[sv1cec]

Nobody says it can't be created. There is one issue you are forgetting here, ZT is trying his best to make such a program, which will integrate with vBulletin. There are other hacks, which also allow you to have a chatroom in your forums, even with vBulletin, but they do not integrate. What I mean with 'integrate':

In my site, I am running a heavily patched version of vBChat, which:

- Makes sure that only members of my forums are allowed to log in the chat.
- Catches censored words used by the members in their posts and issues a warning to the member who used these words.
- Allows my moderators to issue warnings to members who misbehave in the chat.
- Allows my members to post pictures, clickable links etc, using the standard bbcodes.
- Allowed me to arrange my chat window, in the way I wanted it (columns, fields etc).
- Allow members to check how many users are in chat and who these users are, without logging in the chat.
- Allow me to keep logs of the chat messages, the warned messages etc.
- Allow me to alter the program in any way I like, to make it more suitable to my forums and my site.

Now, if you can find a chat room which allows all the above, and does not have the IE problem, I'll be more than happy to switch over to that one. I've tried Flashchat (flashy, but you can't change one thing in it, let alone customize it to suite your needs, and the support sucks). I've tried another one, it also leaves a lot to be desired.

What I am trying to say, is that this hack offers some unique advantages to both your users and the admin team. It is up to you to judge if these advantages are what you want or not. If not, for sure there are other solutions, but if you want the integration with vB and the ability to customize, then this is the one.

I am not going to bang on ZT's door to fix an issue of someone else. I am sure he could follow the same path with other programmers and come up with a Flash-based chat, or something. Would that give us the same benefits? I sincerely doubt it.

Also, we have to remember that all these hacks are here for us to enjoy, because someone spend hours of his free time to create them. We are the ones who decide if we like them (and use them) or not, based on our own criteria. We cannot force any coder to change his hack, if he does not want too (for his own reasons), because we do not pay for them. They are free, and it is the coder's good will that he support them and maintains the code. Try convincing Microsoft, that their product has a bug, and make them fix it.

My 2 Eurocents only.