I don't think chatbox should contain XX has replied to XX

[TippiE]

I agree,it's good to have recent topics but isn't there somekind of way to make them separate.
Maybe 50% shoutbox,50% recent topics mod.
I had that when I had warezfactory in the old days

[clarksta]

i think this should be used instead of the shout box:

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=122986

this can be set up in lots of diffrent ways to show diffrent activites

demo: www.share4life.co.uk

its at the bottom of the page

[Hawk]

Personally I like the shout box showing new threads, many members do. A small minority don't, but your solution is good clarksta but many people don't use the shout box, so disabling the new thread feature will just make the shout box dull and useless.

[musman1986]

It won't make it dull or useless. the reason y you think people don't use shoutbox is that the messages are all mixed up in the thread notifications. That is y i am saying the shoutbox becomes useless as people don't know what is happening.

[Golden Falcon]

Shoutbox decreased members activity sometimes though. Instead of creating a thread for a problem, it looks like they ask a simple question, but it turns into a 20 minute conversation on how "can i get this virus off my computer."

shoutbox should be use for light convo's, not entire solutions.

I'm not saying this is happening here (because its not).
But this is what usually happens to other forums, specially if its full of noobs and gets lots of traffic.

This is why IRC Channels are easier to deal with. And much more fun