I'm looking for a forgotten chat-friend from over 10 years ago. All I remember is that his first name is Ron, and he was a headmaster at a school in eastern Australia, got to drive a Aston Martin as a work benefit, and once took a group of students to visit America in the Seattle area. He gave me some advice that I later took up, and would like to tell him how much of a difference (good) it's made. [more inside]
posted by Quarter Pincher on Oct 7, 2009 - 13 answers

Once upon a time I found myself in an amazing chat room where people actually discussed spirituality, politics, dreams, ologies etc...and did so in a respectful manner. This room was very engaging, challenging and inspiring and I am searching for a new discussion group or chat room that is similar in its dynamic. Any suggestions?
posted by gypseefire on Jul 23, 2009 - 6 answers

My company is looking at adding a "chat with tech support online" feature from our support website. I have dug around on the intertubes and found a lot of marketing material, but would like to know if any folks here have experience with implementing that kind of product and are willing to make recommendations.

Our Requirements are fairly simple: It has to be hosted on site (so no external providers), and has to integrate with IIS. Any suggestions?
posted by Lord Widebottom on Jul 20, 2009 - 6 answers

Four iPhone users: USA, Canada, England, Mexico. All with different carriers. What free/cheap voice options are there? [more inside]
posted by rokusan on Jul 8, 2009 - 10 answers

How can I have Google Voice send my SMS to an instant message service such as Google talk? [more inside]
posted by jesirose on Jun 27, 2009 - 2 answers

I'd like to make more friends online. Suggestions? (MeFi demographic a plus.) [more inside]
posted by StrikeTheViol on May 5, 2009 - 8 answers

In my Gmail sidebar contacts list, a contact shows up with a greyed-out "Invited" next to their name. Does this mean that I have invited them to chat, or that they have invited me to chat? I still have the "invite to chat" option available, and I can't remember if I did send a chat invite. Thanks in advance, hivemind.
posted by Inspector.Gadget on Apr 4, 2009 - 4 answers

Can you help me find a solution for my chatting needs? [more inside]
posted by jacquilynne on Mar 5, 2009 - 14 answers

I'm looking to set up an XMPP/Jabber server with minimum hassle, with one major requirement: I want to run the service for 2 domains across two servers, each acting as backup/redundancy for the other. [more inside]
posted by d7415 on Jan 17, 2009 - 6 answers

I have a client who wants to add live chat to their company website, for customer support. What are your experiences with some of the software packages out there? [more inside]
posted by Chuck Cheeze on Dec 17, 2008 - 6 answers

So, what's a good replacement service for Yahoo Live? [more inside]
posted by Citrus on Nov 4, 2008 - 1 answer

What's the best moderated group chat solution to accomodate newspaper website readers and thinktank experts? [more inside]
posted by jmprice on Oct 6, 2008 - 1 answer

How do I log the hours I'm logged in to Google chat? [more inside]
posted by inactivist on Sep 4, 2008 - 6 answers

What is wrong with my Gmail chat? [more inside]
posted by ootsocsid on Jul 6, 2008 - 9 answers

What is the most user friendly and computer accessible way to set up group chat for a Facebook group? [more inside]
posted by Skwirl on Jul 3, 2008 - 1 answer

Is there a way to make an email list announce-only for some recipients and unmoderated for others? [more inside]
posted by ManInSuit on Jun 25, 2008 - 5 answers

Text-based chat room games? [more inside]
posted by aebaxter on Jun 2, 2008 - 6 answers

A friend had a question I was uncertain about... is there a way on a laptop running Vista -- short of having two sound cards -- where you can have Ventrillo voice chat through any kind of headphones, while at the same time having entirely seperate streaming radio playing to speakers through the audio out port on the laptop? She's open to any kind of headphones or any streaming audio software which would support this. Failing this... is there a good, simple, ideally non-invasive workaround to add a second sound card to a laptop?
posted by markkraft on Apr 9, 2008 - 5 answers

Besides Google Groups, where else can I find archives of discussions from the early days of the internet? (on any subject)
posted by vizsla on Mar 11, 2008 - 7 answers

I'm looking for a web chat for visitors to my company's website... [more inside]
posted by chrisfromthelc on Jan 22, 2008 - 8 answers

Other than #mefi, Are there any chat rooms or chat services still out there not full of spambots? [more inside]
posted by StrikeTheViol on Jan 18, 2008 - 7 answers

Let's say I have a small group of people -- 10 and under -- and I want to provide a stable, private chat room that participants can enter and exit at will. Let's further say that I would want whatever software that provides this to account for different technical skills (no command-prompts) and when everyone leaves the room it isn't taken down needing to be recreated again in the future? Proprietary software is fine. For Profit software is fine. (Free is better!! ;-)
posted by tcv on Oct 27, 2007 - 12 answers

My grandfather read a review of Oovoo last week and wants to get everyone in the fam web cams so we can chat video style. I was hoping to get some input on people's favorite webcams and chat software. [more inside]
posted by bernsno on Oct 10, 2007 - 8 answers

I run a small, private forum for a few friends who are scattered across the US & Canada. I'm looking for easy ways to incorporate other ways for me to enable additional communication between members - whether it's a group voice chat or a chat room. I need help figuring out how to do this very easily (I was barely technical enough to install a pretty skin for my phpBB), very cheaply (preferably free), and so that it maintains a reasonable level of privacy. Can you help me figure this out? [more inside]
posted by tastybrains on Sep 25, 2007 - 7 answers

