat but didn't say anything about it after my application had been accepted, and so you do feel like you were left out in a way.

 

I can't say if that's how things normally go or not.

 

But I've had really positive experiences with using Skype as the main chat as well, and having an offsite chat alone certainly is not the only thing that can lead to a clique forming... I think I might actually write one of my first guides about this! ;)

[Icewolf 258]

It's just from my experience on twitter among a group of writers I was once a part of. It wasn't just the skype thing that formed the cliques either, it was also people creating writer accounts and not letting people know about them or only following certain people on them. Certain people would invite people to games off site, but leave others out too.

 

It's natural for groups to form, but it becomes a problem when groups don't allow others to join or appear to deliberately keep a person out. I think the only 'exclusive' chat that should happen on a forum, or any rp group, should happen in the staff board/admin so they can discuss problems, new ideas for the board, etc, but not to prevent people from being a part of a role-play, which is what seemed to happen in that twitter group.