A chatbox is a part of a site that could be use to chat in. My site "Sonic the Website" has one. I feel like having one on MFGG (either forums or main.) would equal to more general conversations, meaing less of a chance of topics going off topic.

If I remember correctly, there were official (and unofficial) chats on MFGG. The problem is that they got out of hand and I would imagine that they are hard to moderate.

they were always off-site, and never on-site.

an on-site chatbox that follows forum rules could work, though personally i'd rather they only be used when there's a big event such as E3, a nintendo direct, NCFC, etc

True, but I feel like as long as nobody's insulting anyone, being racist, or sending death threats, then there isn't a huge problem.

Still you have to look out for people since some of them tends to bend the rules. Not only that, a hacker is potentially able to deploy malicious URL/code at the chat box.

I agree with this. There's also the matter of how a site or a chat box should be enforced, which will lead to great arguments about that.

An on-site chatbox would take activity away from the forums. It'd only be worthwhile if there was some kind of event like E3 as Mit said.

I've had a shoutbox on the BT Forums since the beginning (although you have to be a registered member to see it). Chatboxes help stimulate activity, but they can cannibalize the actual forum topics. Their fast-paced nature makes them more difficult to moderate than regular topics, and they're not nearly as search-friendly as regular topics. It's easy to use forum search to find information on a specific topic, but it's next to impossible for regular members to dig through the chatbox to find a specific bit of information. A big part of the value of the MFGG forums is the ability to search and locate information on fangaming topics.

Have to agree with Kritter and Vinny on this one. What would the point of having a forum be when you could simply discuss things in real time via chat room? I appreciate your trying to help, I'm sure everyone here does, but it's like that old saying goes: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."