Would a live chat option work?
I'm wondering if a live chat side bar might be a useful thing. I know it raises some issues for the moderators, but watching the development of some of the threads, I wonder if that might be a way to...
Forum Discussion
Years ago, pre Facebook I was in a fish forum for aquarium fish. As an added extra to this forum the server offered it a free live chatroom. I was a moderator for it and it was marvelous. It even had the feature you could link in photos. I gained good friends who I still correspond in private messages daily on Facebook. Sadly the forum is not operating any more, nor the chat room.