[Suggestion] Instant message with friends online

LOL you can't do a comparation with a hosted "general" toolbar service like Wibiya and a facebook chat clone like Arrowchat (=standalone script).

I think we don't need the option of "istant message". If you need it, simply buy Arrow chat or Cometchat (i think the first is better, more neat and less server intensive).

Most of them use long-polling i think, in the end Server resources matter. =/

I still prefer IRC over everything live in a browser.
While the idea is nice, I want good conversations to become discussions in the board.
And I want the random chit chatter that usually happens in shoutboxes etc to just happen on IRC live chat.

Ok, but irc is too "old-style" and very time consuming. The ultimate generation of chat allow to visit a website and chat in the same time (like facebook).

The true problem is that the "normal" flash/java/jquery chat software, especially when integated with a cms/forum, is very server intensive. Now i wait the Arrow Chat Lite, i hope to see a true "lite" chat software.

The only true lite chat software for realtime convos, needs specific type of server, I know Nginx can handle long-polling well without much server resources, if you use the push module., but real real-time chat software uses servers like Orbited, Hookbox, ComentD etc. They are very light on resources and are designed for highly active realtime environments. facebook uses tornado web server.

Amen.

Yes, forum software is aimed at building communities. And what do people inside communities do? Interact. And interaction can take place in groups (on the public forums), but obviously interaction does also take place -in big amounts- privately.

Why make it so black-and-white? If you look 'carefully' at XenForo you will see that they already implemented stuff that comes for example straight from Facebook. Profile comments? Has nothing to do with forums, but it sure increases member-interaction and is therefor beneficial for your community as a whole. It is all about the combination of things (and the way it's integrated) that make a community platform successful. Is the fantastic Private Conversation feature in the way of building community? No. Are profile comments? No. They in fact add to it. The same goes for instant 1-on-1 chat with a forum member that is online at the same time as you. It will actually bind people even more, instead of pushing them away from high quality in depth/extensive forum discussions. Every tool has it's purpose. And it's the purpose of truly great community software in my opinion to bring all these tools together...

Just curious if anyone is using a chat solution or facebook style chat/friends bar on their site and if the current offerings out there have improved? I see that CometChat offers a service that takes care of the server load issues.

Just curious if anyone is using any of these on their forums? I'm looking at cometchat as a serious possibility.

My guess is that the entire server would become laggy if this was integrated. That is what AIM and PMs are for my friend.

I have had a dedicated Video/Audio/Text Chat Room on my site, 123FlashChat, and looking at the logs I can clearly say that the forums would miss possibly at the most not even 1% of potential posts. The chat room is full of "OffTopic", personal, fun etc conversations, all of which build up the appeal of coming to the forums. The other benefit is to Guests. Guests see the forums all about the topic and not full of posts like "How are you going...well thanks...what you doing this weekend..." all of which the Chat Room handles.

Real time chat feature is very server intensive.
If you really need it, have a look at Arrowchat & Cometchat. They can be easily integrated into Xenforo.