Well, first I am not a big fan of a shoutbox at the top or as a page, since I believe that people would like to continue a conversation while still browsing a forum.
So all I personally require is a shoutbox in the sidebar and be able to disable any pages that the software generates, and also disable any shoutbox that would sit at the top of the forum
I have purchased and installed a shoutbox and disabled all of the above, bar the sidebar location, but I find that the options are limited
You can see it running at
http://rimbit.com/forums/
Yours seems that it could offer more functionality and the fact that you are around, also is a good sign when things break or some special additions need to be made...