

Chats.io, new HTML5 / Node.JS-powered social group chat, launches - cmatthieu
http://chats.io

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chapel
For a web based chat platform I think it falls short, but from what cmatthieu
said about making it, Chats.io is really a weekend project. Not really
something that 'launches' anyways.

As far as what he could do to improve it, here are some ideas: 1\. IRC is a
solid and robust chat platform that has been around for a long time, you
should really look towards what makes it strong and how it is used. Take that
and apply what works towards the web app.

2\. After building the foundation on solid chat technology, add in things
people expect from a web app. I wouldn't mind seeing actual profiles with
publicly available logs and what channels they frequent. You could add friends
and what not and know when they login and what channels they frequent as well.

3\. Since Node.js is so versatile, look at making it compatible with IRC so
that IRC clients can connect to it and function as you would expect. This
would be an added feature, but could be huge. Not everyone likes using their
browser to chat, I know I don't.

Good luck with it, glad to see someone making some fun stuff with Node.js and
showing it off.

~~~
guywithabike
Also:

4\. Prevent people from switching nicks arbitrarily.

5\. Cap message site / rate. It's incredibly to just spam the room to hell
with massive messages.

6\. Don't call it "social". It's chat. It's been done a million times before.

~~~
chapel
4 & 5 go with my number 1 advice which is to use what works from IRC.

I agree with 6 as long as it is just chat, if he provides more community
features outside of just the chat areas, it could be considered more social.

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metabrew
Seems like everyone trying out node.js for the first time wants to make chat-
room apps. At least this one doesn't have an immediately obvious script
injection vulnerability :)

Interestingly, none of the chat apps I've really used are built on node:
convore is python, mibbit is java, irccloud is erlang. Too new I guess.

If anyone's interested in a tasteful, persistent, web-based IRC client (ie,
bouncer-like) - albeit not using node.js - mention HN in the invite box on
<https://irccloud.com/>

~~~
AdamGibbins
I like the look of it but imho the Gold plan is too expensive - €12 of VPS
could get persistant IRC and a lot more.

~~~
utkarshkukreti
Where are the prices mentioned? I couldn't find it anywhere on irccloud.com

~~~
AdamGibbins
Under "More info" on the homepage.

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codeslush
Chris - this is awesome! Love that it's open source too:

<https://github.com/chrismatthieu/CHATS.iO/>

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jacobbijani
As opposed to an anti-social solitary chat? :)

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simplify
It's not loading for me =/ Anyone else have this problem?

~~~
epi0Bauqu
I am. All browsers -- seems to be a network issue (I'm on Verizon FIOS).

~~~
simplify
Ah, it seems like it can only handle so many users. If you keep refreshing,
you'll get lucky eventually (I'm on FIOS too).

------
cmatthieu
It's also running on <http://nodester.com> \- the free and open source node.js
hosting platform.

~~~
codeslush
Out of curiosity, it looks like it's down right now. Can you provide some info
about why? I thought the node stuff was supposed to be able to handle all the
simultaneous traffic requests with ease. Just curious!

~~~
jedsmith
I really hate when something being down automatically translates in peoples'
minds to a reflection upon the tools. That's like blaming plow manufacturers
for a snow day; while _possible_ , there's far more explanations that are
likely before plow failure is a consideration, such as a lack of manpower to
drive the plows.

I see this at an ISP, too, all day long: _oh, my site's down, what's wrong
with your platform?_

~~~
true_religion
It's not 'automatic'. The above poster asked about excluding the possibility
of the tool being poor as opposed to the infrastructure being bad, or the tool
wielder lacking competency.

~~~
jedsmith
I have to disagree, based upon my reading the question. "You're down. Why? I
thought Node could handle it." I don't have any stock invested in Node,
personally, but it sounded like a conclusion had already been made by the
asker.

~~~
true_religion
Here's an analogy.

Man to Plumber: "The pipe burst! What happened? I thought that steel could
handle that water pressure".

Subtext: Which is it: do I not really know what steel can handle, did you
expect lower pressure than you got, or are you just a bad plumber?

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karolisd
For some reason I'm reminded of AIM and I miss AIM. I'm going to start a
start-up that remakes AIM that you can log in with Facebook.

~~~
younata
uh.

You realize that facebook supports xmpp for chat, so you can use any IM client
for facebook chat.

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bradmccarty
Thanks Chris. This is handy, for sure. I gave it some love on The Next Web, if
you want to monitor the comments.

~~~
cmatthieu
Thanks!

------
cmatthieu
We have already received 4 pull requests and merged code with new features and
a new UI today! The power of the crowd is amazing!

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markbao
Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): The server closed the connection without
sending any data.

Edit: looks like it's back up!

~~~
andrewcamel
Chats.io, new HTML5 / Node.JS-powered social group chat, launches... and
crashes.

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bezidejni
On Chrome(Win), the windows doesn't autoscroll on joining/leaving
announcements. It scrolls normally when a new message arrives.

~~~
wizard_2
Someone already fixed it and has a pull request on the github repo.
<https://github.com/chrismatthieu/CHATS.iO>

~~~
cmatthieu
just merged pull request and scroll is now working!

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uberalex
I like this very much, and I would love to see markdown or some other rich
markup for chatting.

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j2d2j2d2
Would love to see this ported to coffeescript.

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chopsueyar
I got disconnected after a couple minutes.

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shawndrost
Please don't shove an alert in my face. It's rude.

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u48998
The site never comes up for me.

