I use the shoutbox sometimes, it's useful to quickly chat if the server goes down or something is happening (ex. Event)

 

Actually, this is a really tough one to take a side on... +1 -1

 

I wouldn't necessarily do away with the shoutbox, but yes, I would say that there needs to be further enforcement of rules in the shoutbox. Lately it's been people spamming, complaining, and creating a scene. If that means adding violations in shoutbox to the criteria of a forum warning, then by all means, do it. I understand that this is a community and everyone is a part of it, but there are rules, and they need to be followed. And to be followed, they must be enforced. -1 to removal of shoutbox, but +1 to greater moderation of the shoutbox.

 

-1 seen in the past few days alot of people chatting in shout box because ECC was down.. this is a great place for everyone to hang out while there is server restarts/issue.

 

Shout box will never be removed as it helps me in far too many ways believe it or not ;) Way too early in the morning for me to go into detail. No one is really going to follow different shout box rules either as it will be difficult to point new users to completely separate rules, would be a bad idea as well, standard forum rules should simply apply to it.

 

Agree with Andrewkm, still I see your point oxwood. I think the best resolution is to moderate the shoutbox better/be stricter if needed.