Would either get spammed with actual spam links or spammed with support requests rather than people making threads to get help. Just having a chatbox sitting on the site looks kinda unprofessional as well, unless it was just a link to a dedicated IRC chat channel or something like that. But that's just my view on it.
We already have a TeamSpeak server available for established members.
What I think a good idea would be is having weekly / daily (depends) poll on new tech, games etc.. But make it a pop-up rather than a thread poll so its more interactive. What do you think?
It was discussed before by a few people... The basic issue being, we become liable for the spammers than manage to get one or two people to follow the instructions to drain their bank accounts, we then get told off. It's just a bad idea in the end if we don't have a way to moderate it 24/7.
I like shoutboxes/chats on the frontpages of fourms. Its a way to chat in-the-moment and not have to prepare a formal responce.
Maybe implement the idea but only grant privileges for people to use it after a certain post count? That way you can rest assured they are a more reputable member who has at least established themselves on the forum which alone significantly reduces the risk.