Any tips for a simple web-based #chat software?
I'm looking for something to host on my server and use for chat sessions with a small group of people (a team basically). No client software.
I'm NOT looking for a full blown collaboration thing, it needs to be simple and not overwhelming (because #accessibility). Just one (or more) chat rooms and maybe private messages.
I'm thinking about #IRC but I don't know any good web-clients?
People should just go to the URL and be able to chat.
Boost please 💜
@joop We don't need a history (actually we prefer not to have one by default).
Just a virtual place for meetings without having to deal with distractions and a ton of features we don't need.
@joop So no, we are not looking for a slack alternative. Just a simple chat ^^ nothing more.
@Jules https://kiwiirc.com/ might do the trick then? It's just a simple IRC client, open source, etc. I've used it when i'm on a pc i don't own and need to look at IRC real quick, but apparently you can self-host as well.
@joop ah yes, that looks nice, thank you. I look into it :)
@Jules @joop Matrix, using Riot? https://riot.im/
@Jules IRC might be the best option, yes. But if you don't necessarily need to use your server and safety is still an issue, consider using Keybase. It has encrypted team chat and storage, but the client needs to install the app on the phone or computer...
@Jules i recall mibbit being a web client for IRC that i used a fair bit!
@Jules Matrix can probably do what you need, but it can be overwhelming and I don't love it.
@Jules I'd go for XMPP. I don't know how good the web clients are, but I know they exist. They can co-exist with desktop and mobile clients, too. Prosody is an easy-to-set-up XMPP server.
Matrix/Riot is very good, too, but I don't know how easy it is to set up.
@gcupc I was thinking about setting up xmpp but didn't know there were web-clients. Thanks!
@Jules Rocket chat and Mattermost come to mind for me.
@Jules @DasSiliel there is at least one web-implementation for jabber.
@Jules i don't really want to recommend irc, but kiwiirc is a nice web client. you can use the official instance or run your own. and in both cases embed it in a simple html page with a default server/channel to connect to.
@CobaltVelvet @Jules a place i hang out occasionally uses nodebb.org notionally forum software, but does chat functionality
@Jules check out Orbit, maybe? https://github.com/orbitdb/orbit
@Jules Mattermost
@Jules IRC in teams is tricky because unless you've got a bouncer or something people won't see any history when they join. From what I've heard it's ok for accessability, except the join/part messages can get in the way. Are you looking for basically a slack alternative? Because https://about.mattermost.com/ seems to be something along those lines, but I've got no experience with it