does shoutbox help community?

[kooftspc11]

ive noticed that trackers with shoutboxes have more active communities...your thoughts please

[mrnobody]

maybe

but i like IRC better :ras:

[ajsi]

ye, irc is better

[kooftspc11]

dont lie

[colombianino]

irc is better, although some are active on shoutboxes...
the tracker can only be as active as the members that are part of it.

[invite420]

Shoutbox way better than irc, but causes huge site load, i think

[Daniel]

A shoutbox is more often than not only used to cater to unintelligent conversations that might as well happen in a normal chatroom. If I want to chat, then I open my irc client, if I want to write something with enough value to be preserved, I use the forum that is integrated in most trackers. Shoutboxes were initially used like a less formal guest book on static websites, that doesn't apply to most of today's websites anymore - so in my opinion they have outlived their usefulness.

[sovaz]

I don't like shoutbox coz it causes unnecessary load on the tracker n it sincerely i find it ugly. IRC all the way.

[dunson]

I think it is good to give a quick hello or announce something, welcome people to the site, etc. But I don't think it should be a chat room. I'm not a big fan of them and the trackers I really use, which have great communities, do not have a shoutbox.

[etqwplaya]

BitMeTV has shoutbox and IRC is dead... Bad community but everything else is good.