A general suggestion for all:

The 'Shout Box' is increasingly being used by new users as a "I need help" tool, which is not an advisable development. This was never its intended purpose to begin with, and since the space it allows for typing per message is very limited, it just is not very useful for much other than the briefest of responses, which quite often lead to a "Ask in the forum" kind of replies anyway.
So please try use the intended paths and places to seek help, there are plenty of those around; the 'Live Help' for immediate responses, the forum, the knowledge base, the search function or the many, many videos dealing with loads of tips and tutorials.
And you should at the very least avoid being that kid who yells "Mom, I can't find my shoes?!" before making any attempts to actually look for them!

I'm clueless. I give up... what is the "shout box"?

The area next to this very window, the column at the right side of the forum pages.

More specifically this:

- assuming you have that set to be viewable in My Stuff, Edit Preferences, Turn off the right column, No.

That explains it... yep...that;s shut off in my forum view.

I never even knew that option was there...so much for us 'experts' teaching the newcomers, eh

I shut it off a long time ago because it was irritating to see the scroll on the side blocking half the forum. I had forgotten it was even there.

Well, if anything that's even more reason why using it to seek help is not advisable, then.

Same here.

Me, too. I wouldn't have known either if the exact term 'shout box' had not been used, and that jogged my memory. Mine has been turned off for years.

I actually like the shout box, does it not enable users to talk in real time if they so wish?

Musiclover

Yes. Choice is good. But I do remember, when I had it on, most of my posts suggested taking the discussion to the appropriate forum as Icelander mentioned. I'm always insisting on more background info before leaping to a possible solution, and I think solving a problem in real time is for the pros using a full chat session, not necessarily fellow users in a little box.

Still, I'll keep it on for a bit and see what happens.

I switch back and forth using the right-hand bar (which includes the shout box), depending upon whether I'm looking at content with my computer or my phone. On the phone, it scrunches all the forum content to the left, making it more difficult to read. You get more screen real estate on the phone by turning the right hand bar off.