Amen to that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now let's look into getting back the people who can no longer participate in the day to day banter because of the demise of The Shout Box. For example jnighting, artboy, the spanish lads and Steady Stan and Artemis.

I know that there is a Bandwidth issue here but I'm wondering if this might not be as bad as it seems. The Black Box was taken away immediately after the 5th anniversary party during which it was, understandably, HAMMERED. The way I see it and the way people who have been affected by this have explained it to me (Yes, it's true...people do talk to me ) the problem arises in that the Chat Room is Too obtrusive for when they are in the office. It can get VERY busy and it's difficult to concentrate on work with all that activity going on. What they need is an area that they can look at occasionally and comment from time to time should they wish to do so.

If that area was away from the Home page and refreshed every 5-10 minutes (or some other convenient time period) and not every time someone posted, would that have a less harmful effect on the Bandwidth issue? I'm guessing that the code for the original Shout Box is still in the system somewhere and perhaps with a bit of tweaking from someone in the know could be adapted to work in a way that will suit both our beloved and much missed moonies and the Hosts.

As a matter of interest.............the "other chat room" that appears on the left hand side of the Home page has a lot of the attributes that are required here. Could THAT be adapted? It is less obtrusive, gives people the ability to say whether they're working, lurking, away from desk etc. I remember that there were issues with it but maybe a bit of tweaking could resolve those.

OK Boys and Girls, fire away with the "Dork" comments. I make no apology for posting this as I know it's something that people out there would like to see.