Dedicated Chatroom vs Discord

So as some of you may recall, we lost our dedicated chatroom, CHATMM due to the forum provider getting out of the dedicated chatroom providing service.

There were some potential replacements, but all were costly and didn't offer the same level of integration that we had with CHATMM. So, as a stopgap solution, a suggestion was made to use Discord as a replacement.

Discord has been fine, and recently with the forum upgrade, I have been able to leverage addons for the forum to more tightly integrate it into the forums (new topics get a link in the Discord, for example). It still doesn't 'feel' the same though, and it's still very disconnected from the site.

There's been a new development and now there is a potentially viable replacement chatroom for the forums that I have been researching. According to the developer, it offers:

Main Chatroom Features

• Create unlimited chatrooms
  • Choose what groups can view the chatrooms
  • Choose what groups can chat in the chatrooms
  • Choose what groups can whisper ( read below for the whisper feature )
  • Choose what groups can download attachments
  • Set the amount of messages to be show in each chatroom
• Chatrooms uses the IPS editor for the messages
  • Full ckEditor toolbar with all your add-ons will work including the new giphy image add-on
  • Full ability to upload attachments directly to the messages from your PC or mobile phone
  • Supports all of IPS' embedding features of videos / images and your own website link embeds
• Live updates of new messages using Ajax refresh
  • Choose to play a sound when a new message gets posted
• Live updates of the online user list using Ajax refresh
  • Choose to play a sound when the online user list gets updated
• Whisper ( Allow members to send private messages to multiple users )
• Choose to show the new messages from either the top or bottom of the message list
• Members can toggle the sound on or off for each chatroom
• Members can toggle to hide/show the online user list
• Allow moderators to edit the chatrooms on the front end
• Directly embed videos by uploading the video file directly to the editor
• Moderator Permissions
  • Can edit messages
  • Can delete messages
  • Can use the ban list
• Each chatroom has their own ban list what moderators with permissions can edit to ban certain members from the chatroom
• Choose from 2 different style chatrooms with a standard or a more compact view of the message list
  • Choose to display only the message senders avatar
  • Choose to display only the message senders name
  • Choose to display both
• Add a widget to any page showing a list of chatrooms and the amount of members online in each one

Member Chatrooms

• Members can create their own chatrooms
• Member chatrooms will appear in their profiles in the tabs section
• Member chatroom owners have full control of the ban list for their chatroom
• You can choose if and what user groups can delete messages from their chatrooms via the ACP

Bots

• Create unlimited bots to post messages when something happens on your site
• Select a member to send the messages ( You could create a bot member via the ACP and use that )
• Each bot can be set to post in different chatrooms
• Applications supported for bot posting
  • Calendar
    • Create a message when a new event gets created
    • Create a message when someone comments on a event
    • Create a message when someone reviews a event
  • Downloads
    • Create a message when someone uploads a file
    • Create a message when someone comments on a file
    • Create a message when someone reviews a file
  • Forums
    • Create a message when someone posts a topic
    • Create a message when someone replies to a topic
  • Gallery
    • Create a message when someone uploads a image
    • Create a message when someone comments on a image
    • Create a message when someone reviews a image
  • Lottery
    • Create a message when a new game is created
    • Create a message when a game has been drawn
    • Create a message when a member claims a winning ticket
  • Media Uploader
    • Create a message when a member uploads a image
    • Create a message when a member uploads a video file
    • Create a message when a member uploads a audio file
    • Create a message when a member uploads a document
  • Members
    • Create a message when someone registers on the site
  • Members Shop
    • Create a message when a user purchases a item
  • Nexus
    • Create a message when someone reviews a product
  • Random Messages / Quotes
    • Create messages / quotes from a stack setting allowing you add as many as you want and the bot will post random ones each cycle
  • Sports Betting App
    • Create a message when a member places a bet
    • Create a message when a member claims a winning ticket
  • Standard Message
    • Create a message via the editor and the bot will post the messages each cycle
  • Standard & Random Message Cycle Settings
    • Run cycle every 5 minutes
    • Run cycle every 15 minutes
    • Run cycle every 30 minutes
    • Run cycle every 60 mintutes
    • Run cycle every 3 hours
    • Run cycle every 6 hours
    • Run cycle every 12 hours
    • Run cycle every day
• Each application you pick you can select from a list of their categories / forums etc for when the bot should send a message, this can also be set to all categories / forums etc
• If you don't have any of the apps installed above the settings will not show for you to enable them
• If you delete a chatroom from the ACP any bots linked to that chatroom will also be deleted, this is to stop any errors that could be thrown if the chatroom don't longer exist and the bot does
• More applications will be coming to the bot section in the near future including some 3rd party applications

