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Permalink Reply by Andrew Sampson on December 22, 2012 at 10:03am

Hi there

We are just experimenting with using Comet Chat. You can read comments about it on the Ning Creators

http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/cometchat-feedback?xg_source=...

To be honest after initial excitement at the possibilities first impressions weren't good. For many reasons.

I will let make your own judgements about that.

I have written to their technical people to address a couple of the things

It took about 12 hours for a response to the first question which isn't bad really.

The second questions were more detailed and will see hwo well the support responds.

Main problem is the cost. We only want to be able to add a few small chatrooms for our core team so if we can get it to work then we will use the lowest monthly rate.

However to use it as the main chat system for a network with a lot of members could be very expensive.

Completely understand your need by the way

Hope this helps - just a  little!

If anyone else has any ideas then I am all ears!

Andrew

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Permalink Reply by JenSocial on December 23, 2012 at 10:03am

Hi Andrew, Thanks for your input on this. =)

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Sampson on December 24, 2012 at 1:14pm

Further to my comments about Comet Chat

We have successfully installed it on the site

It is a little tricky to work out how to do it and I couldn't find any simple instructions.

Its worth trying the 14 day trial to see if it might be useful

The main key features for the basic version are the ability to set up chat-rooms and invite people in. These can be

open rooms, password protected or invite only

I have tried the invite only and its is looking good

The other real big thing I liek is that you can collaberate on a document with others in your chat room - using a simple word type editor

Again tried this and it worked well

Also you can send files to other members of the Chat Room

Which can be a real useful tool

Now my understanding is for the basic version at just under $10 a month you can have 50 simultaneous users using the chat facility at one time

Now fr us that perfect as we don't have so many users

The next level up at $20 a month allows a lot more

What I dont like

Very limited to non existent documentation so its trial and error

While it is the holiday season for some the response to my questions was about 12 hours per question. And very brief. I always feel more comfortable with support which is over helpful and friendly. But thats me

Lastly - You do need to turn off the normal Ning Chat because otherwise it sits behind the Comet Chat and you can get muddled.

I asked if it was possible to have both chats running and better positioned and got a short answer saying no.While I think this will be fine - it is a little unnerving because as I said I couldnt find any instructions

Other than that so far so good. I haven't tested with a lot of people in a chat window so not sure about speed of response.

Verdict try the 14 day trial period and see what you think (if you don't have an enormous Network)

best

Andrew

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Sampson on December 26, 2012 at 8:20am

Continuing with my report

Its the 26th December and many people will be spending time with their families.

About 2 hours ago I sent 2 questions to the Comet Chat support network.

One was regarding the fact that the user password they provided for logging into the administration system wasn't changeable.

I just received a very friendly reply from Support saying this was to be added next week.

I regard a two hour turn around on a support question in a favourable light.

It also shows to me that the suppliers

1. Are on the ball

2. Aware of improvements needed to be made to their product

3. Worth asking support questions to :)

Finally I received another reply from Nathan at Support.

" We are adding the ability to embed chatrooms into your site pages shortly. So you will be able to create multiple chatrooms and embed them individually into every different site pages.

So the answer to "Can we add 3 or 4 chat rooms on ning network? Is there any possibility?" is yes (will be available shortly). "

Andrew

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