Chat software is out; hosted group chat is in. Over the years, webmasters have changed the way they use chat rooms. The word chat room is a thing of the past, and now group chat is the trend.

In the past, you needed to install chat software to chat on your site. However, this was a huge task. It involved downloading, configuration, installation, and maintenance of the group chat.

Since group chat was introduced, there’s no need to download chat software anymore. There are better and simpler solutions if you wanted a chat on your site. Using a hosted group chat service (cloud) is much easier these days.

Why the change?

Since chat software still needs downloading and all that maintenance, it saves you time and money when you opt for a hosted group chat. When you still rely on chat software, you waste space on your site and you would have to troubleshoot every little issue that happens. That isn’t the case with a hosted group chat.

Also, hosted group chats don’t have any downtime. Maintenance is real-time and it doesn’t affect users.

Case Study: A Webmaster’s Real-Life Horror Story

This is an email from one of our customers. He previously used a chat software on his website.

During his live event, he was forced to stop the chat, causing him to lose potential customers and reputation. Read his email as follows:

I installed a chatroom software script and used it for a 2-hour broadcast.

There were 6 people on the chat and maybe 20 messages in total were exchanged. 

Within a short period, my hosting company took my entire site down because 

they said the chat function was creating 20,000 queries per minute

and that it was using all the system resources of the server. Also, it 

was not obvious to me how to uninstall the script and I had to get my 

developer to fix it.

Can you imagine this happening to you? Just one issue and all will come crashing down. Don’t make the same mistake.

So, how can you avoid experiencing this firsthand? In this article, we will discuss how to avoid this and why you should transition to a hosted group chat.

Web hosting companies prefer hosted group chats

A web hosting company controls all websites on a server. This server usually has thousands of websites. Therefore, hosting companies want to maximize this and want to install as many sites as possible into a single server.

Web hosting companies don’t like chat software. Why? It’s because they take up more space and memory. Using chat software consumes more CPU memory than you can imagine. So, the web hosting company has to put more of its resources into that particular website.

Just like the example above, chat software on one website could slow down the entire server because of all the resources it’s using. This means that thousands of sites could go down just because of one site with chat software.

Using a hosted group chat service lets you avoid this. Since the hosted group chat does not run on your site and is manned by another server, it will not affect your website directly.

Chat software can cause a lot of problems for your website, your overall business and reputation, and your web hosting company.

Chat software versus hosted group chat pricing

When calculating the costs of chat software, here is the list of things that you need to take into account.

• Chat software package 
• Additional servers depending on the number of chat rooms
• Installation and maintenance of chat software (you will most likely need to hire a developer)
• Configuration of a new server and migrating current software to accommodate chatters

In contrast, if you use a hosted group chat, it’s easier since you can simply integrate it on your website.

All you need to do is add a few lines of code into your HTML. If you want to take it down, you can simply erase it from your HTML. It’s that easy!

There may be a time that you want to upgrade your chat room. When that happens, you can upgrade anytime. You can also do it yourself without needing another person to do it for you.

You can choose what you want to upgrade. Unlike in chat software, you will upgrade everything.

Chat software slows down your website

When you install chat software on your site, chatters will use the server to communicate (e.g., CPU and memory). The resources used to operate your site will be spread a bit thinner to accommodate the chat software and make sure it functions properly. So, other parts of your website will run significantly slower.

In comparison, a hosted group chat does not share your website resources. This means your resources will only be distributed to other components of your website to keep it in its fastest state.

Since it is separate from your website, this erases all the problems you will encounter using chat software.

Where you can get a hosted group chat

Even though it’s a separate entity from your site, a hosted group chat can still be seamlessly integrated into your site. With different features, you can customize your chat’s design and incorporate it with your site’s theme.

When you consider the aforementioned reasons, it’s not that hard to choose between the two. Get a hosted group chat now!

The main reason why site owners are hesitant to add a group chat on their site is because of chat spam. No one wants their site to be overloaded with spam. A group chat infested with spam does not benefit it in the long run.

Good thing that we have a way to fight these pesky chat spammers.

Here are ways you can fight chat spam, trolls, or hateful speech in your group chat.

How does it work?

