Edited on January 8
Yet again, we're changing chat rooms. The issue is one of server performance. The flashchat is a resource hog, and it can be a huge drain on the site when there's more than 10 people in chat.
So, we're switching to phpfreechat, which is one of the alternatives that has been brought up repeatedly in the past few years. The biggest plus is that it doesn't use the database at all. Everything is handled in the filesystem. That should keep it from draining server resources.
Sorry for all the changes with no warning. We would've stuck with chatroll, but they got rid of the hosting plan we were using. And we would've stuck with the flashchat, but it caused the server to crash every few hours.
Hopefully, this will be the last change. It's taking up way too much of my own time.
Old post is below
This was not planned in any way, but we now have a new chatroom. Older members will recall it with fond memories.
Our previous chatroom was hosted by Chatroll. YWS was subscribed to it on a monthly basis, and that subscription was due for renewal yesterday. Our subscription plan was for 50 users at a cost of $9.99 per month. That plan, though, is no longer available. Instead, the cheapest offering was for 100 users at $19.99 per month. Personally, I think that price for what you get is outrageous.
So, we are now currently using the old, old chatroom. It's also free, which is a bonus. However, it's also hosted on the YWS server. Last time around, it would slow down the site whenever there were 20+ users in it. Nowadays, we're using a more powerful server, so hopefully that won't happen. Keep your fingers crossed though!
At any rate, it does have a ton more features. You can change fonts, backgrounds, sounds, etc. Basically, everything is configurable. And since it's hosted on YWS, I have complete control over it. This means that when there's a bug with it, I can actually fix it.
So, enjoy!
