For a web based chat platform I think it falls short, but from what cmatthieu said about making it, Chats.io is really a weekend project. Not really something that 'launches' anyways.
As far as what he could do to improve it, here are some ideas:
1. IRC is a solid and robust chat platform that has been around for a long time, you should really look towards what makes it strong and how it is used. Take that and apply what works towards the web app.
2. After building the foundation on solid chat technology, add in things people expect from a web app. I wouldn't mind seeing actual profiles with publicly available logs and what channels they frequent. You could add friends and what not and know when they login and what channels they frequent as well.
3. Since Node.js is so versatile, look at making it compatible with IRC so that IRC clients can connect to it and function as you would expect. This would be an added feature, but could be huge. Not everyone likes using their browser to chat, I know I don't.
Good luck with it, glad to see someone making some fun stuff with Node.js and showing it off.
Seems like everyone trying out node.js for the first time wants to make chat-room apps. At least this one doesn't have an immediately obvious script injection vulnerability :)
Interestingly, none of the chat apps I've really used are built on node: convore is python, mibbit is java, irccloud is erlang. Too new I guess.
If anyone's interested in a tasteful, persistent, web-based IRC client (ie, bouncer-like) - albeit not using node.js - mention HN in the invite box on https://irccloud.com/
Looking over IRCCloud's subscription plans, why would I want to pay for features that have been offered free forever? Is the idea that since I can't run an IRC client on my iPhone that I'd pay for this? I don't get it.
We're essentially a nicely designed web-based irc interface with integrated hosted bouncer.
You don't usually get that for free afaik, you'd have to run a bouncer yourself on a vps or something, or attach to screen and use irssi.
Plenty of our users are former screen+irssi users, and many of them are perfectly capable of running a vps+bouncer+whatever themselves, but choose to use us because it's less hassle / more convenient.
Not having to configure & admin a VPS is one of the reasons to use irccloud.
That, and the fact we are building a really slick web interface you can access from multiple machines easily. You'd be paying for an integrated server/bouncer/client package.
Also, for many people the €3 and €5 plans are ample; so the €12 represents our most expensive option.
Out of curiosity, it looks like it's down right now. Can you provide some info about why? I thought the node stuff was supposed to be able to handle all the simultaneous traffic requests with ease. Just curious!
I really hate when something being down automatically translates in peoples' minds to a reflection upon the tools. That's like blaming plow manufacturers for a snow day; while possible, there's far more explanations that are likely before plow failure is a consideration, such as a lack of manpower to drive the plows.
I see this at an ISP, too, all day long: oh, my site's down, what's wrong with your platform?
It's not 'automatic'. The above poster asked about excluding the possibility of the tool being poor as opposed to the infrastructure being bad, or the tool wielder lacking competency.
I have to disagree, based upon my reading the question. "You're down. Why? I thought Node could handle it." I don't have any stock invested in Node, personally, but it sounded like a conclusion had already been made by the asker.
jedsmith - I asked the question not to imply that it was because of node, but because the outage correlated back to the post (i.e. spike in traffic) and I honestly wanted to know the cause. It not node, then what? I think it was a perfectly valid question and sorry if I offended you or anyone else.
As far as what he could do to improve it, here are some ideas: 1. IRC is a solid and robust chat platform that has been around for a long time, you should really look towards what makes it strong and how it is used. Take that and apply what works towards the web app.
2. After building the foundation on solid chat technology, add in things people expect from a web app. I wouldn't mind seeing actual profiles with publicly available logs and what channels they frequent. You could add friends and what not and know when they login and what channels they frequent as well.
3. Since Node.js is so versatile, look at making it compatible with IRC so that IRC clients can connect to it and function as you would expect. This would be an added feature, but could be huge. Not everyone likes using their browser to chat, I know I don't.
Good luck with it, glad to see someone making some fun stuff with Node.js and showing it off.