There are many ways you can fight chat spam in your group chat. Here are some of them.

• First, offer your group chat to limited login options such as Facebook and Twitter accounts only. By doing this, you can eliminate anonymous spam. Since the accounts are connected to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, you will see the users who are spamming your chat. If you want to keep your chat spam-free, then consider this as your top option as eliminating anonymous users can minimize the chances of possible spam right off the bat.
• However, even when you limit the chat to Facebook and Twitter users only, there’s still a possibility that spammers may enter. In the rare instance that this does happen, admins can ban and disconnect users.

How can you ban and disconnect users?

In your group chat room, admins have special privileges. This means that only they can do these specific actions. Banning and disconnecting users are a part of this.

• To ban or disconnect a user, you need to click on the user’s name on the users’ list.
• After that, you will see the gear button at the upper right corner of the private chat.
• Lastly, choose if you want to ban or disconnect the spammer from your group chat.

So if someone uses their Facebook or Twitter account to spam, then you’ve got it covered.

Blacklist words to avoid chat spam

Before it gets to that point, you can prevent spammers from using certain words with the blacklist control. This allows the chat owner to ban certain words from appearing in the chat, e.g., hate speech or competitors’ names.

With these words on the blacklist, the majority of spammers will be warned and will not be able to send those kinds of messages.

Avoiding chat spam with the help of your admins

To have more control over what messages come in and out of the group chat room, you can use the moderated chat.

The moderated chat allows admins to pre-approve messages. Only approved messages will appear in the chat.

To set-up moderated chat, here are the steps that you need to do.

1. Open Settings > General & Logins in your admin panel.
2. Choose Moderated chat as your chat type in the settings.

You can see more information about moderated chat here.

RumbleTalk prevents chat spam by allowing chat owners to limit the login options and blacklist words.

Also, chat admins can control the chat by moderating the chat. These features are essential for every site to fight chat spam.

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The RumbleTalk chat plugin was built to be compatible with different WordPress members plugins. Usually, WordPress members plugins are using WordPress built-in user management.

The Rumbletalk chat plugin is integrated with WordPress built-in user management. Both the chat and members use the same userbase and are easily integrated. Normally, the integration takes less than a minute.

We made user integration extra easy wherein you can do it with one checkbox click. Here’s how you can do it.

How to set up a WordPress members chat

To create chat integration, you will only need the RumbleTalk chat plugin.

You can easily integrate the RumbleTalk chat plugin into your WordPress website. This is very handy for you and will allow you to have a members-only group chat.

Here are the steps that you need to follow.

Installing the chat plugin

• First, install the WordPress Members plugin and follow the instructions.
• Then, install the RumbleTalk chat plugin and follow the set-up instructions given.

After doing these two steps, this will automatically integrate the RumbleTalk chat with the WordPress Members plugin userbase.

In turn, this will allow only members of the site to automatically log-in to your group chat with their username and password.

• When you finish installing all plugins, you should create an account with RumbleTalk. This will let you use the RumbleTalk chat as your members chat.

• Once you’ve done the steps above, this is how it should look like.

• Check the Members box to complete the process.

For more information, check this link.

WordPress chat integration with your WordPress members

Here are the settings that you need to set-up after downloading the chat plugin.

• Let’s assume you’ve installed the plugin and created a RumbleTalk account. Firstly, you’ll see the default chat (if you want more, you need to upgrade your account). Next, you want to connect your WordPress users to the chat. Simply check Members (see the example above). Then, save. By checking this checkbox, it will then seamlessly integrate the WordPress chat to use the WordPress registered users.
• The second thing that you would need to do is to embed the chat on your site. So, add the chat to a page where users need to login to see the content (e.g., member’s area). You’ll need to use the shortcode to do this.

• Third, login to your WordPress members area. Then, go to the page where you added the chat. Using their member’s area log in username, members are now automatically logged in to the chat. You only need to check the Members checkbox. It will automatically setup your chat.

• Lastly, you can change your chat settings and customize the chat design to your liking. If you want to, then just click on the settings button. There are lots of customization options.

Now, the chat integration is complete.

As you can see, the process is quite simple. If you need more information about the installation process or settings, then you can check out the instructions here. Alternatively, you can watch this video.