Flasherize Chat Room

[burntire]

Has anyone got version 3.0 working successfully?

[efc9]

Yes I've got it working but it still has the smilies problem of previous versions (adding a smilie to your message displays the text as..

this is my message

isn't it cool?

rather than all on one line, which myself and my users found a pain, in the end I've moved back to flashchat, flasherize has a nice look to it, but it just doesn't have the fuctionality to go with the pretty looks.. A Real Shame)

[kevcj]

Yea, this is an old thread, but so what. Its on the first page of google when you do a search for Flasherize, so lets keep the information easy to find.

Here are some server specs:
VPS with 800+ megs of memory, Dual processor quad core
MySQL Version 5.0.51a-community
Server Type Linux
Web Server Apache v1.3.39
PHP 5.2.4
PHP Memory Limit 64.00 MB
VB 3.7 PL1

I was using flashchat integrated into VB for about 8 months. The members kept having problems with losing connection to the chat room and dropping off. Some of the members started using the term "trap door" because you never knew when your connection was going to just "drop" out. The support in the flashchat forums was not able to find a solution. And it seems that my site is not the only one having the problem. There was finally enough complaining that I was forced to find another solution.

Last night I bought the Flasherize full package ($50 US dollars) and installed it. About an hour later I finally got it to working. After the install script is run, edit the config.php file and enter the proper cookie domain for your site.

Integration - Flasherize uses half integration instead of full integration. When you are logged into the forum, you still have to enter your username and password to get into the chat room. It has been said that you can just check the "Remember Me" box and you will not have to enter your username or password again. This is semi correct. If a member uses the log out button, the cookies are cleared. If the member closes the window with the "X" button, they stay logged in. So if the member logs out they will hav to log back in next time. I feel that the advertising about flashersize being integrated with the forum membership is misleading. Yes, its integrated, but not fully. If it was fully integrated, the chat would recognize the member is logged into the forum and automatically log them into the chat room.

Control Panel - This is where I have a problem. "If" Flasherize was fully integrated, the chatroom control panel would be integrated into the VB control panel - it is not. I have about 20 mods intalled on my forum, some of these are major mods, like an arcade, downloads, shoutbox and chatroom. Just imagine the confusion if there was a separate admin panel for "every" modification. The forum would be almost impossible to manage. Flasherize has its own control panel, so it is not fully integrated into VBulletin.

User group permissions - Just like a lot of other forums, my community has a paid VIP / Premium membership. Lets say I wanted to make this chat room just for the VIP / Premium usergroup - there is no way to do so. In fact, I do not see a way to edit the permissions of the chat room based on VB permissions. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on this. So, once again this chat room is not fully integrated into Vbulletin. If it was, it would use VB usergroup permissions to limit or grant access.

Support - So far I have opened 2 support tickets in the last 12 hours. To check the status of the ticket you have to have your email address and the ticket number. Where does the ticket number come from? In most support systems - when you open a ticket, you will receive an email with the details. These details include ticket number (or ticket ID) and a copy of what was submitted to tech support. About 12 - 13 hours after submitting the support ticket I have yet to receive anything.

Support forums - are broke. Clicking on a link only results in an error msg. The only way I found the support forums was through google as there is no link on the home page. What can I say about the Flasherize support forums, except they are broke.

The smilies problem still exist - each smiley takes up a whole line. Why do members have to click a button to enter a link into the chat room? How can the chat window be enlarged in pop-up mode? Who do some browsers or operating systems (linux) get an "unknown domain" error msg when the site is using the chat in pop-up mode? Can I make someone a moderator over the chat room and they not be a moderator in the forum? Why doesn't the log in box clear the username and password when clicked in?

Conclusion - This could be the best chat module for Vbulletin, but it still has a lot of work to be done on it. As old as this software is, there is no excuse for it not being fully integrated with VB. There is no excuse for the owner offering a commercial product for $50 (for the full package) and offering such a low quality product in return. Flasherize is old software, its been on the market for well over a year. This chat module that could have been one of the best solutions on the market. But instead, its over priced, over rated and I regret spending my time or money on it. So if you just feel like throwing your money away, getting no support (how about updates?) then sure, go ahead and buy it. But if you want a chat room that is really integrated with VBulletin, and if you want support - then do not buy this product.

As for myself, I mark this one up as a lesson learned. I will continue to look for a chatroom solution my VB forums. What these developers might not understand, I own 2 VB sites with plans to open 2 or 3 more. When I find a solution, I will be buying about 5 copies of their software. So instead of offering a quality product and selling several copies, all the got out of me was one copy. Plus, I am a member of some of the busiest webmaster forums on the internet. This review is going to copied and pasted on all of them.

[dknelson]

I gave up on this one long ago. I tried several others also but all had various problems. I finally went with 123flashchat. It's not the cheapest but I no longer have any chat room headaches and my members love it. I chose to go with their hosted plan so not to put the extra load on my VPS. I'm very pleased with it after using it now for at least a year.