IPB chat being discontinued

[Jelly Belly™]

as a long standing and important part of my site, what are the available options when IPB Chat reaches the end on May 1st ?

[Joel R]

Some suggestions in no particular order:

• ArrowChat -- https://www.arrowchat.com/ipb-chat/
• CometChat -- https://www.cometchat.com/ipb-chat
• Babble -- https://codingjungle.com/babble/
• Chatbox -- https://invisionpower.com/files/file/7465-bim41-chatbox/

 

[Jelly Belly™]

thanks

I think I still prefer IBP chat, its a shame it can't be released as a self hosted app

[Tarun]

28 minutes ago, Jelly Belly™ said:

thanks

I think I still prefer IBP chat, its a shame it can't be released as a self hosted app

Or open sourced, or allowed to work with IRC servers instead.

[Jelly Belly™]

its all a bit disappointing really, I've been using IPB chat since year dot, its what my members are used to

the alternatives are either server resource hogs or prohibitively expensive

I'm sure IPS have their reasons for discontinuing the chat service but as a loyal IPB customer from the very beginning it feels like another backward step, every time we have to implement another change of direction we lose long standing members

[PPlanet]

I take it Babble doesn't work with IPB 3.4, right?

[Markus Jung]

On 7.2.2017 at 2:39 AM, Joel R said:

Some suggestions in no particular order:

Are all of these also working with IPS Cloud?

[SammyS]

2 hours ago, Markus Jung said:

Are all of these also working with IPS Cloud?

Yes

[Netherlord]

My suggestion get discord. And get the integration on the marketplace. Its also for free without support.

You will get a vert good stable chat with voice chat capability. If i wanted a chat i would do just that but alas i am don't have time to mod a chat

[inkredible]

I switched to Babble and it is technically much better than the IPS chat and also offers more features. I haven't tried the other changes, but I can understand IPS and I support their decision. A change is not always something bad, the IPS chat really needed a rework

As of performance: Babble uses node.js which makes it possible to run very big chatrooms for sure :). I haven't measured it but I am convinced it's much more lightweight than the IPS chat is

[Joy Rex]

13 minutes ago, inkredible said:

I switched to Babble and it is technically much better than the IPS chat and also offers more features. I haven't tried the other changes, but I can understand IPS and I support their decision. A change is not always something bad, the IPS chat really needed a rework

As of performance: Babble uses node.js which makes it possible to run very big chatrooms for sure :). I haven't measured it but I am convinced it's much more lightweight than the IPS chat is

Could you give us a bit more on your Babble experience? I'm considering it (but also Discord now that the integration addon is out), but wanted to know from a user perspective any pros and cons in using it.

[inkredible]

17 minutes ago, Joy Rex said:

Could you give us a bit more on your Babble experience? I'm considering it (but also Discord now that the integration addon is out), but wanted to know from a user perspective any pros and cons in using it.

Sure I am happy to share my experience with you guys. I used to develop node.js applications as well, so the setup was very easy for me. Others should have at least someone who is experienced with servers and/or node.js. It isn't hard to install though.

What exactly are you interessted in?

[Joy Rex]

Overall, how well it integrates into IPS, and you experiences with managing users in it, features, speed, etc. More importantly, are there any downsides to using it say versus a service like Discord (assuming you use the new addon that provides integration with IPS), or things that IPS Chat did that Babble doesn't (and should).

I do like that Babble is self-hosted, so any server-related issues are your own (both good and bad). How many concurrent users can Babble support, and ideally what kind of server architecture should you have (I have a Linode VPS for instance) to adequately support say a 50-user limit on Babble?

[inkredible]

8 hours ago, Joy Rex said:

Overall, how well it integrates into IPS, and you experiences with managing users in it, features, speed, etc. More importantly, are there any downsides to using it say versus a service like Discord (assuming you use the new addon that provides integration with IPS), or things that IPS Chat did that Babble doesn't (and should).

I do like that Babble is self-hosted, so any server-related issues are your own (both good and bad). How many concurrent users can Babble support, and ideally what kind of server architecture should you have (I have a Linode VPS for instance) to adequately support say a 50-user limit on Babble?

Okay,

the integration into IPS: The admincp is very clear and you will notice an own menu item for babble (http://i.imgur.com/pWHaSLy.png). It offers the possiblity to place the chat as widget anywhere on your forum, I have placed it on my index page which has continously more than 50 active users at the same time (accoridng to analytics). I have setup a kick timeout of 5 minutes so I should have around 150-200 sockets connected to my node server. We use quite large servers as they are also running other services. Without knowing your Linode VPS specs I bet a 2 core server with 2gb ram can handle up to 200-300 users. I am experienced with socket.io (that's what the developer also uses) and when stress testing I successfully hold 200k concurrent connections on a 6x 3.2ghz, 64gb ram machine. The fact that PayPal and other very big companies use node.js for real time notifications tells you that it is very performant. Due to IPS chat's pricing model I am very sure that it will be cheaper for you to use Babble if you want to run very busy chat rooms.

As far as I got the developer plans to offer his chat as no 1 option to the deprecated IPS chat and hence he is also testing a "managed service". He basically hosts the node server for you.

Oh one more thing: Babble costs 100$ but you will have a copyright "footprint" right below the chat that really bothered me. You can purchase a copyright removal for another 50$. 

[Joy Rex]

Wow, thanks for the great feedback @inkredible - sounds like Babble may be the perfect replacement for IPS Chat (assuming you are running a VPS and know what you are doing or hire someone who does).

I don't mind the copyright notice myself - IPS has one, no reason a major module like this shouldn't either.

The recent Discord integration addon is also appealing, especially since the developer has put the source on Github for free (but with no support). It's also 30.00, and may be a better solution for folks who don't have VPS resources or know-how.

[PirateCaptain]

Would be nice if babble would sieze this opportunity to corner the market with a more reasonable pricing plan.. I could buy it, but will rather spend many a night trying to integrate discord, seeing how much functionality you can buy on the market for 100$ (+50$ for no branding) instead.

 

[mrbowers]

CometChat is no longer option as they charge way to much and no longer support self hosting. 

Cheaps plan they have is 49$ dollars a month and only offer limit features.