Is there such thing as totally real time online chat? [more inside]
posted by pablocake on Sep 2, 2007 - 16 answers

World of Warcraft filter: I want to create a group channel for all 3 guilds on the site channel. Possibly mod or addon? [more inside]
posted by spinko on Aug 13, 2007 - 4 answers

Anyone know of any good internet based IM sites... [more inside]
posted by spotty_dog on Jul 20, 2007 - 16 answers

Small, free, UDP-based server/client text chat application with no central server - does it exist? [more inside]
posted by ostranenie on Jul 18, 2007 - 7 answers

What interesting statistics can I make from the following data? [more inside]
posted by PuGZ on Jul 2, 2007 - 8 answers

What's the simplest, easiest, fastest way to create a search engine for a discussion website (in particular, this one) which is NOT RUN by that website, but on another computer, and which recognizes as searchable/sortable fields: 1) the "board" the post is in, 2) the titles as well as the bodies of posts, and 3) the dates the posts were made? Oh, and it should update with new posts every few hours, say.
posted by shivohum on Jun 17, 2007 - 4 answers

Don't want that sound when sending an AOL IM response. [more inside]
posted by sandra194 on Jun 5, 2007 - 7 answers

What happened to character-by-character chat? I miss the intimacy, subtle nuances of meaning, and most of all the ability to interrupt one another and complete one another's sentences that was inherent in old-school unix 'talk'. How can I replicate this nowadays? [more inside]
posted by dmd on May 21, 2007 - 21 answers

Did AOL change something with AIM statuses? [more inside]
posted by machaus on May 15, 2007 - 3 answers

I'm looking for an off-topic message board, but I don't know if it exists. [more inside]
posted by Laura in Canada on May 9, 2007 - 25 answers

Deceptively unchatfilter =P I am looking for good discussions on Occam's Razor -- which I think is obscenely absurd. Looking for links to discussions, not necessarily petitioning comments (although welcome). [more inside]
posted by vanoakenfold on Feb 13, 2007 - 28 answers

What's a good webcam for video chatting on OS X? [more inside]
posted by kirkaracha on Jan 23, 2007 - 12 answers

Is there a website that people can use to chat and IM without actually using the the IM software? I thought I had read about such a site in an article about teens outsmarting the filters on their school computers, but I cannot remember what the site was called. Does this ring a bell with anyone?
posted by foxinthesnow on Jan 3, 2007 - 22 answers

I run a web design company, and want to set up a website based chat client so I can see when someone is perusing my site and pop up a chat window to help them with any questions... [more inside]
posted by wile e on Dec 3, 2006 - 12 answers

Chat-at-Work-Filter: In my line of consulting I end up working at a number of client sites where the client's IT department has succeeded in convincing management that Instant Messaging is the devil... [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Nov 28, 2006 - 25 answers

I am trying to create a brief weekly calendar for work of upcoming events that will be posted as an AOL IM away message that people can check throughout the week. How can I create a longer AIM away message than the default allows? [more inside]
posted by andoatnp on Nov 28, 2006 - 7 answers

I want to start an internet forum for kids - what are the applicable laws? [more inside]
posted by bulanjing on Nov 21, 2006 - 4 answers

How do I figure out how long my AIM screen name has been active?
posted by honorguy7 on Sep 30, 2006 - 13 answers

I use Adium as my instant messenging client. I am in the process of moving user accounts and I would like to take all of my settings and data with me. How do I do it?
posted by honorguy7 on Sep 19, 2006 - 3 answers

what's up with chat lines like livelinks & quest? are they fronts for escort services? I'm up late a lot & they play those commercials on tv constantly. I've always been kind of curious.
posted by octavia on Jul 27, 2006 - 6 answers

I have a Logitech Messenger webcam and a Mac (10.3.9) and I downloaded the macam software. How do I chat with a friend who has a PC and another Logitech webcam? Should we use AIM? Yahoo? Excuse me if the question's too easy but I'm a total webcam n00b and what I found on Google is quite contradictory. Thanks!
posted by PenguinBukkake on Jul 14, 2006 - 9 answers

How do I participate in a chat where the others frequently talk about personal topics, but want me not to but in, since I am not a long-time member? [more inside]
posted by gregb1007 on Jun 27, 2006 - 16 answers

Researching World of Warcraft: I'm a graduate student studying online communication and social organization. I'm very interested in analyzing the chat interactions that happen in WoW. So far as I can tell, however, there's no way to save a transcript of the chat window. Is there any way to capture these interactions? [more inside]
posted by aladfar on May 1, 2006 - 8 answers

Where can I find and participate in high-level, Metafilter-style discussion of relationships? [more inside]
posted by agropyron on Apr 25, 2006 - 10 answers

Where on the internet can you go for anonymous support when you are feeling just a little blue? [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Mar 5, 2006 - 13 answers

I have a Mac (10.4.5), my Dad has a PC (XP Home). We both have cable modems. We want to video chat. What apps can we use together? Bonus points if I can continue to use iChatAV. [more inside]
posted by Wild_Eep on Feb 24, 2006 - 11 answers