As outlined in the iBox, I have the following concerns about the Live Chat feature:
1. Cannibalizing public posts. I suspect a lot of activity is happening in iChat that would be public posts if iChat weren't there. iHub makes (very little) money from public posts because of the ads non-subscribers see when they read them.
2. It's available to free members, so iHub may never see a dime from its presence here.
3. I understand it's a bit unreliable.
So, let me put the following ideas and questions out there for some feedback:
1. Any guesses how many iChat users are non-subscribers?
2. Is it a valuable enough feature that if it were moved in-house, people would pay a small amount to have access only to it? I'm thinking an amount smaller than the cost of a lifetime subscription here. And either including it as a Premium Feature of the site, or charging a tiny amount monthly for access to it.
3. Would it be helpful to archive daily conversations and make them available on the site?
4. How's the speed and reliability overall? iHub is running on some serious horsepower so if speed and reliability are issues, moving it inhouse should quickly solve any such problems.
5. Basically, is it worth paying for? The inhouse version is far from a cheap date.
6. How many people are here only because we have that feature? If we didn't have it, would we lose a lot of our "invisible" population?
7. Any idea that'd make it more valuable to everyone who uses it.
8. Any ideas how iHub can "get paid" due to its presence here?
I'm open to any and all comments.
Bob Z.
