Shoutbox Alternative

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1

TL;DR

FIRST: (Optional) Install Cacert root certificate to avoid getting SSL warnings: http://www.cacert.org/index.php?id=3 (Note the very first link is aimed at Windows, the rest aren’t. You can completely ignore the first link (The MSI) on ALL operating systems).
SECOND: Access https://chat.wargeeks.org
THIRD: Register with a KNOWN username (preferrably the same as what you use on the site)
FOURTH: Access the War Geeks channel.
FIFTH: (Optional) Use an XMPP client to access the chat outside of the web, view your profile on let’s chat to get the settings.

I’ve set up a shoutbox alternative called Let’s Chat. It’s an entirely new system that you can run in a new tab or window. Unfortunately you’ll have to register to use it. It’s run by me, so you’re not handing off your details somewhere dodgy (well, dodgier than I am anyway). Although it asks for email during registration, there is currently no way for the system to send emails (that I’m aware of), so I have no idea how password retrieval will work just yet, if at all.

Once you’ve created an account on the system, you will be able to use certain XMPP/Jabber clients to connect to it without using the website if you don’t want to. Click your username at the top left, and click on the XMPP/Jabber link to get your connection details.

While most XMPP/Jabber clients should work, these ones are known to work:

https://adium.im/ (OSX)
https://www.pidgin.im/ (Win, Linux, OSX)
http://profanity.im/ (Console based, Win, Linux, OSX)
http://psi-im.org/ (Win, OSX)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xabber.android (Android)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talkonaut.android (Android)

For IOS users, if you find anything that works, post here.

The new chat system is using SSL(TLS) (for both web and XMPP), to avoid SSL warnings, please install the root certificate from CACert - I find the Windows MSI installer a bit dodgy, so rather install the class 1 PKI certificate. You can install it in your Trusted Root certificate store.

The chat system can be found here:

https://chat.wargeeks.org

I will leave the current shoutbox running for a few days before I replace it with a link to the new system.

When you register on the chat system, please register with the same name that you use on the forums. If you use something different, it’s going to be confusing.

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For interests sake, if you want to use an XMPP/Jabber client, the settings are as follows:

Server: chat.wargeeks.org
Port: 5222 (default for XMPP)

Username/Jabber ID: yourusername@chat.wargeeks.org
Password: Whatever you set on the site when you registered

To access the War Geeks channel, use this as the conference address:

wargeeks@conference.chat.wargeeks.org

The web interface will give the best experience, though.

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Here’s some more clients:

http://xmpp.org/xmpp-software/clients/

Tested (with conferencing):

Android: Xabber (no inline images)
OSX: Messages (no inline images, but clickable links) - this should work in IOS too? - add room as wargeeks@conference.chat.wargeeks.org
Windows: Thunderbird (Doesn’t show history, no inline images) - should work on other supported OS’s too.

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please unlock me on the new shoutbox

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[s]I can’t. There’s no administration at all.[/]

Ok, what I’ve been able to do is to completely remove your user id, so you can re-register.

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thanks, all I see is a lot of stuff by you and moo

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For what it’s worth, the chat system is designed to be linked to an LDAP or Kerberos system, but I’m currently using the builtin very basic authentication scheme. There is literally no admin for it, other than manually accessing the mongodb and fiddling in there.

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thanks @teejo, you rock :smile:

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can’t establish secure connection to the page - so doesn’t work on my machine/browser. Root certificate link seems to only be Windows based, so I guess the shout box is now beyond my reach

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No it’s not. Pfft.

And I thought you knew macs. :stuck_out_tongue:

You want the class 1 root certificate, pem format will work. When you download the file, click it and it will prompt you to install it in your keychain. You can either install it for your user or for the system, up to you.

When you try access https://chat.wargeeks.org in safari, it will prompt you to use the information in your keychain, just set it to always allow. You might have to click allow quite a few times.

Here’s the direct link if you can’t figure out which link to use: https://www.cacert.org/certs/root.crt

I even got it working via iMessage… which is very very ugly and annoying.

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For what it’s worth, the Adium client for OSX (linked in the first post) is a pretty decent client.

You can add the chat site easily with the XMPP connector. For usability, I recommend installing the “adinline” plugin, which allows rendering of images inline. HOWEVER in order for it to work properly, you need to add contacts to your contact list, otherwise it won’t render the images. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to remember rooms, but you can easily join the room(s) via File->Join Group Chat, and just type in the name of the chat room. It should have the rest of the necessary details already. Once you’re in a chat room, you can add the listed contacts to your contact list. You’ll want moo in particular, because he is most likely the one to dump images in to the chat. :stuck_out_tongue:

If you’re using an XMPP/Jabber client, you will be able to chat privately with other contacts, provided they are ALSO using an XMPP client. The web interface does not allow for private chats (yet?).

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Adding the certificates to Linux:

sudo apt-get install libnss3-tools sudo apt-get install curl curl -k -o "cacert-root.crt" "http://www.cacert.org/certs/root.crt" curl -k -o "cacert-class3.crt" "http://www.cacert.org/certs/class3.crt" certutil -d sql:$HOME/.pki/nssdb -A -t TC -n "CAcert.org" -i cacert-root.crt certutil -d sql:$HOME/.pki/nssdb -A -t TC -n "CAcert.org Class 3" -i cacert-class3.crt

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Just a quick note, the chat system is currently offline. I upgraded it to a new release, and now it just crashes. I’m going to try revert to the previous release.

I’ve tried to revert to a previous release, but I’m getting the same issue. I suspect something in a dependency has changed (which are installed fresh on every build), and it’s causing the software to break. :angry:

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It’s back now.

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You’ve got to love open source communities sometimes.

I was just about to post an issue on their github page, when I noticed that someone else had posted about the same issue 5 mins before, so I added a ‘me too’ type post, although I added that it seemed to be a dependency problem since the issue was happening when I reverted to previous commits as well.

A few hours later, a dev responded saying he thought he knew what the problem might be and would fix it as soon as he got to the office.

It turns out I was right, it was a dependency issue, although when I tested fixing the issue on my own earlier, I decremented the version of the dependency to the previous version that had been specified in earlier commits, but in turns out a newer version was required. /sigh so close.

Anyway, my point being that the issue was fixed in a matter of hours.

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Ran across this > https://github.com/gdpelican/babble (https://meta.discourse.org/t/babble-a-chat-plugin/31753)

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I’ll take a look.

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There’s a bullhorn icon at the top right of the screen. That’s where you’ll find it.
If you don’t see it, try a full refresh.

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