IRC alternative?

[CJ Master]

IRC is good, but limiting. I want more features e.g. Fonts, different colors, pictures, etc

So is there any that fit most of these criteria:
* Has a authority structure (e.g. Admins, moderators, etc.)
* Is compatible with pidgin.
* Preferably an open protocol.
* Chatbots
* Has *general* more features?

Or am I just hoping for too much? Thanks.

[linuxguymarshall]

What do you mean fonts? you can change your pidgin fonts.

[CJ Master]

What do you mean fonts? you can change your pidgin fonts.

In IRC you can't change the font or color of your message.

[FuturePilot]

In IRC you can't change the font or color of your message.

Yes you can (color at least). But it depends on if the channel is set +c or not.

[CJ Master]

Yes you can (color at least). But it depends on if the channel is set +c or not.

Still - there has to be something better then IRC.

[matthew.ball]

Nah man, IRC is the best!

[tqx]

I consider the lack of fonts and +c a good thing. Images are also obnoxious.

[HappinessNow]

IRC is good, but limiting. I want more features e.g. Fonts, different colors, pictures, etc

So is there any that fit most of these criteria:
* Has a authority structure (e.g. Admins, moderators, etc.)
* Is compatible with pidgin.
* Preferably an open protocol.
* Chatbots
* Has *general* more features?

Or am I just hoping for too much? Thanks.

Konversation (maybe)
(http://konversation.kde.org/)

[MikeTheC]

Well, I happen to like IRC just as it is.

There is a time and place for Pidgin / Adium / iChat, and even Skype. However, I know of no more stable and scalable a multi-person chat system than IRC.

[MaxIBoy]

No coincidence that worms usually use IRC channels to communicate! It's reliable and stable.

And simple! Don't forget that part! The simplest solutions are always the best.

[CJ Master]

I consider the lack of fonts and +c a good thing. Images are also obnoxious.

Thank you for your opinion, but do remember that mine isn't necessary the same as yours.


Konversation (maybe)

Isn't that a IM program? I'm looking for protocol, but thanks for replying.


Well, I happen to like IRC just as it is.

There is a time and place for Pidgin / Adium / iChat, and even Skype. However, I know of no more stable and scalable a multi-person chat system than IRC.

Unless I'm missing something, all of those are simply programs that support different protocols.


No coincidence that worms usually use IRC channels to communicate! It's reliable and stable.

And simple! Don't forget that part! The simplest solutions are always the best.

Yes, it's simple! But I want more options! It's just too darn plain!

Based upon the responses to this thread, I gotta assume that there isn't anything that matches with what I'm looking for. Oh well.

[ericab]

go create one then

[macogw]

i consider the lack of fonts and +c a good thing. Images are also obnoxious.

+1

[CJ Master]

go create one then

http://images.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/thumb/1/1f/NO_U.png/180px-NO_U.png

It's really not as easy as it sounds, and I'd rather not "reinvent the wheel."

[hewbert]

Jabber has some of the features you're looking for.

[CJ Master]

Jabber has some of the features you're looking for.

Yes, I was heavily looking into Jabber, but I found the only way to start a chatroom was to have a server on my computer. Isn't there an easier way?

[LookTJ]

Yes, I was heavily looking into Jabber, but I found the only way to start a chatroom was to have a server on my computer. Isn't there an easier way?
You can use the Jabber.org(conference.jabber.org) server and make a room

[hewbert]

Yes, I was heavily looking into Jabber, but I found the only way to start a chatroom was to have a server on my computer. Isn't there an easier way?

http://xmpp.org/services/ might be of help, also.

[CJ Master]

Ok - I created a server on Jabber. Are there any chatbots? Preferably ones that work with RuneScape? How do I use them?

Thanks for your guys help.

[MikeTheC]

@ OP:

No disrespect intended, but you're here soliciting input and opinions from others. If yours is the only relevant one, why do you seek another?


@ EVERYONE ELSE:

Ok, folks, I'm not going to turn around and ask you to attack the OP. He clearly wants an IRC-replacement protocol. That's fine; however, everyone else here who wants a replacement for IRC as described by the OP, please raise your virtual hand and post.

[CJ Master]

@ OP:

No disrespect intended, but you're here soliciting input and opinions from others. If yours is the only relevant one, why do you seek another?


@ EVERYONE ELSE:

Ok, folks, I'm not going to turn around and ask you to attack the OP. He clearly wants an IRC-replacement protocol. That's fine; however, everyone else here who wants a replacement for IRC as described by the OP, please raise your virtual hand and post.

No disrespect taken. The truth of the matter is I didn't want opinions one weather people liked the other features, I wanted to know of a protocal that supported it. I got my answer. Now I'm looking for bots to work with it.

I'm sorry If I offended anybody with my posts, I didn't mean to. I was simply asking for an answer to my question.

[Sublime Porte]

Jabber MUC's (Multi-User Chat) are definitely the next step in the progression from IRC, problem is they just don't seem to have taken off at all like IRC did.

