(Posting in GQ as a sister thread to this topic in IMHO: What are some effective but affordable ways to collaborate in real-time over long distances?)
Can anyone recommend a good, free web-based chat system that doesn’t require logins?
I’m tired of trying to get things done across 20-person conference calls with join/leave announcements, background noise, speakerphone issues, feedback, etc., etc. and I want to propose that we move to online chat instead, but surprisingly, I couldn’t find many packages (or services) that don’t require a signup process.
All I want is something very simple, very easy to use, where people can go to a webpage, type in a name of their choosing, and be able to join the chat room just like that. Saving the chat history would be a bonus, but not a requirement.
If it matters, we have web hosting capable of running the usual suspects – PHP, MySQL, flat text files, Perl, etc. We’re also ok with a hosted third-party solution if it doesn’t require signups.