Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

[Kotaro]

Anyone have experience with it?

I use it a lot, for my other MMO. In my opinion, it would be easier then Live Chat, both for Mods, but also for Clans, because they could manage who can and cannot join private channels.

Thoughts?

[Restricted]

Definitely IRC. I use it on another MMO, and I am currently banned on 2 places It's much more effective, a lot faster, and looks a lot cleaner.

[Kotaro]

Anyways <_<
Getting an IRC server would be a huge upgrade from Live Chat. Clans would beable to monitor and Moderate their own channels, IPs would beable to be banned (for multi's, I saw one f*ck with Night Strike and James for hours once, he made 12 or so accounts), and it'd overall be an upgrade.

[lancehoch]

I am not familiar with IRC, but I believe that a few other considerations also need to be made. Can users change their chat name? Can specific channels be set up, like Callouts and Social? Will chat moderators have the same abilities that they currently have (I am not sure what those are specifically)?

[Kotaro]

Power levels vary, for mods and Admins. The way it works, is there is a scale, 1 to 500, of power. 500 has absolute control of the channel. 350 and above can change the Topic (a message anyone who joins the specific channels can see). 200 and above can use "setinfo"'s (a message their IRC client will send out whenever they join the channel).

Ex: (this is from my logging onto a different IRC server this morning. It's actually a channel devoted to CC players that also play another MMO game.)

[12:12] * Now talking in #kitchen
[12:12] * Topic is 'ConquerClub Doubles tournament soon, looking for Co-Host (FF (ff theme too =D)) | For non-premium bumfucks - viewtopic.php?f=90&t=73183 | Frozen_flame, lax, we has Team Bewbiez Sigs now '
[12:12] * Set by ChanServ on Tue Dec 30 03:05:17
[12:12] * ChanServ sets mode: +o Kotaro
[12:12] <ChanServ> [Kotaro] ‹babybug1976› he licks, then eats ‹babybug1976› sounds like right order to me || [23:25] <laxguy> im lazy [23:26] <laxguy> and stupid

Highlighted in blue is the channel name. Every channel has number infront of it, I'm not quite sure why.

In red is the topic. That's what can be set by Admins, Moderators, anyone who has power in the channel. In this specific channel, that is me, but w/e.

In Green is who set the channels topic. I always use the ChanServ, which is an anti-flood bot that comes with every IRC channel, and is the thing that provides the power for the channels. ChanServ is required to have power in a channel; and ChanServ will only join a registered channel. Once in, it stays until the channel is unregistered.

In cyan is my "setinfo". It's a funny quote, I know. Anyways, the idea of a setinfo is just a funny little quirk that can be seen by anyone when that person comes in.

Specific channels can be registered, i.e., Social and Callouts, and maybe a Flame Wars place that people can go to fight. One of the main reasons I'm suggesting this program, is for Clan Channels purposes. With a new system in place, Clans could set up channels, where the leader is given the 500 power. With that, they can make their Clan Chat public, and just exclude people who harass/annoy the clan, or they can make it private, and use it just for themselves. They can ALSO change it back and forth, so it can be a public area oneday, and another, if they need to meet and discuss something, or just want a break from the public, they make it private again.

NOW, as for Chat names. I see how it could be a problem with people pretending to be someone else. HOWEVER. The way IRC works is, when you register for the server, you choose a specific authorization, or "auth", name. Once made, it assigns you a host mask. Now, at this point, you can either choose to put the mask on:

Example: (My current hostmask for this server I'm on)

[12:12] -AuthServ- I recognize you.
-
Kotaro.user.OGameNet is now your hidden host

Or, they can choose to leave their IP visible. Either way, there is no changing the hostmask, and if they choose to change their IP, well, than they can create multi's without getting busted, and a chat name won't matter. A hostmask can always be checked, so if someone is abusing chat, or not acting like themselves, a simple command, such as "/whois" will reveal their information. An example of this:

[12:14] Kotaro: /whois lax
-
lax is lackzguy@laxguy.user.OGameNet * john smith
lax on @#kitchen
lax using *.OGameNet.net OGameNet IRC
lax is logged in as laxguy
lax End of /WHOIS list.
-

Thus, I can easily identify anyone in my channel, and, if they're someone they don't appear to be, they can be banned from the channel; either a time ban, a kick, or a kickban. Hostmasks can be banned, stopping the IP from ever rejoining the channel. And so on.

[obliterationX]

Personally I'm a huge fan on IRC, and definitely, if Conquer Club got an IRC channel I would use it more than I use Live Chat (which I don't use all all ).

