Advice needed... chat system for church service reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-17 13:42 So a few years ago I set up a local Hybrid IRC server along with Kiwi web IRC client to function as a chat client for people to chat with pastors during live church services. Has worked great for years but now we have griefers so I need to figure out how to deal with them. Kicking has no effect since they just come back on. I'm thinking of maybe doing a quiet/mute ban so they think their messages are going out but they aren't, like a shadowban, if that's how it actually works. But it looks like I need Unreal IRC server for that capability. Is that my best approach or should I be looking at a totally different system for an online chat? Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mollested_skittles · 2017-04-17 15:12 There is already such option in irc. if you set a specific mode in a channel only people with voice / op will be able to speak the others will not. Church irc sounds fun! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-17 15:28 You mean moderated (+m)? Yeah, I know about that. Unfortunately there's a lot of people coming and going and +v'ing them all would be a bit difficult. I guess I could make a bot to +v new people automatically and then devoice problem people ... but then they'd get an alert that they were devoiced, right? Sorry -- I just do this as an aside. I'm not an expert on IRC. Just getting this set up was a miracle in itself! K lines, G lines, Coke Lines ... yeah I need some of that. ... which leads me to my joke about why it sucks being an IT person working in a church. Whenever I screw up, it's my fault but whenever I pull off anything truly impressive -- God gets all the glory... :-) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- mrtherapist · 2017-04-17 19:08 Only let people post after five minutes on channel. It will limit to one grief every 5 minutes. Maybe there is a bot out there. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Monkespank · 2017-04-17 22:42 I've seen some channels require you to register your nick before you can talk. I've only used irc to chat so I have little knowledge on running a network but maybe having user's sign up at your church and then emailing their password might help or only allowing users who have registered their email with the church ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DrGrinch · 2017-04-17 23:51 I would honestly switch over to Slack for this kind of application today ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-18 02:39 I really need the chat window to sit under a video window on a web page though ...so they can chat and watch services. Besides, Slack is a glorified IRC server/client anyway! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-18 02:40 That's an interesting idea. Could probably have it recognize frequent users and bypass that wait time too. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-18 02:42 Thanks. Trying to avoid making too many hoops, but might be able to do something with their chosen nick and hostname combo and remember them. I just need to figure out how to do a bot I guess. I also need to figure out how to configure webirc since it's a web client so all connections appear to come from the web host right now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wrydryn · 2017-04-18 06:27 Would it be possible to set it up so you could Z ban offending users? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- noeatnosleep · 2017-04-18 23:29 You could use something easy and built in like /r/orangechat. It's got a very clean and easy to use kickban feature. It could be adjusted to run using oauth on your church website, requiring registration with you before use. Would be hard to ban dodge that, as you'd vet the users, or at least compare the registered email against a list of member's emails. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-04-19 10:58 Interesting approach. The "conversation" isn't really threaded in nature but more real time, but maybe the web interface hides that part. I'll have to see what it looks like. Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- noeatnosleep · 2017-04-19 11:15 Sure. I'm a dev on the project as well, so if you had any questions, suggestions, or wanted a custom version, I could probably help you out. I'm pretty much always on snoonet in #noeatnosleep and a bunch of other channels. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chatrus · 2017-05-27 23:52 [Chatwing](https://chatwing.com) has a solution for churches to have your own messaging system for your website plus sync to a custom branded church app. There are controls in place to assign moderators, ban and kick users, delete messages, with your own account system, plus the ability to ban based on account system + IP address + verify email options, means it is much more difficult for the trolls to come back Have a look at this PDF: http://chatwing.com/upload/Church.pdf ---------------------------------------------------------------------- poncewattle · 2017-05-28 02:20 Oh wow, thanks. We ended up going with Church Online.... http://churchonlineplatform.com/ I'll take a look at Chatwing too. I like the idea of an app. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chatrus · 2017-05-28 03:00 Chatwing offers an embedded option that can sit under your window, html iframe is available for each chat plus javascript if you want the chat to float at the bottom of your site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- chatrus · 2017-05-28 03:10 Looks ok but probably expensive they don't display any pricing. If you contact chatwing tell them "chatrus" sent you and they'll provide you a 2 month free trial of your own custom branded iOS, iPhone, iPad, and Android app and get it live in the Apple app store and Google play store, totally free so you can try it for 2 months. Then after 2 months if your satisfied its just $19 per month(pay per month, cancel anytime) Your church members will save a bunch of money plus they will love having your own internal app getting push notifications, viewing schedule, making donations.. ect..