I would like to propose the addition of a new feature for users: Live Chat 
With the PM system it's a bit hard to have a conversation since it's not keeping the same conversation in a thread (or some other way of organizing that makes sense).
It would be really nice to have a place where everyone can chat live and not be required to always switch to skype or other apps.
I had this simple machines forum (same as BCT) installed on my web server about 10 years ago and had added in the option for live chat that even included a bot
I don't think the same software would work for everybody today because it was flash based (at that time flash was really cool and new) but nowadays since the switch to html5, it's not supported anymore.
I found some possible candidates here:
https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=chat
https://www.arrowchat.com/smf-chat/
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=475150.0
What do you think would work best for this forum?
UPDATE:
As a lot of people did not read the posts after this OP, here are some things that were discussed:
1. This will be a personalized chat (similar to FB messenger - only 2 people will talk in a chat) not a main chat where everybody would join and talk nonsense.
2. There are a number of limitations that can be implemented into it (most likely they already exist) like:
3. Advantages:
It would be nice to test it out in this forum and see what the users think of it, since it won't be too much work to integrate it. If it catches on, maybe it could be added to epochtalk as well.
No system/feature will ever be perfect. We can integrate it, see how it works for a few weeks and tweak it along the way.
I would appreciate constructive posts on this. "Naysayers" that do not care to bring valid arguments to this can post somewhere else.
With the PM system it's a bit hard to have a conversation since it's not keeping the same conversation in a thread (or some other way of organizing that makes sense).
It would be really nice to have a place where everyone can chat live and not be required to always switch to skype or other apps.
I had this simple machines forum (same as BCT) installed on my web server about 10 years ago and had added in the option for live chat that even included a bot
I don't think the same software would work for everybody today because it was flash based (at that time flash was really cool and new) but nowadays since the switch to html5, it's not supported anymore.
I found some possible candidates here:
https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=chat
https://www.arrowchat.com/smf-chat/
https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=475150.0
What do you think would work best for this forum?
UPDATE:
As a lot of people did not read the posts after this OP, here are some things that were discussed:
1. This will be a personalized chat (similar to FB messenger - only 2 people will talk in a chat) not a main chat where everybody would join and talk nonsense.
2. There are a number of limitations that can be implemented into it (most likely they already exist) like:
- Number of active chats at one time could be limited based on rank
- Access to it could also be limited based on rank
- Limit of instant messages (IMs) that can be sent out on an hourly basis to different users based on rank
- A button to "mute/block" a user
3. Advantages:
- Communication would be faster
- Easy to use when you have to send multiple replies, unlike the current PM system, but not a replacement of it
- Not using 3rd party apps like skype, icq or other live chat apps that can be vulnerable to social engineering that leads to hacking your account here, e-mail, wallets etc.
It would be nice to test it out in this forum and see what the users think of it, since it won't be too much work to integrate it. If it catches on, maybe it could be added to epochtalk as well.
No system/feature will ever be perfect. We can integrate it, see how it works for a few weeks and tweak it along the way.
I would appreciate constructive posts on this. "Naysayers" that do not care to bring valid arguments to this can post somewhere else.