ChatBro - website user chat with VK/Telegram
 

ChatBro is UGC tool for your site, which extends ability of content generation to the popular mobile messengers.

Add @chatbro bot to the active Telegram group chat and embed it into your site. Google will index the chat history and bring new participants to you!

Admins find it convenient to answer users questions by mobile phone using a VK/TG application:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/04/2.gif

Features

• indexed by search robots
• reveals photo and video
• asynchronous loading - no influence exerted on your website
• mobile ready
• authentication via your website, Vkontakte or Telegram
• moderation by chat owner
• website chat synchronized with Vkontakte or Telegram chat

Conference chatting is better than chatting with operators

Unlike private chatting with consultants, the multi-user chat between all users and the administration appears to be more trustworthy. People communicate and see the admins' reaction and realize that the site service is functional and adequate.

There is nothing to stop one from private chatting with a client any more.

Increases search traffic and average time spent on the website

The chat history consist of unique text on your subject. Search engines index it and provide target traffic. Should you be the first one to submit unique content to the search engine, and the content matches a rare user query, you will hold the first position on this query.

Customization

Chat could be easily configured with plugin extended parameters.
You can choose color theme, size, initial state, etc.

Easy installation

After installing the plugin just name your conversation and choose messenger to syncronize with. It could be VK or Telegram.
Create conversation link in My Account section

Detailed instruction http://www.chatbro.com/en/documentation/#vbulletin4

More info http://www.chatbro.com/en/

v1.0.4:
New option: "Need to log in before sending messages"

v1.0.3:
Protection against CSRF attacks
Find your secretKey (optional) in "My chats" on chatbro.com (you must be logged)

v1.0.2:
Appearance parameters are added:

• Message block background color
• Message block text color
• Input block background color
• Input block text color

can you backport this for vBulletin version 3.8.x please. Thanks..

Does this use our servers or yours? What kind of server load does this cause ?

Will do it soon.

It is external service. It use our server and does not increase your server load at all.

Everything is sent on a non-encrypted channel (HTTP) - this really isn't a good idea.

We will add https soon.

I don't get how to start the conversation using the link you provide ... I don't see where to start it ...

1. Please click 'Log In' in the right top corner of chatbro.com. Choose authentication via Telegram or VK. Your chat will be synced with vk or tg depending on your authentication method. You should have an account in telegram or vk.

2. Click 'My chats'.

3. Enter conversation name and copy your chat path to vbulletin plugin settings.

We'll update plugin documentation to make this aspect more clear.

The idea that all chat goes through your server also worries me - how are we to be sure that it isn't being recorded? Why not allow us to connect to the third party services ourselves?

Why you worries that they are recorded? Chats are public and indexable by search robots. They should be recorded to be indexed.

You can download and save content on your side via JSON-RPC API, if you wish.

That presents a host of legal issues. Users do not expect their chats to be public. Nor are they granting permission in their accepting the terms of service and rules for their information to be hosted elsewhere.

There are no private user chats and data. It is site group chat. Content is public and indexable on your site.

I updated documentation with how to create your chat path.

I believe you're missing the point others are making... no other chat mod from what I know indexes "messages". No matter if chat for entire site, it's not actual content nor should it be (imho) and chat messages are typically considered private/personal.

I see what you wanted to achieve, a public chat for forum but until this has options to make private and not be indexed many may not choose to utilize it because many value privacy versus "public record" in my opinion. I recommend adding option to make entire site chat private for only forum members to see OR make it publicly indexed so owner can choose which they prefer - needs to be option in mod, not just robots.txt change because bad bots don't follow rules in robots.txt.

So, it's essentially a forum hosted elsewhere with none of the controls or safeguards?

Because on forums sites most administrators like their group chats to take place in the forums, where they can control who sees content, who creates content, who replies to content, which content is indexed, etc.

Not only does a public group chat which is indexed defeat or bypass all of those, it also removes the chief purpose of having forums: Discussion on the forums.

And then you add on that it's not even hosted locally which means even if someone wanted to use the product they wouldn't know where to begin amending their TOS.

"Yes, we have this new public group chat which makes everything you post in it public not only to our users but to the internet at large. It's also hosted elsewhere but we can't tell you where and we have absolutely no way of knowing how your data is being used. But agree to the following release and hold harmless because reasons!"

And we haven't even breached the subject of trolls or people looking to cause trouble by posting things they know will cause problems for a site if they become public.

So, how long does an administrator have to remove objectionable content before it is indexed?

I'm not trying to be a jerk but I have serious and legitimate concerns about using such a product and I would hope I'm not alone in that.

I'd also like to add that the fact chats can be indexed by search engines can lead to a whole host of SEO issues for communities - duplicate content warnings and the such - plus taking into account possible profanity/cussing and the kind, it can really damage a website's reputation and rating.

So this mod integrates user's profile (account)? Meaning is it a single login or do they have to create a whole new profile and account to start chatting?

Yes, this mod use your forum user profile account. No need to create any external account for user.

And you can enable/disable guests.

Interesting ...I might install this over the weekend ... I had one similar to this one called "envolve" and also BoWoB which both pretty much got discontinued ... I like the idea of it being hosted on your servers ... I will come back with my impressions after I install it

Yep, it is similar to Envolve, but with social sync and google indexing features. Feel free to ask me questions when installing.

Mod updated to version 1.0.1. You can set 'Enable guests' option to 'no' and chat will appear only for registered forum users. History will not be indexed.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/external/2016/04/3.png

Did I get everything right?

Mod updated, you can disable guests and chat will no be indexed. Forum administrator have full control over his chat content. Administrator can moderate all chat content.

It's easy to make a chat only for members. Just select 'no guests' option.

This is Good, see at www.wikinewforum.com

I have this installed on my Dev environment at the moment and I am not sure how simple/difficult the following would be

1) Is it possible to add permissions to only allow certain usergroups?

2) Even though this is hosted locally, is there any way to allow word filtering to occur that has been setup on the forum already?

This question is for anyone that is using the mod already, have you noticed any increasing in user session times or overall traffic increasing?

Hello Scott,

1) Permissions to usergroups not implemented yet.

2) You could filter words implementing your own http://www.chatbro.com/en/documentat...oreSendMessage event.

Happy chatbro vbulletin user - http://www.almost4x4.com/

When?

It works, but some images still use http and it breaks the whole https site.

We will proxy them throw our server. I think it will be done in a month.

What about the chat has no history when the user returns in a new session? It would be possible to delete all the previous messages until that user's login moment?