Ok, I'm on the IRC channel now. IRC has more potential than Live Chat, so we should look into popularising CC with IRC.

[Twill]

Several people have attempted to start an IRC chat server for CC, many without much luck.

Here are the challenges:

1) getting nicks to pass from CC to IRC and disable /nick command
2) hosting the IRC server locally, or finding a node which will let us run the custom nick serv
3) a user interface that is not java (you'd be amazed at how many people have trouble running the java chat rooms we've tested) and is low resource use.

If you can solve any or all of those challenges, I will personally try to get the chat switched over to IRC

[soka]

is there a diffrence ?

[Kotaro]

Several people have attempted to start an IRC chat server for CC, many without much luck.

Here are the challenges:

1) getting nicks to pass from CC to IRC and disable /nick command
2) hosting the IRC server locally, or finding a node which will let us run the custom nick serv
3) a user interface that is not java (you'd be amazed at how many people have trouble running the java chat rooms we've tested) and is low resource use.

If you can solve any or all of those challenges, I will personally try to get the chat switched over to IRC

I'll tackle 1 and 2 later. As for 3, the user interface depends on the Client you use to access it. There's mIRC, a popular one, but there are others out there, Java and not Java. Trillian can be user, as well as mibbit.com hosts it.

[soka]

i looked it up ..i guess i still dont know what the diffrence is .... why not use teamspeak or ventrillo voice chats

[lancehoch]

i looked it up ..i guess i still dont know what the diffrence is .... why not use teamspeak or ventrillo voice chats

soka, can you look up the information on these two chat programs and see if they can do what Twill mentioned above?

[GrimReaper.]

hell ill help

[Twill]

Kotaro, the interface MUST be web-based, mIRC has to be downloaded, so no-go. We need something hosted locally for the UI.

Soka, vent and TS are voice things and to support that for everyone on this site would be crazy $$$. Veto'd

[Kotaro]

mIRC is just one interface, Twill. There are dozens. mibbit.com is one example of that.

[Twill]

Alright, so assume we go with mibbit.com and the phpBB integration here (http://wiki.mibbit.com/index.php/PhpBB2_integration) or custom integration could work to pass a nick directly to the server, then we'd still need to fix the problem of changing /nick once in the channel. I think....So you've still got 1) and 2) to figure out

Mibbit looks promising though

[Kellaine]

I have been using IRC for a long time.

here is one that I am setting up for Conquer Club.

irc://irc.quakenet.org/Conquer_Club

[Twill]

does anyone have experience setting up an ircd like http://www.unrealircd.com/ ?

I'd be interested in seeing if an internally hosted solution is possible

[cspare]

does anyone have experience setting up an ircd like http://www.unrealircd.com/ ?

I'd be interested in seeing if an internally hosted solution is possible

Ive got some experience with that, though most of it is like 5 years ago. It's not too complicated actually if you are familiar with how IRC works.
If cc decides to run an IRCD locally it might be possible to synchronise the user/passes from the site with the IRC server, forcing a certain nickname. This would require some custom coding (Probably C/C++/Shell script), but it's not rocket science.

[hwhrhett]

i think irc is a very unsafe possibility for chat, it is very easy to identify the ip addresses of others, and while it can be stable if the person running it is familiar with it, it would literally be a security nightmare since irc is used by the entire world. if we could run a locked down irc server that could only be accessed by a java/html page and all users were locked out of almost everything it could be possible. but i see nothing but bad things happening if that were to be implemented as the main site chat....

[cspare]

i think irc is a very unsafe possibility for chat, it is very easy to identify the ip addresses of others, and while it can be stable if the person running it is familiar with it, it would literally be a security nightmare since irc is used by the entire world. if we could run a locked down irc server that could only be accessed by a java/html page and all users were locked out of almost everything it could be possible. but i see nothing but bad things happening if that were to be implemented as the main site chat....

If CC would setup a new server that wouldnt be a problem. You can configure to hide users' ip addresses and limit users from logging in with a username and password.

[Kotaro]

i think irc is a very unsafe possibility for chat, it is very easy to identify the ip addresses of others, and while it can be stable if the person running it is familiar with it, it would literally be a security nightmare since irc is used by the entire world. if we could run a locked down irc server that could only be accessed by a java/html page and all users were locked out of almost everything it could be possible. but i see nothing but bad things happening if that were to be implemented as the main site chat....

For those that refuse to type "/mode (username) +x", yes, it is very unsafe. With a transfer to IRC, would also come a complete user friendly guide to how to use it.