Is there any particular reason why you have gone against the normal convention of having the text input box at the bottom of the shout-box facility?  If it had been put there we could have put it in the top section of the page.  As it is, the position of the input box makes it awkward for reading the text.  Also, do members have to put their name into every message that they post?  This again is discouraging and inconvenient especially if they have a long or complicated user name.