I'd say a bit of both... And a chatbox does make the forums better IMO, until it is abused, which is what happened here. Mabye some "chatbox ettiquete" would help?
As for the forums, could you move the poster avatar, info etc. to the left of the post instead of the top (kinda like the RA2 forum format)? For some reason, this layout really bothers me... (just a suggestion that would make the forums a little better IMHO) :D