New IRC-based Chat

solistics · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:49 am **Posts:** 2046

I'm experimenting with a new IRC-based chat system. It's not quite as flashy as the old one, but it has two cool new features:
1) In the "Who's Online" section at the bottom of the front page, it shows a new "Users in Chat" section
2) It's IRC-based, so if Java doesn't work for you (or you prefer other chat programs), you have other options

(For example, if anyone has Macromedia Flash and can compile a .fla for me, I can add a Flash-based client, so people can use Flash or Java, whichever works best for them.)

Poke around and let me know what you think--I can always revert back to the old chat program if this one doesn't work out.

solistics · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:49 am **Posts:** 2046

Can someone with a space in their name try to log into chat? I think that might not work properly (I think IRC doesn't support usernames with spaces), but I want to see what exactly it will do, so I can know best how to fix it ...

Goldarn · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:39 am

It's nice to have an excuse to use an IRC chat client again. Very old school. :-)

Thanks for all your hard work. Or (speaking as a programmer), possibly, not hard so much as consistently irritating?

Anyway, you do good work.

solistics · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:49 am **Posts:** 2046

Goldarn wrote:

Thanks for all your hard work. Or (speaking as a programmer), possibly, not hard so much as consistently irritating?

Ha ha, you've got it.

Although strangely rewarding at times. Anyway, thanks.

For those programmer types, the chat room is #thefoyer at irc.freenode.net. Feel free to connect with any IRC client you happen to have handy, or just use the Java applet you get when you click "Chat" at the top of the page.

Mercury · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:17 pm

Just in case anyone asks, I just had to log in and check it out. laters...

Goldarn · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2009 10:59 pm

solistics wrote:

Goldarn wrote:

Thanks for all your hard work. Or (speaking as a programmer), possibly, not hard so much as consistently irritating?

Ha ha, you've got it.

Although strangely rewarding at times. Anyway, thanks.

For those programmer types, the chat room is #thefoyer at irc.freenode.net. Feel free to connect with any IRC client you happen to have handy, or just use the Java applet you get when you click "Chat" at the top of the page.

So, does the flakbot do anything? respond to any commands? or does it just keep the room "open?"

solistics · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:49 am **Posts:** 2046

Goldarn wrote:

So, does the flakbot do anything? respond to any commands? or does it just keep the room "open?"

It just keeps track of who's in the room so it can be displayed in the "Who's Online" section (so phpBB doesn't have to poll the room). Speaking of which, I also added something so that the "Chat" link at the top of the page will contain the number of people in the chat room when somebody's in there, so you can see at a glance if anyone's in chat even if you're not paying attention to "Who's Online".

Vahn · **Joined:** Mon Jan 14, 2008 1:59 am **Posts:** 2293

It takes slightly longer to load, but I like the new interface way better than the old one.

~Vahn

Cleo Catra · **Posted:** Sat Mar 14, 2009 11:51 pm

I had no prob getting in Solistics

wry catcher · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:15 am **Posts:** 5632

It made me agree to every security violation in my firewall in order to load, but I guess it worked. I didn't chat to myself, so I can't be sure. Also, it just showed "wry" as being in chat. And it showed me as being in there for about half an hour after I logged out of it.

Equality · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 1:01 am

I can't chat on my work0issued laptop because I can't download the plug-in. Looks like I have the same problem with this as with the old one. It says I have to download some java thingamabob. Which I can't (only someone from my work with an admin password can do it).

cyberspit · **Joined:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:03 pm **Posts:** 1066

I was unable to connect.

solistics · **Joined:** Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:49 am **Posts:** 2046

wry catcher wrote:

It made me agree to every security violation in my firewall in order to load, but I guess it worked. I didn't chat to myself, so I can't be sure. Also, it just showed "wry" as being in chat. And it showed me as being in there for about half an hour after I logged out of it.

I changed it so that it should show "wry_catcher" (with an underscore) instead of just "wry" now. I also fixed the bug where it didn't properly register people quitting the chat.

For those of you who couldn't get the Java client to work, I've added an alternative HTML-only chat client. At the bottom of the chat page, click the link where it says "Java chat not working for you?"

Equality · **Posted:** Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:50 pm

Cool! Thanks, sols!

cyberspit · **Joined:** Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:03 pm **Posts:** 1066

Thanks Sol!

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New IRC-based Chat

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