I think a chat box to other members would be better... Just not a gist chat box for everyone to talk back no forth from. Maybe user to user thu .. It's quicker than mailing... Especially if you need to talk to like 2 or more people about something..
I think chat boxes wont really be good, It might kill all the new threads that are made, everyone would jsut come online say Hi talk about whatever they wanna talk about on the chat box and then leave and then the forum would pretty much maybe die well thats just what I think could happen
Make the chatbox only available for people with 50 posts or vip only or something like that then it won't affect activity.. i doubt it'll affect activity even if its public.. You have to give it a chance obviously