# Blog/chat software for members-only site?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blog-chat-software-for-members-only-site/506996>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 19, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blog-chat-software-for-members-only-site/506996 "2009-08-19T22:06:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blog-chat-software-for-members-only-site/506996/1 "2009-08-19T22:06:50Z")

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Hey, does anyone know of any blog or chat software that I can put directly on a website, behind a password protection, rather than link to an external blog client (is client the right word?) or chat board?

Bonus challenge: must be FREE.

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**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blog-chat-software-for-members-only-site/506996/2 "2009-08-19T22:20:55Z")

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Login systems can be put “in front of” pretty much any website you like. If you’re using the apache web server, the typical simple solution is to use its built-in authentication scheme. See [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/htaccess.html) for an introduction - it’s just a matter of placing 2 extra files in the root directory of your application.

ETA: more in-depth apache docs: [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/auth.html#basicconfig](http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/auth.html#basicconfig)

ETA2: as for free blogging software, i like [Wordpress](http://wordpress.org/download/)

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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 19, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blog-chat-software-for-members-only-site/506996/3 "2009-08-19T22:32:52Z")

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e107 and Drupal are both free content managment systems with chat and blog modules.