Incorporating CHAT functionality

sunandoghosh said: "Hi dear friends, while we all have been talking out here about forums and all the possible choices in terms of features etc, there seems to be absolutely no discussion about incorporating real time CHAT functionality. With a view to help all of us to have a comprehensive overview about various aspects of incorporating CHAT functinality, I request everybody to actively offer their views on the following: 1. what are the advantages u think chat offers? 2. likewise disadvantages? 3. which softwares are available and what pricing features? 4. do we have something like phpbb or v bulletin in CHAT space too.(i mean free and paid) and so on. Thanks once again. Hope to see an active discussion. sunando"

<h1> said: "I'm not sure if I quite understand you, but I remember bringing up the subject of web-mastery having a real time chat and none of the members thought it was necessary. I still think it would be a good idea.... Even a simple lil chat script being installed would be slick."

sunandoghosh said: "Hi thanks for replying but what i am referring to here is say people like us who r maintaining their own website and r therefore webmasters may like to incorporate chat fuinctionality in our sites so that visitors to our site can have real time communication option also available. In that regrad, what should the webmaster do, what software he needs and the like. thanks"

Darksat said: "A lot of people just use MSN messanger or Skype, but there are java & PHP chat scripts available, personally I prefer having a support forum myself."

JamieSki said: "Try [url]http://tag-board.com[/url] I use it on my website and my members love it. It's very customizable."

Darksat said: "Looks just like a shoutbox. [url]http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Chat/Shoutbox/[/url]"