Membership Chatboxes on the forum

[anthrxmilkshake 86]

Hey guys!

I've seen a few option for this in different locations. Cbox is the most popular, even though they require you to pay for their premium service for really any kind of protection, security, or true personalization.  I've also seen SmartChatBox used, and I've used this myself. SmartchatBox is actually pretty nice, they allow for more options without paying for the premium. With premium you get more options, like personal messaging system through the chat box, but that's hardly needed on a forum. It also allows for a lot more security, plus admin and mod positions without paying for it first. So far it's the option I've found with the MOST versatility for someone on a budget. 

 

What chat do you use, or have you seen used? Which one offers the MOST options, or is the cheapest alternative chat to be implanted on your forum? Once they give me the ability to embed Discord I'll never use another chat. lmfao.

[VirusZero 176]

I've seen a few different ones...

 

I used to use Chatango because it was part of a site I was on years ago (so I already had an account). Plus it had built in auto refresh, personal messaging and auto parsed media (so if you posted a link for a video, it'd post the video in the chat). Though many hated it because it had universal accounts. (They also claimed it was hard to theme... but I don't really buy that one. Mostly because those I saw talking about never really looked at theme options for it, they simply parroted what others had said. And that was readily apparent when they said it couldn't do <x> but then I'd find the option for it within 10 seconds. )

 

I've tried out Chatwing and it was kind neat, but much in the same vein as Chatango. Though it had a number of cool features chatango didn't have like the ability to let people log in with google, facebook or twitter accounts.

 

Then there was Xat which I saw used a few times but just never really liked the look/feel of it. (I thought it kinda bulky and had annoying sounds on new message.)

 

There was another, but the name escapes me, where everything was upside down. It had the enter message bar at top and the messages went from oldest at bottom to newest at top. (I think it was called like chatmix or shoutmix... but I'm not 100%.)

 

And of course cbox... which I never really cared for simply because it was too basic and it locked necessary/basic features behind a paywall. (Want auto-refresh... pay up.) I will also admit I never cared for it simply because of how much roleplayers seemed to gush over it (largely because they could cram cbox into absolutely tiny places with CSS.)

 

 

 

[Sage 289]

I've always primarily used cbox because it's easy and has been a popular choice in the rp community. I always felt it was simple and intuitive, and for the chat I've been involved in we never needed to look at premium. I like the basic-ness of it!

 

Though its structure has changed a lot. Like @SithLordOfSnark said, you no longer have to pay for auto-refresh, the symbols and fields have been updated, and the pay structure has changed. Which is really nice. And it's easy to customize if you want to!

 

I'm also a fan of the jcink built in shoutbox, though I may be in the minority there. It takes some know-how to style it and position it where you want, but it's built into the system so you can get alerts, people can PM you directly from there, and the name there is attached to your account name. Plus it's not an outside application, which I like a lot. And it has auto-refresh, avatars, etc.

[anthrxmilkshake 86]

 @Sage I recently tried to utilize the shoutbox feature on a site in the hopes of not having to pay for premium in order to have the security my site enjoys. Since it's hooked to your account it meant I would know who was who and such, and it also has the ability to allow guests to shout inside of it, so it meant I could have a chat on the forum, built into it, that allowed guests, and was hooked into the ACP system so I could provide all the security I needed. However I found out it was very limited in the width of the shoutbox itself. I attempted to ask the jcink community and was informed it DOES NOT style any smaller than I had it. While I wasn't trying to make it itty bitty, I did want it compact enough that it fit into my moving side bar so that it stayed with the user as they scrolled..this turned out to just not be an option.

[Sage 289]

@anthrxmilkshake you definitely can - I've done it. It's in an old skin of mine somewhere so let me see if I can find it and I'll DM you what you need. I'll also throw it up here in the coding section or something for others to find it, too.

[Zahhy 130]

I really, really enjoy the new cbox. It is fairly customizable and super easy to use. You can also send a direct link to the chat now which is amazing.

[The Duchess 8]

I've used quite a few different ones but I always come back to the cbox b/c I can change so much with it when it comes to the theme. And I'm super picky with that. If I can't code it to match my skins, then I'm not interested. Same with color coding my members vs. staff, and the various other things that the cbox offers that I couldn't get from the others I tried out.