[sv1cec]

Hey Zero,

Nice to have you back here. I took the liberty of playing with your code a little, nothing major since it was nicely executed to start with.

Some changes I would suggest are:

- Make the chat window open in a new browser window. In that way users can still browse the forums, while also keeping an eye on the chat.

- Alter the route the program takes, when creating or selecting a room. When one creates a room, I think the most logical next step, is to take him to the room selection form, so he can select which room he wants to go in.

- Add a log out button, which when pressed removes the user from the chat session. That helps in having an accurate user list shown. Of course, there will be users which just close the window without logging out, but the button can reduce the ghost users who left an hour ago. I have it created and my user list is quite more accurate now than before. Unfortunatelly, there is no easy way to stop a user from clicking the X button and close the window, at least I haven't find one.

- I changed the code, so that when the last user logs out from a user-created room, this room is deleted. In that way, there are no useless rooms there, which need to be deleted by the admin.

- Some cosmetic changes to show the user in which room he is etc. See pic below.



- I also added some code in the first page of the site, so that users can immediately see if there are other users in the chat. You can make the code, so that when you move your mouse over it, the <A HREF> title, shows you which users are already in the chat, if your "Users in Chat" table is positioned at the bottom of the page, like mine is.



- I've also added the feature of allowing moderators to warn members inside the chat. If a moderator clicks on the user name, on the left column, Warn.php gets activated with the proper offenses. Also, if a user has warning points, then these are shown next to his name, in red color, inside brackets. Integration with AWS! Oh yes, I've also changed your code a bit, so that if a user types a censored word, in a message, this word is replaced by **** or whatever, and the user gets an automatic warning.

- The most important feature, for my users, is the way the chat messages are presented (separate columns, for the poster name and message), this makes the chat easier to read. Also, the ability to seamlessly integrate it with vBulletin, is a huge benefit.

- The only thing that everyone complained about, but have all accepted after a few trials, is the screen refreshing thing. But I prefer this to a solution based on Java scripts (which I can't modify, ignorant coder) or Flash, which can't be that well-integrated with vB.

Overall, a big thanks for a lovely hack, as usual.

Rgds

P.S.: If I think of anything else I've done, and forgot it, I'll let you know.