Night Ops

While i was in chat i was seening some strange users going around without talking or anything just staying on chat and thinking
that they are chatbots. thinking that they are logging our conversations. so putting a auto idle timeout function isn't bad.
examples after idle 30minites = timeout i don't think is that hard to put timeout function

I've noticed this too, lately. It seems like there have been either a few users or bots that have been sitting in the chat for hours or days at a time, just "monitoring" the conversations. I'd support the idea of a 30 minute timeout, or something along those lines.

So, are these anonymous users who are idling, or users who have logged in? The chat software doesn't support idle timeouts AFAIK, but we can prevent anonymous users from joining if there is a concern. I'd rather not do that though...

In general there are mostly legit reasons for people to idle. There are even some users who prefer to remain anonymous in chat but still want to see what's going on. But, if they're suspicious, they should be questioned/kicked/etc as needed. Ghost, you have mod powers in chat since you are a forum mod, use them as you see fit. We should encourage anonymous users to log in.

hey, since when is bingbot a registered user?

I keep seeing Sang in Chat but he's not actually at the computer, so a 30 minute timeout would be helpful. Oh, and if you see some mysterious numbers that keep timing in & out due to an "invalid IP", it's just someone operating through TOR.

Secant wrote:So, are these anonymous users who are idling, or users who have logged in?.

Anonymous users. I'll start comparing their IPs to those of our members here next time I see it happening, Like you said it's probably just members who want to lurk the chat, but it never hurts to be careful. I certainly think we should continue to allow anonymous users though, I've seen several times where someone thinking about joining will enter the chat first and talk to us to scope things out here.

i think the most efficient way to put idle timeout and other confuguration is to use lightirc i am not expert but i seen big diffrence between lightirc and ajax.
ajax got message lagging little configuration and simple but shit. lightirc is fast (no message laging as far as i know) better configuration but complex for a bigginer no simple but better as far as i see
so i am not the one to chose and about sangior i seen him on chat monitoring and i suggest question him (if you can question him cause he doesn't talk) or kick from chat for 1-3 days
so as far as i am consern i give only suggestions link to lightirc http://www.lightirc.com/
and another good idea is to put a captcha upon entering
and if you need me to configure the lightirc server i can do it got almost all of the basic knowledge to do it
or i can teach you or give basic tutorials

While improving chat security would always be a good thing out of principle if nothing else, it should be remembered that if anyone can access something... well, ANYONE can access it. You, me, crazies, and all of the alphabet soup agencies out there. Never talk about anything that would connect you to your real identity and do not draw attention by discussing anything of an overly serious nature.

I'd prefer to use an IRC chat with a web frontend (either lightirc or something else) but it hasn't really taken off yet. AJAX chat is pretty limited actually.

Also, Æternaeon speaks the truth. The Internet is a public space.

i don't want to limit access to anyone on nightops i just suggest upgrade chat is a good idea.
like you said you agree that ajax has limited access so i suggest thinking of upgrading isn't a bad idea
likewise a growing comminity needs a something better than ajax.
About governments monitoring Nightops it is surely that we've been monitored but if we can make monitoring harder
like afk timeout it isn't bad at all
And i can help in chat upgrading