Free Chat for your Site

[David]

After some discussion, we have decided to give you a way to provide live, instant interaction with the users who visit your site. One of the most professional methods available to you is a custom chat room which you can moderate and administrate easily using a few simple commands.


This service is free for all of our users to utilize on their site, and you can get started with a custom chat right on your site in just a few moments. So, what do you have to do? I'll break it down into a few easy and simple steps:

1. Click Here and wait for the Applet to load. (You can also visit Click Here to use your favourite IRC client)
2. Decide on your nickname, if you like your forum nickname, and someone on IRC is not already using it, then use that! If you want something else, that's fine, just type /nick <New_Nick>.
3. Now, in order to go on to the next step, you need to register your nickname. You can do this by typing /msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <E-mail>. Easy!
4. So, we have a nickname and we have it registered. Now, users know who you are on IRC. Next we need a channel. Let's say your site is dedicated entirely to Teddy Bears, you might want to make your channel #teddy or #teddy_bear, so long as its not already taken you can join and register that channel all for your own. You can do this by first typing /join <#channel>.
5. If it isn't already taken, generally if it's completely empty, you can type /msg ChanServ REGISTER <password> <a brief description>.
6. Now, we have a nickname, we have a channel for ourself, how do we let users join our channel easily? Simple! Create a JavaScript pop-up or even an iFrame on your site with the following URL
   

   http://widget.mibbit.com/?settings=4a71e8f4ec3a9e2f55b802d13ff1a97b&server= irc.x10hosting.com&channel=%23offtopic&noServerTab=false&noServerNotices=true&autoConnec t=true&promptPass=true

   
   
   
   The text you see highlighted in red above should be replaced with the channel name you just registered above, without the leading “#” symbol.

And you're done! You now have a cool new way to communicate instantly with the users who frequent your site or to chat casually with your regulars. Imagine how quick and simple it is to explain something to a user instantly and get a response back instantly, without the hassles of remembering which forum you started that thread in, trying to get back tomorrow to check for a reply. Now, all you have to do is just say “Hi” and an entire conversation is just seconds away!

[zen-r]

Looks like a great new feature which would be useful to many x10 members - and should be fun to use! There are other ways people can set up live chat on their sites, but this way is easy, & people may not even have had the idea of incorporating chat until you just now mentioned it.

Let's hope that others spot your post. Will this feature get mentioned elsewhere, such as on x10's sign-up pages, so that more people are made aware of it?

[David]

As of right now, no. It's something we're trying out. IRC is a highly underused feature that x10 provides that very few users actually use. A while back, we stopped actively providing official support in IRC, and usage declined. Many users think that they are no longer welcome, when in fact they are more welcome than ever! Bringing live support back is something we may consider again in the future, but right now, we're more focused on it being more of a community outlet for our users just like the forums.

Of course, if staff are around and they can help, they might just be able to help, if you need help with that script you're writing, chances are an IRC junkie is available to give you a few pointers.

The wonderful thing about IRC is that you aren't limited by forum topics, as you can create your own version of "forums" and talk about whatever you want. (Just don't break the law.)

We provide IRC to you guys, our valued users, to be another outlet for you to communicate with your peers. We have a user base here at the forums to rival that of any other IRC network out there.

IRC can be intimidating to those of us who are new to it, and you shouldn't be discouraged, we're all new to everything at some point, which is why we have provided a special channel for users who need help getting acquainted with IRC. Just type /join #help and ask away.
It's best to just post the question to the channel and wait for someone to answer it.

Regarding #HELP, not all of the people in there are Network or x10 Staff, we have selected users who are knowledgeable with IRC to help you guys get sorted with IRC. Users who are in there with an & beside their name *are* network staff and you are free to contact them via a private message if you have any important issue that needs to be taken care of.

I am almost always around in IRC if you need some help. Generally, if you see my name then I'm logged in and actively looking for activity. (Though I could be sleeping. :P)

-David

[OdieusG]

Good idea, IRC is highly underused nowadays.....

[garrettroyce]

I miss the old days of hanging out in the IRC

This is really awesome though, I hope we get to keep it!

[secretply]

Is it possible to display the chat while being XHTML 1.0 Strict validated? I really love the chat feature but the iframe tag and its attributes makes XHTML 1.0 invalid. If not, are there other solutions that I can still enjoy the chat feature on my website? Thanks.

[leafypiggy]

you can use a java applet called P J I R C

http://www.pjirc.com/main.php

should be easy for you to set up.

[secretply]

Issue Resolved.

[David]

You are free to use any solution that allows this to work, however I chose to use the Mibbit example in the announcement because it is the easiest for the purpose of demonstration.

I hope to see you all in IRC, and hopefully we'll have some IRC-related activities in the near future for everyone to take part in.

-David

[leafypiggy]

This summer will be x10 Radio v3 release. I'm fairly certain we will be having some contests over IRC + the Radio for prizes!



Keep tuned. =]