Edan Maor from Chatty just kindly invited us into beta testing for Chatty.
Chatty is instant Facebook-like chat for any website. Site visitors can group-chat with each other in one large chat room, and it gives site visitors a dead-simple way of interacting with one another. Chatty’s design, features and entire essence is about encouraging site users to engage in conversation with one another. The web is chock-full of information but what we are really after as people is not information but other interesting people. Chatty takes users closer to that end.
We're testing it out on the site. You can log in using Facebook Connect and chat with other readers.
Via email, here was my initial concerns about Chatty -
My first few thoughts/concerns btw -
1. Do I have enough time to check up and use Chatty? In some ways, it becomes like another inbox that I have to spend time maintaining. Already got blog comments, Facebook, Twitter, email. So having another thing to maintain is a minor hassle.
2. How is installing/uninstalling? I use Wordpress which is good because it's very hands-off... I can edit a line into the footer of my site if necessary for testing, but you probably want to make a WP plugin quickly for ease/convenience.
3. Will it slow my site down significantly or break it somehow? That's a huge no-go if so.
4. What if the Chatty box gets overrun with spammers, idiots, or negativity? Moderation is a big hassle, which is why I don't run a forum at all. This is probably less an issue while Chatty is just getting started, but definitely a long term concern.
So far, point #2 was quite easy. Just drop the code in the footer. Site performance seems normal, though please do let me know if things go haywire. #1 and #4, then, are going to determine whether Chatty makes sense in the long term. Do we wind up getting a cool community going of people chatting? How much time does it take up? How many Viagra promos do we get? Etc, etc.
Overall, I'm bullish on the idea if Edan and team can get the implementation right. Their site is http://www.chattybar.com if you want to check it out, and please feel welcome to log in to Chatty here on the site, chat, and let me know how it goes.