Gather a group online

[Scotty]

It was brought up (and I agree with it), that the Chat tool is one of the best tools for organizing groups aside from a shoutbox.  I recommended nneoneo's shoutbox for these forums, and if that doesn't get accepted by Meiun, I have another idea to better utilize the Chat tool.

An SMF mod exists, which turns a board into a redirect on the forums:
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=38

This feature comes native with the upcoming SMF v.2 but being that we are using v.1, the above mod must be used.  Install that mod, then create a board that says something along the lines of "Gather a group to play Stick Online".  When a user clicks that board, they are re-directed to the chat room.  That way it makes it fairly easy to realize that the chat tool is the preferred method for organizing players to play with you online, as well as help out the new folk that don't see the "chat" link at the top, and just don't know better.

Thoughts?

[Lucifer]

I think that's a great idea. At the moment, the chat system is very obscure, new players probably don't even recognize its existence. If it was a bit more advertised, I'm sure it would be used. I'm all for this, or a new shoutbox, either one would be very beneficial to increasing the amount of players active.

[Meiun]

I'd probably be up for adding that new chatbox system if I can ensure it is a good and secure one. Otherwise, that other idea might work well too. The current chatroom system allowed for a chatbox (as many of you may remember), but it had a few issues when it came to the system refreshing automatically, as well as a couple other annoying quirks.

[ARTgames]

I would like a nice secure chatbox like the one we had.