Widgets

• Show chatrooms in widgets allowing you to place them all over your site allowing members to chat on other pages
  • These chatrooms can be toggled to be hidden or shown ( Of course it is shown by default )
• Shows a list of chatrooms and the amount of users online in each of them

Apologies for the formatting; I can't be arsed to bullet indent all that and not strip away the formatting so it matches our posts.

The addon costs 50.00 and then 25.00 every six months thereafter, but that would be absorbed into the monthly hosting/software costs we already pay via donations and subscriptions. Just being transparent about the cost so it is not seen as a "well, it's free so why not" option like Discord.

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:26 PM, Joyrex said:

Discord has been fine,

lol

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:29 PM, Joyrex said:

The addon costs 50.00 and then 25.00 every six months thereafter, but that would be absorbed into the monthly hosting/software costs we already pay via donations and subscriptions. Just being transparent about the cost so it is not seen as a "well, it's free so why not" option like Discord.

would this bring about an increase in subscription prices? 

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:32 PM, hello spiral said:

lol

What's the benefit of moving away from discord? Discord is free vs $100 for the first year and $50/yr thereafter..

it might not be as dead as the watmm official discord I guess. Certainly no actual CHATMM tho

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:32 PM, andihow said:

would this bring about an increase in subscription prices? 

No; I don't see any need to raise subscription prices with this potential increase in annual costs.

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:44 PM, andrd said:

What's the benefit of moving away from discord? Discord is free vs $100 for the first year and $50/yr thereafter..

The benefit is Discord is not integrated into the forum, and many people liked the CHATMM format. Plus, as you can see from the feature list, it would provide a lot more than CHATMM and possibly even Discord does now. And if I didn't communicate it clearly, the first year costs would be 50.00 per year

  On 5/15/2019 at 10:50 PM, hello spiral said:

it might not be as dead as the watmm official discord I guess. Certainly no actual CHATMM tho

That's part of the reason for this proposal - the WATMM Discord is just too disconnected to the forum (even with the posts integration), plus people want the CHATMM experience back (I believe you were the most vocal proponent of that)

I think that horse has bolted...

I liked chatmm, crabs in a bucket

chatmm still exists. It's just not on watmm anymore

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:35 AM, hello spiral said:

I think that horse has bolted...

Yeah, things change - you were going through withdrawls when we lost it before...

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:43 AM, hello spiral said:

chatmm still exists. It's just not on watmm anymore

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:45 AM, Joyrex said:

Yeah, things change - you were going through withdrawls when we lost it before...

Which is the reason we had to go make our own with blackjack, and hookers

dedicated chatmm for the win

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:48 AM, hello spiral said:

Which is the reason we had to go make our own with blackjack, and hookers

Yes, but its... not CHATMM! Not really CHATMM; not the full-flavoured, rich, delicious CHATMM that left you with no regrets. Discord may have shiny lipstick and look at you alluringly, but in the end you're left empty and feeling used... almost unfaithful dare I say?

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:45 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

I know but it had it's charm "uh oh X entered the room"

notCHATMM is my warm and caring stepdad after my real dad went out for a pack of https updates and never returned

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:55 AM, hello spiral said:

notCHATMM is my warm and caring stepdad after my real dad went out for a pack of https updates and never returned

Damn, you still remember why CHATMM was lost! That'd dedication!

But here's the twist - your dad never left; you just lost your way. Come back to my bosom, little lamb. Return to the flock.

*retches*

Ah, okay. I can continue now

I've got a long memory. So don't try to switch this around. Gaslighting is a form of abuse

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:54 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

  On 5/16/2019 at 12:45 AM, Ivan Ooze said:

I know but it had it's charm "uh oh X entered the room"

With X i mean of course stephG the only canadian on watmm who didnt vote for the kanye subforum

kanye not Canadian nun friendly

"x has entered the room" and the accompanying door opening sound effect makes me yearn for the way things used to be

but ya gotta accept things have changed, discord is the new IDM paradise

DING DONG

DING DONG " Sean has entered the room "

LOL