Announcing the Jabber server.

January 23, 2006 9:03 PM

See who is online currently and info about using the Jabber server here.
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 9:03 PM (50 comments total)

Wow, that's slick. :)
posted by delfuego at 9:19 PM on January 23, 2006

Does it cap @ 50? What if all 30K site members are online, will the page show all their names?
posted by jonson at 9:19 PM on January 23, 2006

The page shows everyone online, the chatroom can only hold 50 people. I suppose it could show 30k people online.

And thanks to delfuego for hours of tireless hacking to make this happen.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:36 PM on January 23, 2006

Even if I'm not a chatter, thanks for the new feature.

It's weird that I only recognize about 20% of the usernames in that list at the moment, though.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:43 PM on January 23, 2006

it's easier to scan the page odinsdream
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:52 PM on January 23, 2006

odinsdream: there are orange (away) and green (online) icons. I bet they're a particularly bad choice of colors for the 1:25 who're colorblind.

Wouldn't it be easier to scan and less of a load on the server if you grouped everyone by status (which could be represented by an icon), instead of showing the icons, unarranged, for everyone? (Note each icon has a querystring so is therefore a separate hit on the server)
posted by TimeFactor at 12:37 AM on January 24, 2006

Why's it say I'm away while I'm chattin'?
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:39 AM on January 24, 2006

Oh, and this is neat. Stalk factor of more easily accessed profiles is fun.
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 12:47 AM on January 24, 2006

Cool. (Dunno if I'll ever get my head around instant messaging with multiple people though - terribly confusing business.)
posted by jack_mo at 4:51 AM on January 24, 2006

TimeFactor, there are a bunch of things that would be easier to do; I thought of the icon thing this morning, and will probably implement it tonight, and I'd love to sort the users into groups and then alphabetically within them.

(The kicker of it all is that I hadn't programmed one bit of Java before this; it's implemented as a plugin for the Jabber server Matt's running, and the way you write plugins for it is via the Java API that the server exposes. So this is very much a work-in-progress, both on the functionality side and in terms of my Java programming! I gotta say, though, that if you've done any object-oriented PHP, Java isn't that hard to wrap your head around...)
posted by delfuego at 5:22 AM on January 24, 2006

Neato. Maybe add a link to the new Jabber page from the user page? That way users who miss these initial threads can figure out what the little glowing bowling pin is.
posted by blue mustard at 5:50 AM on January 24, 2006

Thanks matt and delfuego.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 6:30 AM on January 24, 2006

I hate to ask for stuff but is there a way to click one link on a user page and have that person automagically added to your chat buddy list?
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:32 AM on January 24, 2006

Neato.

Just to be a purist about it, shouldn't it use the jabber lightbulb icon rather than the msn pawn?
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:08 AM on January 24, 2006

A note on that page to remind users with spaces to use a | would be nice. Not that it matters for me.
posted by sohcahtoa at 7:44 AM on January 24, 2006

This might make a better Ask question, but what is a decent windows freeware client to use with jabber?
posted by SteveInMaine at 8:12 AM on January 24, 2006

Could someone explain how to join this using Google Talk? Or does one need some other program?
posted by dios at 8:13 AM on January 24, 2006

is there a way to click one link on a user page and have that person automagically added to your chat buddy list?

I wondered that myself, but so far with a bit of googling, I can't seem to find any way to do links like AIM lets you do, like say href=jabber://jabber?addbuddy=buddy_name or something like that.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 8:15 AM on January 24, 2006

Dios, you can't log in to the Jabber system using your Metafilter information with the Google Talk client. You can only log-in as a Google Talk user using the Google Talk client. You can however add Metafilter users to your list of contacts in Google Talk. (I could add you as a contact by entering [e-mail]) Make sense?
posted by chunking express at 8:28 AM on January 24, 2006

yeah, the white boxed icons are pretty tacky here (FF 1.5 on Winders). as a true engineer I've chosen to nitpick the problems rather than congratulate or commend. I use Gaim for all my free-chat-client clients, AIM/Jabber/Y!/ICQ/Zephyr (ffs), etc.
posted by kcm at 8:52 AM on January 24, 2006

if the overall online status for all users was cached and updated each signon/signoff, wouldn't that save a lot of the queries and update the page faster?
posted by kcm at 8:54 AM on January 24, 2006

Should use the chat bubbles from Adium: little cartoon voice-bubbles with an *icon* inside them to indicate status. No need for colour differentiation.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2006

...as a true engineer I've chosen to nitpick the problems rather than congratulate or commend...

Looking back at my comment from last night it sounded like I was only nitpicking (and I'm not even a true engineer). It's a very cool addition to the site and that it worked at all right out of the box is impressive. So, great work and thanks matt and delfuego. My suggestions were meant to be helpful, not as criticism.
posted by TimeFactor at 9:06 AM on January 24, 2006

I think I understand chunking_express. Thank you for answering the question.
posted by dios at 9:12 AM on January 24, 2006

xmpp:[e-mail] works.
From the Jabber URI Scheme page.
posted by riffola at 9:31 AM on January 24, 2006

Come say hi
posted by riffola at 9:38 AM on January 24, 2006

Huh ok that didn't work as planned, also there's a problem of it sending it to other jabber clients such as Google Talk.
posted by riffola at 9:39 AM on January 24, 2006

This might make a better Ask question, but what is a decent windows freeware client to use with jabber?

