Chat Addition & Themes

[musesinspiration]

OK... so I'm having an issue here.

I'm now to the Forum Administration World.  I would like to add a chat feature to the site/forum.  I see there are several that are available... but I was wondering which would be best for a COMPLETE NEWBIE and would have the most straight-forward instructions?  I"m asking becausssse:

I'm having problems with my themes.  I can use the ones that come WITH 1.1.4, but when I downloaded hxxp:darkred.zip [nonactive], I can't get it to work!!  Um, I'm supposed to unzip it and then take the DarkRed folder and FTP it into the Themes folder on the server, right?  Or am I just totally doing this wrong?!

...I'm a webmaster, I can build and maintain websites.  I do it for a living... but this is just BLOWING MY MIND! LOL 

Help?!  Anyone???

[Kindred]

1- I like Flashchat.   It's an easy install itself and it links nicely to SMF, even without the integration mod package available in the package manager.

2- No need to do that...   go to install a new theme and choose the ZIP file from your local computer to upload and install.

[Adi.]

I like flashchat too (it's kinda slow though)

[H]

Something to note though is that FlashChat can be a real resource hog on shared hosting. If possible I suggest you look into using one of the IRC-based (pjirc) mods instead.

[Adi.]

Something to note though is that FlashChat can be a real resource hog on shared hosting. If possible I suggest you look into using one of the IRC-based (pjirc) mods instead.

yeah... I've installed that once but most of my members don't know how to install java on their browser..

Thanks, H.

[Golfoscarbravo]

1- I like Flashchat.   It's an easy install itself and it links nicely to SMF, even without the integration mod package available in the package manager.

As a complete novice, what is Flashchat ? Do I download it after a google search ? Does it just automatically work on every members forum ? Or do they all need to download it ?

Can someone walk me through what to do ?

CHEERS Mark

[Kindred]

flashchat is a stand-alone chat software that you have to pay for, download and install (tufat.com)

if you tell it to be bridged during installation, it will link to your forum.

[Golfoscarbravo]

I have been onto the website and it appears to only be £5 per forum, but does it work well ? Has anyone got it on their Simple Machines Forum so that I can see it in operation.

CHEERS Mark

[Kindred]

I have it running under SMF and Joomla on askawitchcommunity.org

If you have 20+ user in chat at a time, it does slow the system down, noticeably... but for $5, it is a good program.

[Golfoscarbravo]

It appears to take up the whole page, I've used a system in a different forum that just took a line or 2, so you could continue looking around the forum whilst chatting to others on line; anything like that available?

[Kindred]

what you are talking about is not chat, it's called a shoutbox.  And there are several mods to do that with SMF.

[Golfoscarbravo]

Excellent sounds just what we need, but can you run through how I set it up for the forum.

Many Thanks,

Mark

[Kindred]

read the documentation on using the package manager and installing mods.

[Golfoscarbravo]

Where do I find this information?

[Kindred]

documentation link above?  Try searching and reading the sticky posts regarding mod packages?

[Golfoscarbravo]

You say "documentation link above" as if this is meant to mean something and I'm sorry but it doesn't ! I can't even see a link !!!

[metallica48423]

He's referring to the Docs link in the header

http://docs.simplemachines.org/