The benefit of message boards is that they are less complicated to implement and are available to audiences with less-evolved browsers. Many freeware and shareware programs also exist to help you set up message boards and create threads. Besides being less technically challenging, message boards also don't depend on large amounts of members. Visitors can come in and out to read about what is going on at the site, and they can interact with other people without anyone even being there by simply posting a response. Chat, on the other hand, requires people to be on the site and conversing at all times.
Nothing sends users away more quickly than an empty chat area.
Operating multiple chat rooms requires substantial resources to plan and staff interesting events and to moderate interactions as necessary. To further complicate matters, the chat-software market is not yet mature. Few currently available technologies combine an excellent user experience and easy integration with stability and scalability. If you are going to add chat to your community mix, one good idea is to try to secure celebrity chats. By getting people with star power behind them, more visitors will be compelled to come to the site.