our own jabber-server?

[McLovin]

Hey, I'd like to suggest we start our own jabber server. We already had discussions about building up a online-gaming community and all kinds of requests were made.


Our own jabber server would be a good starting point for this, I think. For every software, a support/development-chatroom could be created. For every game with internet-play, an additional lobby could be added. If anyone ever really wants to develop the xbox-live system discussed, we had the infrastructure in place.


Also, if the server had support for shared rosters, we had an instant direct chat community, where new registered members are just populated to the buddy-list of all existing members and the other way round. That can also happen on group-level. Say we create a quake1/2/3 group on the server, every member sees every other online member of that group automatically - awesome, isn't it?


So, why our own server:


-Base for further development


-Every chatroom would clearly be regarding the openpandora-device


-Shared rosters are awesome for building up a community AND development

 

[mvickers03]

I like this idea man! Quake against other Pandora players sounds amazing!


Would we likely need a USB Wi-Fi adapter though? as the built in one has high latency

 

[McLovin]

well, that's not the problem to solve here


It's about: "would our own jabber-server be benefitial for the community in the long run?"

 

[Mr Rob]

There currently is an irc....

 

[McLovin]

yeah, one irc for everything and not activly promoted

 

[TrashyMG]

I was curious what jabber had over our current IRC chat myself..

 

[Mr Rob]

Ha, I know, irc isn't a perfect solution, but it is what we have now. I think IRC can scare some people away, as it's a little more divergent than the instant messaging idea people are used to. Just my two cents.


Thinking a bit, IP.Board does seem to have an online chat package, too. I don't know what EvilD is currently paying for these forums, but if there's interest in the community, maybe we could scrounge up the money ourselves so EvilD could add that component.


It wouldn't be straight out of the box jabber, but it would allow for chatting on these forums. Just an idea.

 

[Prometheus]

Thinking a bit, IP.Board does seem to have an online chat package, too. I don't know what EvilD is currently paying for these forums, but if there's interest in the community, maybe we could scrounge up the money ourselves so EvilD could add that component.


It wouldn't be straight out of the box jabber, but it would allow for chatting on these forums. Just an idea.

And it would probably prevent the almost inevitable issue of people posing as others who don't attend on the other, separate services...

 

[Christoph.Krn]

And it would probably prevent the almost inevitable issue of people posing as others who don't attend on the other, separate services...

This is the actual problem -- the Pandora universe requires some sort of single sign-on solution. The good thing is that something like the forum's PM system can be used to link forum identities to other services.


--


Other than that, having a Jabber-server would be a good thing. The main benefit over using IRC is that Jabber/XMPP ("Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol") is much more extensible in comparison. Like McLovin said, it is a much better base for further developments.

 

[TrashyMG]

But all the cool kids hang out in IRC....

 

[McLovin]

not sure if board-integrated chat would be a good solution. New chatrooms would require administration and again, not futureproof.


Rather then that, in a case of doubt, chat-users could be checked via board pms.

 

[Binky]

IPB chat would be harder to adapt into a 'Pandora-live' style setup which, as a diversion, I think should be called pandahub

 

[Mr Rob]

All above points are very true.


In review: Jabber would be more expandable across different services (including in-game shenanigans), but more difficult to integrate into things like this forum and the repo (including user management). IPB chat would be simpler and quicker to set up (throw less than $100 bucks at the problem for a year of service, I can easily pony up 5-10 bucks, I'm sure others would, too, and we'd get there quick enough), but would be limited to these boards.


I actually don't know how useful IPB chat would be; honestly, people check these boards enough where it's almost-instant messenger anyway. Just my thoughts.

 

[GiraffeeDreams]

To start the PandoraNet (whatever it'll be called) could anyone put together like a simple* PND that has say, a front end to show who is online and if so using what app?


In my mind you start the app for the first time and create a personal profile that saves to the appdata folder, then from then on you start the app and you go to a front end that shows who is online, with public and private chat, and if someone is away using an app maybe the latest activated PND...


Example- GiraffeeDreams: PicoDrive 1.80


Sorry I just sorta ranted away there, I reckon matchmaking is some way away yet but profile base for Pandora owners would be a good start.


*i say simple, I really have no idea if it would be simple as I have zero programming knowledge.

 

[Mr Rob]

To be fair, I think you'd be better off starting a jabber server somewhere.


What @GiraffeeDreams describes sounds fairly easy. And by that I mean, use Pidgin, and add an extension to update status based on last/current PND being run. I know there is an extension for Pidgin to take your current song in Rhythmbox and display it as your status. Should be easy to grab that source and make a modification.

 

[McLovin]

Do we really care WHAT others are playing? Rather if you are ready to play and what games you are interested in...

 

[vadsamoht]

Do we really care WHAT others are playing? Rather if you are ready to play and what games you are interested in...

There are a number of uses for seeing what other people are playing. Perhaps the most obvious is people saying "Oh, I see you are playing X. Fancy a game?", but there are other uses as well.


Personally, I think if this goes ahead we should opt for the most versatile and extensible solution, even if it is a bit harder to implement (within reason, of course).

 

[McLovin]

OK, i got active and started some irc-chats on freenode


#pandoralobby - General Lobby for Pandora Online Gaming


#pandoralobby-discussion - Discuss the future of Pandora Online Gaming


#pandoralobby-paperwars - Dedicated Lobby for PaperWars


General Password: open


now, spread the word. If even this totally basic community effort will work out, depends on promotion and adoption. Speak of it whereever it fits, use your signatures for marketing, whatever.


I used irc cause i see it's probably easier to access from pandora and already used for development. As long as we don't have our own server, jabber probably wouldn't add any benefit.


For a start, this is at least something.

 

[Christoph.Krn]

As long as we don't have our own server, jabber probably wouldn't add any benefit.
For a start, this is at least something.

Something that will make future developments rather dirty. I don't think using IRC for this is a GOOD THING™ in any way.


If you'd ask Ed whether he'd allow you to operate a Jabber/XMPP-server on his server, I'm quite sure he'd allow it.

 

[McLovin]

well, for now it's just 3 irc chats and 2 users.


I'll ask ED about the jabber-server via pm.