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This is the first in hopefully an ongoing series of posts relating to the Newsvine chat, or as I have called it the VineChat. As of yet I have not decided on any sort of schedule for each issue of the VineChat Report; however, if I can get the idea rolling more I may form some sort of schedule. If you are interested in helping out, please use the Contact Author button to get a hold of me.
Update: Vinay and I have decided we will be working on the VineChat Report together, so you will notice that each report will be coming from either one of our columns. I'm glad to have him on board to help, as he has already been such a tremendous asset.
Cheers~
The chat is quite simple, and to be honest, quite plain – something which is great for the average user, but it won't satisfy everyone. So we started looking for an alternative, and we checked into the chat protocol, and discovered it was using Jabber.
Now for those of you not familiar with Jabber, it is known as "the Linux of instant messaging" because it is an open source IM service similar to AIM, ICQ, MSN, etc. Jabber uses XML protocols which allow for real time exchanges of conversation. Where Jabber differs from other IM software is with the group chats, or conferences as they are also known.
The website uses a flash base to connect users to these group chats, but you can also use a client which supports the Jabber protocol. The client I highly recommend is Psi, which was initially suggested by vinay. Psi is a multi-platform, fast, and lightweight Jabber client which is completely open source as well, and is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux. You can download the client from their site at http://www.psi-im.org and I would highly recommend it if you want to expand your chatting experience.
Using Psi is quite easy; however, there are a few things that should be noted and will be needed to use it on Newsvine. First, after installing the client, you will need to setup your account. The Newsvine Jabber server uses your Newsvine Column Name and your Newsvine password. For your Jabber ID, you will use the format [ColumnName]@newsvine.com. Next, you must make sure to check the "Allow Plaintext Login" button – if you don't, you won't be able to connect.
Now in the bottom left corner of the Psi client, after you login to the server, press the drop-down menu button and select "Join Groupchat". Now to be able to chat with users from the web based chat, you must find out the reference number to the article on which you will be chatting. You can find it in the URL address right in front of the article name. For example, the reference number for this post is 116169 as you can tell from the URL (see the end of it, /116169-vinechat-report-1-intro-to-jabber). In the Join Groupchat box, you will notice Host and Room entry fields. Place the reference number into the room text box, and put conference.newsvine.com into the host text box, and anything (you can't change nicks) into the nickname text box - Click join and you are in.
The chat is smoother and nicer to look at (in my opinion at least) and makes the chat easier to follow. There are different colours for the nicks so you can keep track of who is who, and there is even a search function.
In regards to many of the features of Jabber, very few are actually implemented right now with the Newsvine server. The Newsvine staff is aware of this and already have plans to implement many of the features however it isn't their top priority. But once complete, through Psi you will be able to PM other users who use a Jabber client, keep a buddy list of them, and more.
I hope to see many more of you on the chat, and I recommend reading the post Newsvine's Chat feature and Accountability by vinay who has been a tremendous help. If you have any ideas for the chat, please leave a comment about it, as the staff are interested in applying the chat even more throughout the site. For the next VineChat Report I will discuss some of the preliminary ideas we have come up with so far, and see if I can squeeze more information out of Josh ;-)
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Other Posts in the VineChat Series:
- VineChat Report 2: Using Adium on the Mac
- Newsvine's Chat feature and Accountability (Unofficially part of the series)
