GUYSGUYSGUYS: What do you want in a Chat System?

[Rmonik]

Very interesting to see so many people bringing up IRC.

We have been considering that, as well as setting up a Jabber/XMPP (the protocol used by FB/gTalk/AIM) server. The main advantage of IRC is that it supports many different discussion channels (I have heard that it is possible to do multi-user chats with Jabber/XMPP but it seems a bit tricky). The main disadvantages of IRC were the security aspect (I really don't have the time to full-time manage an IRC server and keep the hatches battened down) and that it seemed like overkill to set up a server if it would only be one chat room.

*HOWEVER*

With all the interest in doing IRC, maybe that is the way to go. We could maybe have a channel for the website that could be accessed via a web interface (#website or something) and then leave the other channels open for others to create, as necessary (but you'd have to use mIRC, Trillian, Empathy, Pidgin, XChat, or whatever IRC client you prefer, to access it). Ideally, I'd like to set it up where authenticating against the forum DB is required, so that people cannot anonymously log in.

I agree that an IRC server might not be worth the trouble, but there are also plenty of free, stable and open servers out there, why not just make a server on there and embed it on here?

@Ike, yes, you can embed an IRC chat inside the forum.

@Jannik, i don't think we'll be able to remove posts (although that might be up to the chat host, not the IRC itself).

[JannikR]

@Jannik, i don't think we'll be able to remove posts (although that might be up to the chat host, not the IRC itself).

This could be a little problem, as we wouldn't be able to remove inappropriate content, and that would mean we'd need to be stricter with warnings.

[Rmonik]

We would be able to ban/kick people only in the chat though, so they can still visit the forum, they just can't chat anymore.

[Hor1zon]

I support IRC. With a custom IRC bot, it can automatically filter messages with links in them(or you could make it to filter out soundcloud and youtube links)

irc is so awesome and versatile.

[Hydlide]

Currently I am running ircd-hybrid on a local machine (linux) and I am looking around in the config files to see how your able to send information from IRC back to a forumboard. However I can't seem to locate anything which should log all the different chat entries on that matter (only thing which is currently being logged are admin (kill/restarts/config changes etc) stuff, users logging in and permission changes on users). However it should be possible to enable an irc-bot which would track everything that is being posted inside the channels and send it back to a database. Similar as sending an HTTP request back to a webserver which inserts a chatlog inside a database system / log file etc... and present that on the forums for users that want to see the chat contents but not be a part of it (as it is in the current setup).

When it comes to enabling the whole IRC on the forumboard, there are a couple of java based services which do a similar thing. However, I am personally not really a fan of Java (which is more a developer thingy I guess), however one thing I do find nice as it comes to integrating is something called "mibbit". There are similar services which do a similar thing as mibbit (where mibbit is a webbased interface to connect to IRC). The only reason why mibbit still rings a bell here is that you can integrate user accounts with accessing IRC pretty easy (it works almost similar as the current Ajax chat system which is currently running). Since the only thing which is happening there is that the username is being send back towards mibbit using the user class of phpbb.

However, i might add that the idea behind setting up an IRC connection from the forum would probably work the same way in many other systems that can be integrated within the forum (as long as it is web based).

On a side note, its also an option to use Voice commands to enable/disable someone from typing in IRC. In that case the user would still be able to read the contents but not post any.

[Dino Kid]

What do I want from the chat? Chat babes. Hire about 5 to work round the clock to generally be babes, they don't have to be real, bots type just the same. But yeah, I feel like bot babes would enhance both the experience and the appeal of the forum. You have the power.

But seriously a noise alert would be nice (as long as you can turn it off.)

[Cutest Mono Up]

IRC, no question about it. You can have a web version of it aswell. and you can talk to a person in private.

And if you have a somewhat competent webdude he can make it so that you can automatically get logged in as your username when you log onto the forums.

[Rmonik]

What do I want from the chat? Chat babes. Hire about 5 to work round the clock to generally be babes, they don't have to be real, bots type just the same. But yeah, I feel like bot babes would enhance both the experience and the appeal of the forum. You have the power.

But seriously a noise alert would be nice (as long as you can turn it off.)

We can make those babes in IRC if you want

[conner.]

What do I want from the chat? Chat babes. Hire about 5 to work round the clock to generally be babes, they don't have to be real, bots type just the same. But yeah, I feel like bot babes would enhance both the experience and the appeal of the forum. You have the power.

But seriously a noise alert would be nice (as long as you can turn it off.)

We can make those babes in IRC if you want

*drunk crowd chant*
DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

[Dino Kid]

What do I want from the chat? Chat babes. Hire about 5 to work round the clock to generally be babes, they don't have to be real, bots type just the same. But yeah, I feel like bot babes would enhance both the experience and the appeal of the forum. You have the power.

But seriously a noise alert would be nice (as long as you can turn it off.)

We can make those babes in IRC if you want

Make it happen.