Miranda
posted by mr.marx at 9:41 AM on January 24, 2006

riffola, that link wants to open adium on my mac, even though I'm logged into the mefi server in iChat.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:18 AM on January 24, 2006

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocal (xmpp) isn't associated with any program.
posted by crunchland at 10:40 AM on January 24, 2006

Yeah, that's an issue. I guess whichever client is associated with XMPP opens it. Also I guess in crunchland's case & your iChat, the protocol is not registered.

It does work with Pandion, and is supposed to work with any Jabber client.
posted by riffola at 10:41 AM on January 24, 2006

Okie dokie, I just updated the plugin to show static images for the status icons, and changed to just generic little green/yellow/red circle icons (which are the ones built into the Jabber server's admin interface for the same functionality). Perhaps I'll look around for lightbulb ones that are usable; likewise, perhaps I'll play with creating proper alpha channel transparency on the icons so that Matt can put 'em over the blue background without them having a whiteish haze around them. (Right now, they're transparent GIFs, but were designed with a white background to provide the transparency, so the icon colors fade to white, not blue.)
posted by delfuego at 11:12 AM on January 24, 2006

What's the diff between "away" and "extended away", from a Jabber POV?
posted by smackfu at 11:55 AM on January 24, 2006

Use these, pls, delfuego: icons, not colours.
posted by five fresh fish at 12:00 PM on January 24, 2006

Not a bad idea, FFF; there's no license attached to those, though, so I have to assume all-rights-reserved and can't steal 'em. The ones I'm using are explicitly GPLed, so it's easy to include 'em in my plugin.
posted by delfuego at 12:12 PM on January 24, 2006

What's the diff between "away" and "extended away", from a Jabber POV?

The user's choice (or the Jabber client's automatic implementation thereof). There are six built-in presence levels in Jabber: present, chatty, away, busy, extended away, and do not disturb. The differences in meaning are for humans, AFAIK, not for Jabber itself.

Around the office, people set themselves busy or DND when they're available but shouldn't be interrupted, away when they're at a meeting or lunch, and extended away when they're gone for the night.
posted by mendel at 12:42 PM on January 24, 2006

I like the icons fff linked to. I think they'd be easier to quickly scan through than the current set, which all look the same color to me.
posted by DakotaPaul at 12:46 PM on January 24, 2006

DakotaPaul: again, I state, those icons don't have a license associated with them, meaning that I have to assume that they're all-rights-reserved and can't use 'em.
posted by delfuego at 1:05 PM on January 24, 2006

Riffola, the xmpp:jid URL scheme you linked to has explicitly been retracted; there's a nice big red block of text at the top that warns against implementing it in apps. That means that I'm not sure I'm comfortable using it in the plugin...
posted by delfuego at 1:10 PM on January 24, 2006

Dammit, I can't find my Wacom pen, or I'd knock you out a quickie set of icons.

Someone with some design chops wanna do this? I'm imagining a freehand lightbulb sketch, very minimalist, rather like the old Java coffeecup logo in style. No filament, just an indication of screw-base and glass envelope.

Inside, the icons:

- checkmark : present/chatty
- question mark: away/busy
- "X" : extended away/DND/no connection

Should do well enough, no?
posted by five fresh fish at 1:26 PM on January 24, 2006

I have to assume that they're all-rights-reserved and can't use 'em.

Actually, given that they're in the Adium Xtras area, I would assume they were stolen from some other IM app. Most of the icons there are.
posted by smackfu at 1:27 PM on January 24, 2006

delfuego, I saw that but it worked for some clients. Also I couldn't find an alternative.
posted by riffola at 3:07 PM on January 24, 2006

Yeah, no worries, I just wanted to reply that I probably wasn't going to use it.
posted by delfuego at 3:48 PM on January 24, 2006

Oh this is so neat. Thanks!
posted by rhapsodie at 4:53 PM on January 24, 2006

Late to the party, but excellent, thanks.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:57 PM on January 24, 2006

Neat, if you log in from two different places, you're listed twice.
posted by smackfu at 9:49 AM on January 25, 2006

Kinda weird: I keep getting into a room with only two other people (keenduck and mijo bijo) although the list shows there are lots of mefites logged in. Any ideas?
posted by deborah at 10:03 AM on January 25, 2006

deborah, you're mixing up two different concepts. People are logged into the Jabber server, but that's like being logged into AIM -- you're available for chatting with others, and if someone has you in their buddy list, you'll show up as online. Then there's the [e-mail] chat room, which is a group chat that's hosted through the Jabber server. Obviously, to participate in the latter, you have to be logged into the former... but logging into the former doesn't force you to join the chat room.
posted by delfuego at 3:32 PM on January 25, 2006

In other words - there really were only a few people in the mefi room on the mefi server. All those other people were logged into Jabber but not necessarily on the mefi server. Right?
posted by deborah at 3:43 PM on January 25, 2006

My understanding:

There really were only a few people in the mefi room on the mefi server. All those other people were logged into Jabber,

and on the mefi server, just not in the mefi chat room. You can still IM them though.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:06 PM on January 25, 2006