SharePoint User Group UK

I think this place needs an IRC type chat room, so we can partake in live discussions (members only of course!!)...........

Just a suggestion!  I'm not offering to host one - but one of you might!

Regards

John

I'm up for organizing something if people think they'd make use of it?

Thanks
Nick

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www.lightningtools.com

Quite often when I log in to look over the forums, I take a peek to see who is online, and there is usually a few members and visitors.  It would be nice to converse, share a question of two etc.

I do though thinkwe would need a few people, to say its a good idea Nick and that they would drop in sometimes, or its not worth your effort.

Cheers

John

I think it would be an excellent idea and I would definitely use it should it be made available.  Not just on a Friday afternoon either!

What starts as a general chat can lead into very useful areas...

Nick.

I think that a chat room would be a good idea and I would certainly use one.

In order to generate interest, how about getting scheduled sessions to create a virtual user group meeting with a topic and a nominated lead who would be guranteed to be online....??

I have an irc network and could set you up with a channel if you'd like. Yay IRC :)

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Chat

A chat room would definately be used by myself.

Laura

I like the idea of a chat room. Also the possibility of using say live meeting for virtual meetings or rather mini discussions. Two good ideas for moving forward. What chat software do people recommend ? who remembers Exchange chat from the old days :) we could all have our little cartoon characters.

We will have to look into the hosting side as well but I am sure it is all possible without too much bother.

Steve Smith

We can do it with no hosting and minimal setup, as quite a few IRC channels will allow you a channel on their servers.   I've already identified one that supports java applet access through a simple web page and appears to be well supported, and of course support standard MIRC tools for those who prefer IRC clients (like me and Redwulf it seems). 

So technically nothing to do other than paste some html into a subpage.  Let me know if you'd like us to trial that and I'll get it on the IRC server and send you the HTML to stick somewhere.  We can see how it fares for a month with no effort really.

I've also dropped an enquiry into Cutechat to ask if they would offer a community version of their asp.net software, it has some really good features and should deploy quite easily into the SUGUK site.  We'll see if they come back with anything!

Regards

John

I agree. I already have an entire IRC network running (accessible both through IRC and web-based clients) so it would not be a problem to create a channel if people wanted to chat. The good thing about IRC versus say AIM, MSN or Meebo (for those of you who don't use it), is that you can delegate powers to "moderators" and "operators" to control who is and isn't allowed in your channel. Your Nickname (also known as a screen name to some) can be registered and will secure it against un authorized access. I don't know if I'm allowed to post links so I'm not going to test it, but the rought idea of a chatroom on the IRC medium this

1) You can download an irc client (mirc, xchat, pirch, etc...) and access the chatroom through a server address and a channel address. This is usually what so-called common irc users do.

2) You can point your browser (IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari) to a website and chat there. Much simpler method actually.

Let me know what you want,

Frenchie

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Chat

Apologies but what's 'IRC'? :embarassed:

I do think a Chat Room would be a good idea though!

Hey don't be embarassed, most people have used IRC without even knowing it.If you've ever used a chat room on a website, chances are you were on IRC unless the chatroom was flash-based (and even then). IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat and is actually quite old.

 Depending on what IRC server you connect to, specific commands and designs may vary but the concept is the same. An IRC server is a house and the rooms are channels/rooms where people interact. Like a house they can't see other groups in rooms through walls and are usually confined to their own group rooms by default. 

Or if you've used AIM/MSN/YIM just think of how you can join rooms and chat with others. Inherent to IRC is the ability to kick, ban, attribute rank... the list is a little long. If you look at my previous post, you'll see the different ways of accessing IRC.

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I found a fairly basic interface for everyone to check out, it's in my signature. Pick a nickname and check it out. I have a frame code for it if anyone wants it. Hopefully many people like it and then we can think about specific design for it. This is just to get a feel and it's based on AJAX.

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Unfortunatly our wonderful web scanning service blocks that address. This might be a problem for a lot of members coming from corporate networks.

Paul.

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www.myfatblog.co.uk
MCTS: WSS 3.0
MCTS: MOSS 2007

Didn't think about that. I'll add somenew urls under my signature and hopefully one works. Do you know how you are blocked? Port, firewalled, names, category? What is the logo you see when blocked?

Also if you use an IRC client (mirc, trillian, xchat, pirch), connect to irc.bitsjointirc.net or theta.hopto.org and join #SugUK

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I also noticed some pretty neat things about the chat. You can automatically be translated into another language, and other languages can automatically be translated to your language of choice. That means no more languages barriers! You can also log stuff.

Callum and I already had a chance to interact in the chatroom, so all of you join in! or set up a time or something :)

*note* if you sign on, stay at least 15 minutes (do other things) to allow others to sign on and see you. Otherwise everyone keeps missing each other.

I will need to set up ranks pretty soon, once everyone likes the chat anyway.

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Chat