ZA Furries

I've been using KiwiIRC out of habit ever since I found out that my university campus blocks the IRC protocol altogether. I think it would be nice to make the channel official, by having a page on the forums with just an embedded client. Here is an example of how to do that:
Seems pretty straightforward, yes?

Leeward wrote: nice to make the channel official

As far as I know, the IRC channel pre-dates the forum. I think by a couple of years.

Leeward wrote:?nick=YourNickHere

There has to be a separate embed for each person's name?

No, that just sets the nick field to YourNickHere, the user can change it before connecting, and even enter their password if they have one.

Test

I can see the frame in the source and see the frame's source, but it's not loading in the UI for some reason...
EDIT: never mind, I had 3rd-party cookies disabled. Looks like it works perfectly.

Be careful of this ... I would suggest obtaining permission from the IRC Ops first. From the FurNet MotD you get every time you connect:

16:47 [FurNet] --- Server: - Web IRC interfaces: Please do not provide them specifically for
16:47 [FurNet] --- Server: - connecting to FurNet. It has been found that they tend to attract
16:47 [FurNet] --- Server: - annoying individuals. A password-protected (for tracking abuse
16:47 [FurNet] --- Server: - issues) web IRC client is avaliable - ask the admin.

IRC Ops are in #furnet, so we can ask their opinion there. They also discourage idling in that channel - join, ask your question, part, and they will message you back as soon as an admin sees the query. They DO allow 3rd-party web interfaces, but there are some rules that go with that. I have had one approved before.

If we make the page only accessible to members, it would be easy enough to track who uses it, no? Besides, with the amount of traffic we get, surely that won't be an issue? Although I do agree that we should ask what they think.

You should probably do that though, Valerion, since you're always online and I'm only seldom online.

Well I've removed it in the meantime. Once someone gets confirmation it's okay, I can put it back. Well, next time in a proper place.

Sweet.

Any luck with the Furnet Ops, Valerion?

Bumpity bump bump.

Bump?

Val did tell me he would address this. Although he also mentioned he had been really busy which is why he eventually handed over redoing the rules to me. I guess it got lost in the shuffle. I have no idea who runs Furnet.

In general, FurNet dislikes web clients, because they cause spamming. They will allow it, if it is not anonymous. So
- You have to use a real username on there (not webuser-001)
- They would prefer the client itself is behind some sort of authentication system

In essence, they would like the web client to act like a real desktop client in that regard. Also, if there's a ban on a user it will likely ban the IP the client runs on, so it will affect everyone.

What about having it on a page that is only accessible to members? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

Leeward wrote:What about having it on a page that is only accessible to members? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

I would've done that anyway.

Most likely solution, yes

Does that mean I can put it up? I don't think there's a way to fix the anonymity though.

Admins have access to browsing logs anyway, so I don't see how figuring out who's not using their real name (or at the very least, forum name) would be problematic.

For now we can put it in a restricted section of the forum (must be logged in to see the section at least). If needed, we can lock it down further to certain user groups, like we do for the yiffy section. Perhaps we can call it "hosted software" or similar?

I think go ahead and put it up.