Comments on: Talk Talk Talk

Question: Talk Talk Talk

kate blank — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:40:47 -0800

My friends and I need a free or cheap place to talk online. Any ideas?

My friends and I are currently using a Facebook group to talk online, but it has several limitations so we're looking for something else -- a forum, probably. There are only 5-10 of us.

Must-haves are:
Easily accessible/readable from phones and mobile devices
Secret -- viewable to logged-in members only
Free or cheap

And we'd prefer a nice clean interface. Any ideas?

By: griphus

griphus — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:41:41 -0800

Is anyone tech-savvy enough to set up an IRC server?

By: bleachandink

bleachandink — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:42:20 -0800

Google hangouts or Skype, but I'm not sure the ability of multiple persons on Skype.

By: Oktober

Oktober — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:44:48 -0800

Seconding google hangout

By: DoubleLune

DoubleLune — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:44:52 -0800

Are you talking about text chat or video chat or both?

By: kate blank

kate blank — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:45:04 -0800

Is anyone tech-savvy enough to set up an IRC server?

No, I don't think so.

By: kate blank

kate blank — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:46:01 -0800

Text chat only -- we're definitely not interested in video chat. Sorry, I should have made that clearer in my question.

By: jillithd

jillithd — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:47:19 -0800

Skype can have multiple people in a conversation.

By: royalsong

royalsong — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:50:42 -0800

Me and my best friends use a livejournal community for this.

Everyone would have to have a livejournal account for this (free), and someone needs to set the community up, but other then that it's pretty simple. You make a post and people can respond to that post in comments.

You can even set the default for posts to be members only.

By: udon

udon — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:52:22 -0800

http://www.freebb.be/aanvraag.html

you can can create a forum, they host it, and it's private.
it is in dutch, so it'll a little tricky getting past the registration
but you manage everything after that

its mobile site friendly

By: knile

knile — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:53:06 -0800

Do you want this to be more or less in real-time? Or would something like a phpBB forum work, with posts? You'd need some hosting, but that could be found for cheap. Friends & I have used one for about 7 years. One guy is the admin, and it only requires a little tech-y tweaking. It's quite private and customizable to our interests/needs.

By: cobaltnine

cobaltnine — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:53:56 -0800

I used Chatzy earlier this year for collaborative project planning and I think it fits your qualifications. I didn't use it from the mobile site but there is one.
The limits on free aren't bad, mostly have to do with logging - if you want to keep a log, someone will have to pay a bit for it. It can act as live chat OR more like forum/list posting, intermingled, which really worked for our purposes.

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:00:56 -0800

Just to be a little more clear, Skype lets you add a bunch of people to a chat, then you can hang out in that "channel" indefinitely. I have 4-5 channels since I work remotely and I use it every day just for this sort of thing. It also has logging across devices, so you can go on the road or change computers or whatever and have your conversations right there.

By: something something

something something — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:01:00 -0800

phpBB is super easy to set up. I have been on a private forum for years and had to set up a new site from scratch this year with close to zero tech experience and it was a piece of cake. The only cost is paying for the host. Ours was $99 or so for the year, which isn't much split amongst a bunch of people.

By: Grither

Grither — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:05:50 -0800

Google Groups might work for this as well... pretty sure you can set it to private/invite only.

By: RichardP

RichardP — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:13:51 -0800

You could use Glassboard. It's free, the groups you create are private, and it has dedicated clients for both iPhone and Android devices.

By: purpleclover

purpleclover — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:33:19 -0800

It's totally possible to do this with Google+, especially if y'all aren't using it for anything else. (The fact that you have a profile is public, but you can make all your activity only available to your friend circle. Other people might add you to their circles, but since it's an asymmetrical model, unless you add them back to a circle and then share your stuff with that circle, they can't see anything you post.)

If you use it for posting publicly or to a wider circle too, you can still use G+ for this, but you'll have to check who can see a post before replying to it, to see if it's to your small circle or to a larger one, which can be annoying.

I also know people who use Twitter for this, but I can't imagine why.

By: L'Estrange Fruit

L'Estrange Fruit — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:36:09 -0800

Nthing Skype.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:27:57 -0800

Plain old Gmail can do this too.

By: kate blank

kate blank — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:37:13 -0800

I checked out glassboard.com and wow, it seems perfect for us.

Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions as well.

By: Sunburnt

Sunburnt — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:25:02 -0800

You don't need to set up your own IRC server-- any existing IRC network will do; they differ in features somewhat, but I stick with the spare and relatively lawless EFnet, the Wild West of IRC.

Name your own channel and op your friends. Learning some basic commands will let you require a keyword for admission. You can add Fish (aka blowfish encryption) to your IRC clients (not sure about mobile devices) and then you're *really* talking in secret.

By: boba

boba — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 23:05:08 -0800

My go to would be a Google hangout, but I've used groupme for this as well. It supports web and mobile interfaces plus can work via SMS. Think "group texting" plus features.