I've also seen a project which has created a new hybrid protocol, that uses features of IRC and features of Jabber, but can't remember what it's called.

Pidgin really doesn't have very good Jabber support, so if you're going to use Jabber, better off using a client like PSI, which has good support. You can easily get a room list for any server in PSI (or most Jabber-centric messengers). In Pidgin it appears you need to know the name of the MUC server itself, which is normally conference.domain.com but not always, as Pidgin doesn't seem to support services discovery.

[HappinessNow]

Konversation (maybe)
(http://konversation.kde.org/)



Isn't that a IM program? I'm looking for protocol, but thanks for replying.



Konversation is a graphical Internet Relay Chat client (IRC).
Features


Standard IRC features
SSL server support
Bookmarking support
Easy to use graphical user interface
Multiple servers and channels in one single window
DCC file transfer
Multiple identities for different servers
Text decorations and colors
OnScreen Display for notifications
Automatic UTF-8 detection
Per channel encoding support
Theme support for nick icons
Highly configurable

http://konversation.kde.org/?about

Just take a look at the link I posted, Kopete is an IM program NOT Konversation.

Give Konversation a try it may have all you desire and more.

EDIT: it appears Jabber was what your were seeking....very cool have fun! ;)

[blueturtl]

The beauty of Jabber/XMPP is that since it's an open protocol, there are many client alternatives to chooce from for different platforms.

I have used PSI (lightest GUI application), Gajim (probably most robust) and Centerim-UTF8 (multi-protocol command line client!)

I've never used any formatting options for my messages so I don't know if those exist, but I find all around Jabber is the best instant messenger out there. Yahoo and MSN may be popular, but they're also closed and stricken with artificial limitations.

Only thing about Jabber is that if you want to be able to transfer files between users, you're going to have to have your firewall and client properly configured. XMPP normally uses port 8010 for file transfer, and you have to be able to broadcast the real client IP address (not your local area network address) to the recipient/sender. Once it does work, it works much faster than with other protocols since a direct connection is formed. If you're coming from IRC, this should be something you're used to.

Also creating conferences or chatrooms was a bit of a fiddle before I figured out how it works (just enter your desired chatroom name before the servers, like an email address: "mychatroom@my.jabber.server").

You can even set up MSN account forwarding to those of your friends who refuse to switch protocols or use multiple clients. I think the feature is called "transporting". Just make sure you create your account on a server that supports MSN transports. That way you can hookup your existing MSN account to the transport, and chat away with your MSN friends through Jabber!

Cheerio!

[CJ Master]

Yea, Jabber really is better then IRC, I just can't find any jabber bots or a way to have IRC bots on it.

[Sublime Porte]

Well when you say you can't find any bots, are you looking for a pre-made bot, or are you willing to get your hands a little dirty?

If you know a bit of python, there's a really nice little modular bot called sleekbot (http://sleekbot.googlecode.com/). I've used it for a few projects before. Very easy to extend and create plugins (scripts) for.

[CJ Master]

Well when you say you can't find any bots, are you looking for a pre-made bot, or are you willing to get your hands a little dirty?

If you know a bit of python, there's a really nice little modular bot called sleekbot (http://sleekbot.googlecode.com/). I've used it for a few projects before. Very easy to extend and create plugins (scripts) for.

Well I'm starting to doubt there are any good premade bots >.< I'm trying to program my own bot. Tis not easy. O_o (Using python.)

Oh, and sleek didn't work... It didn't recognize me as owner even when I set my JID in the config XML.

[DeadSuperHero]

I for one applaud you for using Jabber. Hopefully you can get sleek up and running, but I find Jabber to be a superior IM protocol. Haven't tried the chatroom stuff, but it seems really promising.

[Wiebelhaus]

Your looking for addons. Also I don't understand "Something better then IRC" Do you mean the network or the client?

[Sublime Porte]

Well I'm starting to doubt there are any good premade bots >.< I'm trying to program my own bot. Tis not easy. O_o (Using python.)I just grabbed the latest from svn, looks they've introduced some bugs in the lastest. Seems to be some directories hard-coded into it for some reason. [edit] Actually it's just in the config file. If you disable the logging and rss plugins, and also make sure you get rid of the server attribute where you specify the bot's jid (unless you need it) then it should work fine.

I still have an older version, which works fine. If you like I can post it here for you.

[CJ Master]

I just grabbed the latest from svn, looks they've introduced some bugs in the lastest. Seems to be some directories hard-coded into it for some reason. [edit] Actually it's just in the config file. If you disable the logging and rss plugins, and also make sure you get rid of the server attribute where you specify the bot's jid (unless you need it) then it should work fine.

I still have an older version, which works fine. If you like I can post it here for you.

YEZ PLZ


Your looking for addons. Also I don't understand "Something better then IRC" Do you mean the network or the client?

Nope, I mean bots. I meant something more fullfeatuerd, but I found Jabber which works more then enough for me.


I for one applaud you for using Jabber. Hopefully you can get sleek up and running, but I find Jabber to be a superior IM protocol. Haven't tried the chatroom stuff, but it seems really promising.

