#sitepoint Chatroom

**Hierophant** · Mar 16, 2001 21:12

Due to the inherent insecurities of IRC chat and unscrupulous people posing as myself and other SitePoint Administrators, we will be withdrawing official support of the #sitepoint chat room on April 15th, 2001.

Several people who are regulars there have expressed interest in keeping it going and they have our blessing to do so.

Instead of an IRC chat applet, there will be a new chatroom installed on this server using PHP and MySQL technology. This chatroom will be tied into the vBulletin member database to prevent people from masquerading as others.

**Percipient** · Mar 18, 2001 14:53

Cool. Sounds much better the new way, anyway.

**goober** · Mar 21, 2001 18:57

Originally posted by Percipient
Cool. Sounds much better the new way, anyway.

To the contrary. Will it no longer be accessible to other 'outsiders'? It's a shame.

"Discipline without freedom is tyranny. Freedom without discipline is chaos." We'll find the balance yet.

It is a shame, however.

I would like to let everyone know that the #SPAmbar channel, for SitePoint's Ambar network, is still up and running, and I would love for people to come and join it. I am the head operator. KDawsKarl is currently our emporer. Come to the room to find otu what all the fuss is about!

Maybe it'll be easier for me to get "chat op" permissions now.

**Skunk** · Mar 22, 2001 14:10

That's a shame - I'm a big user of IRC chat (though I tend to stick to Quakenet, the UK / European online gaming IRC network). I can see the reasoning behind the decision though - it'll be very interesting to see how the new PHP / mySQL chat system works

**creole** · Mar 22, 2001 14:21

Wayne...when will he new chat be up and running?

CJ · Mar 24, 2001 16:37

The PHP chat is a lot slower than the current Java chat. But on the other hand, #sitepoint has never had many Java Chat users. Those who did join in did have an IRC application installed or installed it after a while.

**James** · Mar 24, 2001 17:08

creole: The new chat will hopefully be up and running on April 15th.
At the moment #sitepoint is still open and official though.

**Hierophant** · Mar 24, 2001 17:14

Originally posted by CJ
The PHP chat is a lot slower than the current Java chat. But on the other hand, #sitepoint has never had many Java Chat users. Those who did join in did have an IRC application installed or installed it after a while.

Which PHP chat is that? We don't have one online yet. I have not uploaded the files yet.

**goober** · Mar 24, 2001 18:10

Originally posted by W. Luke

Which PHP chat is that? We don't have one online yet. I have not uploaded the files yet.

LOL

**mjames** · Mar 24, 2001 23:20

Originally posted by W. Luke

Which PHP chat is that? We don't have one online yet. I have not uploaded the files yet.

Oh, don't worry. That's just CJ illustrating his physic powers.

CJ · Mar 25, 2001 02:55

of course I am....

The Java chat is a program that runs. It updates your screen whenever there is a new message from the server. Updating goes a lot faster than in PHP because the new message is just placed beneath the rest. Though in PHP you have to load a text/html file every x count secs to get the new messages. I have no clue how you would be able to do it otherwise...

**goober** · Mar 25, 2001 05:46

Setting a text box's value equal to the previous value and then adding another line should work fine. I do it all the time in reg. programs, e-mails and other various things.

Of course, that's ASP, which is much easier.

**RussellG** · May 12, 2001 04:55

Anymore news on the new SitePoint chatroom?

**James** · May 12, 2001 07:57

We're working on alternatives at the moment. It will be back as soon as possible

**goober** · May 12, 2001 07:58

I miss it.

**Skunk** · May 20, 2001 03:53

Goober - surely even using that system the chat page will still need to refresh every 2 or 3 seconds to load the new information from the server.

I just had a thought... Macromedia Flash can interact with a server "live" after it's been loaded can't it? If so a Flash chatroom might be an option...

**goober** · May 20, 2001 07:00

My brother is very skilled in Flash, so I'll ask him later if it would be a good idea. Also, isn't Kevin Yank becoming better at Java? *wink wink*

**sbdi** · May 20, 2001 07:36

I just had a thought... Macromedia Flash can interact with a server "live" after it's been loaded can't it? If so a Flash chatroom might be an option...

Actually it can, I have a flash chat room on my site. It is linked up with ASP ( www.damnyanks.com/chat ) is where you can find it.

Also there is another site www.habbohotel.com it uses shockwave and something else. Its much better than the chat I'm using you can walk around rooms and stuff, even get married!!!

**Hierophant** · May 20, 2001 08:19

The interface is not the problem...

Here is what is needed.

1) Fast low resource server. IRC seems to be the answer here. Nothing else is available that is cost effective. Other servers cost in the 10's of thousands. IRC would enable both web and client interfaces to be used.

2) It must be hosted on our server.

3) Security. Integration with the MySQL member's database. This requires either a bot or recoding the server to access MySQL and grant permissions in the chatrooms depending on the user's name.

4) Protection for SitePoint Employees and their handles. This was the main problem with an open IRC channel. It seems one person (who is jealous of SitePoint's success, I might add) tried to register every employee and advisor's name to take over the room.

5) Logging features so that scheduled chats could be archived easily.

**DarkMonkey** · May 20, 2001 11:30

It sounds like the IRC chat would work a lot better if you had your own server, then you could just unregister any names stolen and ban the person responsible permenently. Also, I dont know what these fakers did when pretending to be you, but as long as you get chanserv or a bot to automatically op the real you, people will be able to tell the difference, the people with ops are the sitepoint mentor type peoples.

A php chat would be annoying, if it would work how others I've seen do, it's not really dynamic enough, you have to refresh the page to see new lines, and it's just annoying, plus it wouldn't have all the neat features like mirc access and stuff... or would it... I'm a bit stupid

Still #sitepoint on irc.sitepoint.com would be pretty damn awesome. I really urge you to try to set it up and not to let idiots spoil the ful of others.

**James** · May 20, 2001 12:29

We did have ChanServ and NickServ set up before but the fact that a large amount of variations on SP Staff's nicknames were stolen means we can't do it now without our own server. People don't always look at whether people are Op or not.

I've been away for a week on a school trip but now that I'm back I will be trying to find a suitable replacement for the old chat for us to use.

**eficrx** · May 21, 2001 09:57

What i think is a good idea is a Aim chatroom . Most people have aol instant messenger anyways. Not only thats its pretty simple.

**Nicky** · May 21, 2001 10:11

Originally posted by eficrx
What i think is a good idea is a Aim chatroom . Most people have aol instant messenger anyways. Not only thats its pretty simple.

This is the kind of comment that would get a paper thrown back at you ata conference.

No offence, but the phrase "most people" is the bain of a researcher's existence.

**Hierophant** · May 21, 2001 10:47

Originally posted by eficrx
What i think is a good idea is a Aim chatroom . Most people have aol instant messenger anyways. Not only thats its pretty simple.

Actually. I have 6 people on my AIM messaging list and hardly ever use it.

I have 200 or so people on my ICQ list.

The other problem with using an AIM chat room is it fulfills none of the requirements that I outlined above.

**creole** · May 21, 2001 11:40

A chat would be great. I look forward to the outcome of this thread.

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