I'd like to reintroduce text chat to the site for people who want to chat without actually having to be on Mumble (maybe they're at work, don't want to have to instantaneously respond to every comment, etc.) Some of you may remember I originally set up an IRC server for us which actually worked alright, except that it was underused. I have a few options going forward, which I have narrowed down to 2 options. The first is that we restart IRC, except it will be slightly different. For a start I'll try and find a way to allow account registration to be integrated with the site so that people can login without extra hassle, also I'll use a slightly different web client which works even better with the server. People will really need to learn how to use IRC clients though because that's the real strength of IRC, staying connected to a server and pinging other people. The second is that I develop a sort of shoutbox for the site, which could also at some point be integrated into the trident windows app. I prefer the first option because it won't murder my server with AJAX calls and such. The third option is that we use another type of chat, possibly XMPP (Jabber), I'll take a look into that in the upcoming days. What do you guys think? Would you use IRC/shoutbox/XMPP (Jabber)?
Good idea Jack, I agree with IRC, since it seems like it is the easiest to set up for you, but we need some kind of easy introduction to how it works, I didn't understand how it worked when we had it And I think I am not the only one Thanks for your effort!!!!
A friend actually just recommended me to take a look at Jabber which seems to be a bit more featureful than IRC but I've historically ignored since most of the servers I've hosted have been for techies and developers like myself who enjoy its simplicity and easiness to implement the protocol. I'm going to read about it over the next few days because I think it might suit our needs perfectly, it also looks to be a lot simpler than IRC for the new user.
I'm all for whatever system can run on Android (too smart to actually have to pay attention in class ). I do hope that people will actually use it though.. That being said, thanks Jack for being willing to set this up.
I think a shoutbox would be better functionally, I feel a lot of people don't like IRC because you can't view past messages.
No IRC please. Something about it makes people into arrogant douchebags. A simple chat box on the website is more than enough.
I guess it depends on what the envisioned goal is... IRC (or XMPP I guess) is better for getting in touch with someone and having a conversation, or just conversations in general. A shoutbox is better for announcements - having any form of conversation there just gets spammy.
That. IRC = a much neater way of having time-delayed conversations. Meh, just leave your computer on.
Every single IRC I have been a part of just turns into a toxic environment of irc elitists, including the old trident irc. It's just a circlejerk of "I know commands in irc so im better than you" that puts me off the whole thing. It also seems to bring out the worst in people, kind of the same way as getting into a car turns half the population into assholes. Invariably an IRC channel just turns into a club for the specially interested instead of a minor function to the website for everyone to enjoy. It's a f***ing chat box, not a way of life. Why, as a user would you need (or want) to do anything to set that up in 2013? Make it a tab called "Chat" on the website. No one cares about what tech is behind it. No extra downloads, no additional log in, no use of commands or need to do anything to set it up.
I've never seen that on any IRC channel which I've been on (a grand total of 3, including Trident IRC).
I didn't see that kind of behavior. I hate you! I admit! must be asshole if want to get anywhere, because everyone else are assholes too. Umm I did use IRC ONLINE didn't download any clients
Calm down ulti, I have no idea where you are getting that from. IRC has a few basic commands that people should know but beyond that it's just a chat channel you type stuff into. A chatbox on the site means that you can't: Have desktop clients to make joining in easier and make yourself contactable Use it on mobile devices such as phones I'm going to be honest here, I just looked into an AJAX shoutbox and the development time and server resource usage is unacceptable for if over ten people ever use it at once. The choice is now between XMPP and IRC. Please share your thoughts. I personally like the look of XMPP.
I would vote IRC simply because I have an IRC client running all the time and hence don't have to load another program. Lazy, I know.
I'm just saying that whatever powers the chat doesn't matter. Having a separate app for it should be entirely optional. If you want more than a few people to use this make it as simple as possible. The default should be an integrated thing on the website itself, not a guide to how to set up irc/whatever. No doubt it is possible to integrate it in such a way that your login to the website logs in to the chat as well. Not having it a chatbox on the site means: - 99% of the people wont care/bother to set it up and it will fail miserably (again).
Irc is not hard to use and I have it running on my comuter anyway. The problem with the web chat was that people that logged in asked a question and waited a few minutes and then just left.