I’ve been looking at chat clients to give us a live chat facility. Found one that can integrate with the forum and I have a test version runnning. You can try it out at:

[url="http://www.seventypercent.com/chat/open.asp"]Chat test[/url]

Please give it a go and let me know what you think. For the moment you can choose your own user name, but when it’s fully live it will load up with your forum user name and you’ll have to be logged in to the forum to use it.

I don’t think chat should replace the forum threads, because it’s good that all the info we put here is available for everyone, but it will be a good community feature, and good for instant chit chat. As ever, feedback welcome.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

Well, it works. I tried it, and it looks like the room logs all the posts in much the same manner a forum does. I saw that Martin “fell asleep” quite a bit, as did I, and when this happened to me I had to close the window and re-renter the room via the link provided above. Is there an easier way to re-enter or to avoid falling asleep altogther? We should all give approximate times of when we’ll be in the room to facilitate actual real-time conversations.

You can hit “log out” if you fall asleep, then you can log back in.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

Great idea with chat options on the forum. Makes sense to me that forum user name and chat user name is similar. I haven’t managed to try it out because of the setup on my computer.

Btw, I would very much like to make a minor change in my user name, just add in a space between Lone and Ly. Is it too much to ask for, Martin?

“Man cannot live by chocolate alone – but woman can.” (Unknown)

Ok, thanks for your help, but I’ve taken this one down for now. It was causing hundreds of server errors for some reason. Could spend the time trying to fix it, but this was a free one and I’m looking at some paid for software instead. Not sure which yet, but will be similar to this chat but I’m looking for more features anyway, including forum login, moderation, etc. Any ideas welcome.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

Ok, it’s back – actually a new programme though. I thnk ths will the final one (very similar to the last, just I had to pay for it …..). Will colour in soon, and also make it so you don’t have to log in, it will just use your forum details.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

I tried clicking the link you first posted (way above at the top), and it took me to a room that said “loading.” I guess it didn’t work, so I clicked out.

I’ll be there at 3pm GMT if anyone wants to try to have a real chat.

Martin Christy
Editor
http://www.seventypercent.com

Yeah, I didn’t see the actual “Chat” tab at the top of the page. However, I still see the “loading…” message, but Martin said he saw me in the room.