I wasn't very good at node, and I wanted to get it up and running quickly. So I used node for the message passing and php for serving up the client files and routing the rooms.
I'd put it to technical incompetence more than anything else.
I made a site just like this http://yamr.net to be able to group chat with friends/family/co-workers and not have them install anything (can go to yamr.net/any-room-name)
It's pretty cool seeing your site and what you decided to do differently. I'll be checking out your source later when I have time.
Mine is also built with php/node and I added socket.io so I could take advantage of websockets. I auto-log in users and keep chat history (although right now it only shows the latest 30 messages)
If you're looking to implement any features I have (like chat history) PM me and I'll share how I did it
Thanks for sharing the code on github, I've been pouring over it for a little while now, and I'm inspired to try my own node project.
I see twitch is using php to render views, but I was wondering if anyone has tried any js template engines? I've used jqote (based off of John Resig templating engine, I believe) and it's pretty nice, but I'm curious if anyone else has had experience with any other js templating engines.
I'm using tuxychandru's grasshopper which does templating (an a lot more - it's a full fledged web server) in a relatively nice way. http://github.com/tuxychandru/grasshopper
Another good approach, if you're looking for something that specifically plays well with node, is to look at the modules page on the node.js wiki - it's served me well.
I only ask because watching the presentation that Ryan Dahl presented in 2009 ~ http://jsconf.eu/2009/video_nodejs_by_ryan_dahl.html mentions node.js isn't secure enough to use as a webserver for production use yet :)
This is the first time I'm open sourcing my code. Please be nice. Any feedback is welcome.
And a twich for the occasion http://twich.me/opensource