Yes, thank you. I agree. Irc is very much so showing its age. It's excellent for some things, but Jabber is defiantly the future.

[Sublime Porte]

Actually it's just in the config file. If you disable the logging and rss plugins, and also make sure you get rid of the server attribute where you specify the bot's jid (unless you need it) then it should work fine.

[Sublime Porte]

As for the bot not recognising you, make sure you're in the bot's roster. I think this is necessary.

So login to the account with a client (pidgin, or whatever you use), and add yourself as a contact.

[CJ Master]

Actually it's just in the config file. If you disable the logging and rss plugins, and also make sure you get rid of the server attribute where you specify the bot's jid (unless you need it) then it should work fine.

I found the RSS plugin but not the logging one. Do you have a specific name?

[toupeiro]

IRC is old school. I always considered IM the alternative to IRC. I was using IRC years before ICQ fired up their first public server. I used to have a 6 digit ICQ number and I forgot the password to it! Now I have an 8 digit one. I dont know how many digits they are up to now.

[Sublime Porte]

The logging plugin is irssi or something, you'll see it because it's got a path hardcoded into it, and that's what seems to cause the problem (for me anyhow).

Also did you install tlslite? python-dnspython is also good to have.

[CJ Master]

The logging plugin is irssi or something, you'll see it because it's got a path hardcoded into it, and that's what seems to cause the problem (for me anyhow).

Also did you install tlslite? python-dnspython is also good to have.

I commented it out, still didn't work...

I can't find tlslite in the repos. But I installed python-dnspython.

[Sublime Porte]

I commented it out, still didn't work...

Can you post the error you are getting?


I can't find tlslite in the repos

It's not in the repos, you'll find a link to it on the sleekbot page, you just download it, extract it and follow the instructions in the readme/install file. (sudo python setup.py install) should do it.

[CJ Master]

I get the error message: "You are insufficiantly cool, go away." (That hurts. :( ) Whenever I try to do an admin-function, even though I set myself as Owner. I looked at the code and that error means it thinks I'm not the owner.

Here's my config:

http://paste.ubuntu.com/220124/

(I removed the bot password for safty reasons.)

[Sublime Porte]

Did you make sure the bot has you in it's roster? (ie. by signing in with the bot's account on your jabber client, then adding yourself??)

The bot won't recognise anything from you if you aren't in it's roster, from what I remember.

[CJ Master]

Did you make sure the bot has you in it's roster? (ie. by signing in with the bot's account on your jabber client, then adding yourself??)

The bot won't recognise anything from you if you aren't in it's roster, from what I remember.

Yea, I did that. =(

[CJ Master]

I figured it out - but I feel a bit foolish. Turns out the bot's nick has to be the same as its username.

[Eisenwinter]

I consider the lack of fonts and +c a good thing. Images are also obnoxious.
Huge +1.

I always strip colours from messages by default. It's just too annoying to read.

But anyway, I'm not sure what the OP means by changing your font.

Because you can change the font in the IRC client you use, more than likely.

[CJ Master]

Huge +1.

I always strip colours from messages by default. It's just too annoying to read.

But anyway, I'm not sure what the OP means by changing your font.

Because you can change the font in the IRC client you use, more than likely.

Did you read the whole thread...? I already found Jabber, now I'm trying to program my own commands for bots.

[Sublime Porte]

Because you can change the font in the IRC client you use, more than likely.I think what he meant was to control the way text/formatting appears to the user on the other end.

Jabber's xhtml message type takes care of this, by allowing you to format your message with many of the different html formatting elements. This allows one to express a lot more when typing, compared to IRC, where people often resort to caps or punctuation to accentuate their text to reflect mood and meaning.

IRC is great if you just want plain text chat, but not everyone does.

[Blancmange]

Ah, it's good to see you're looking into Jabber/XMPP. Unfortunately it doesn't handle images or whiteboards directly, but it's in a good position to support such features.

My main reason for preferring XMPP over IRC is: The intrinsic reliability of the servers (none of the Undernet whiplash as people go from one overloaded server to another); IM-like status notification; per-room nicknames (no server-wide nick conflicts as on IRC); 20-50 line chat history on login (awesomely useful!); assured Unicode support and most importantly, far simpler operation.

By comparison, using IRC is like using netcat to read your e-mail and to browse the web. You pay for having a simplistic protocol by making up for its deficiencies with loads of extra typing and playing "find a working server" games. By "working", I mean one that doesn't reject you with surious error messages like "too many connections from your host" (plainly false), "your connection class is full" and "no ping reply in 90 seconds" (the IRC server was too clogged and wasn't listening).

XMPP scales well because it can manage the load and connection sharing between "nodes" while the users stay connected through the servers that manage their rosters and stuff (which don't suffer from whiplash).

Myself, I'm busy looking for a working IRC-MUC bridge bot so a fltamate and I can chat in our favorite chat IRC channel from the comfort of a parallel MUC/XMPP room using only one IRC connection. Logging directly onto IRC just makes me feel dirty. :)