p.s. also, no purchasing for username change; that's dumb

Yes, but people with a noncreative name such as "Spyro Fan" or
"Spyro 11723" can change it to something more meaningful. Usernames
such as "The Awesome Possom" or any one of the trillions of nick names
can be used in place.

Plus, I can use the attained points to play around with my nickname
Swaffy; I can name myself Swaffy Waffle, Swaffinator, Swaffenstein,
Swaffer Sweeper, etc. [Of course, my sig would say that I'm still Swaffy.]

I think a good way to get a number of people visiting the chatrooms (more than one or two) is to hold an event that's chatroom-oriented, or at least in part requires it. It could be a contest, chatroom games, etc. Again, the difficulty in being creative with these events is that this site lacks any particular direction, and so it's difficult to come up with some sort of theme. Gems could've been potentially used as a currency incentive for such events (prizes, etc.) but they don't have any particular use right now.

To add to that, create an event that'll cause the members to interact with
each other. Our youth group holds events that allow people to interact
more so that the youth group feel more like a family than a room full of
strangers. So interaction is very important in communities, and is a big
problem why people feel so disconnected from other people these days.

Events = Interaction
Interaction = Activity & Brighter Environment

Like that horribly addictive game Farmville I used to play.  Allowances given to everyone performance based, but a pay-in is allowed.

I doubt anyone would pay real money.

I promise you I wont, unless it's like a very tempting raffle or something.

One example is a customizable title that modifies the look of your username:
- glowing text
-  different colored text (although you have to differentiate this from colors that identify mods, admins, etc.)
- different fonts
- moving titles?! (such as the one you have SR)

I initially had also the idea of a customizable template for your posts, or different templates for the site itself. However, the former would make every thread look chaotic if everyone had different styles of post designs. And as for the latter, I've heard that making new templates for the site is quite labor-intensive.

Hope that's some food for thought for things to "purchase".

p.s. also, no purchasing for username change; that's dumb

And secondly, it would help if there was a good reason or incentive to visit the chatrooms. A lack of this is in part due to the lack of focus for Spyro-related topics, which is the main purpose for this site's existence...however, I think there's a good chance for more people visiting when there's more info on the new Spyro game I heard was supposed to be coming out in the near future.

I think a good way to get a number of people visiting the chatrooms (more than one or two) is to hold an event that's chatroom-oriented, or at least in part requires it. It could be a contest, chatroom games, etc. Again, the difficulty in being creative with these events is that this site lacks any particular direction, and so it's difficult to come up with some sort of theme. Gems could've been potentially used as a currency incentive for such events (prizes, etc.) but they don't have any particular use right now.

Come to think of it, I don't know what's stopping SR from implementing a separate webpage that acts as a store to purchase items (e.g. customizable posts & profiles). I wouldn't know how much more bandwidth would be required to maintain a point system for purchasing items. A store would really raise the incentive for people to visit this site in general. I know this idea has been brought up several times in the past, but I cannot remember why this idea never was taken more seriously.

We as the staff are on pretty much all the time, at least myself and SR are there if anyone has problems and such, but everyone else is really beyond our control. The chat room was created for the benefit of the userbase, it really is up to them if it's used or not.

hey spyrorocks would you think about this chat site for chatting?  http://tinychat.com/ you can embed it right in the website too