# Adding chat to a Web site

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-chat-to-a-web-site/506308>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 13, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-chat-to-a-web-site/506308 "2009-08-13T17:30:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\
**Post date:** [August 13, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-chat-to-a-web-site/506308/1 "2009-08-13T17:30:28Z")

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I’d like an area of our site to be available for the occasional chat session between ourselves and varying numbers of people. That is, at such-and-such a time, the chat room is available and multiple people from unknown locations connect and join in a discussion. Minimal controls (e.g., voice, kick) and features (e.g., logging) are necessary. While this could be done with a standard IRC client, I want to keep it entirely on our Web site and not require the users to have any special software installed (save a browser and standard plug-ins).

And, of course, I want it to be free and easy to configure and use. 🙂

Googling results in a bajillion options, but not all look trustworthy, nor can I really tell what is more likely to be reliable. Any suggestions?

Thanks~

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**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adding-chat-to-a-web-site/506308/2 "2009-08-14T00:22:05Z")

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Drupal and e107 are excellent free content management programs that have optional chat moduals.

Just make sure to carefully review the security settings and recommends when applying the chat mods