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live chat, history, ability to reach back, group chat, one on one chat - if you know better tools, let us know :)

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Let's see, Mumble and Teamspeak. Mumble if you want cheap, secure, reliable communication. Here is a brief list of Mumble features:

Mumble is an open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software primarily intended for use while gaming.

The main focuses of the project include:

  • Low latency
  • High audio quality
  • Staying backwards compatible as long as there is a considerable user-base with older versions
  • Customizable for different use-cases

There is a mumble client for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.

There are:

  • Wizards
  • Overlays
  • Authentication
  • Customizability
  • Persistency
  • Positional Audio
  • Wide range of Audio Codecs ex: Opus, CELT, SPEEX, SILK, etc
  • ACLs
  • Scriptability

The used codec is automatically selected by the server according to the connected clients and which codecs they can use.

Text-to-Speech can be configured to read back own messages

Positional Audio support for more Games and other improvements (context and identities) for already supported games

Idle deaf: Now you can choose between being deafened or muted

Possibility to whisper to subchannels of parent channel

“Intelligent†chatlog scrolling

If you get new messages in the chatlog while you are not scrolled to the bottom, Mumble will no longer scroll down automatically to the last entry in the chatlog. This is helpful for scrolling and reading the chatlog while activity is still going on.

Support for new URI-protocols in messages, user comments and channel descriptions

  • Gadu-Gadu: gg://
  • Jabber: xmpp://
  • Skype: skype://
  • Email: mailto://

SHA1-Checksums are shown for certificates instead of MD5

Your whole communication to and from the server is always encrypted. This encryption is mandatory and cannot be disabled. The so-called control channel, which transports your chat messages and other non-time critical information, is encrypted with TLS using 256 bit AES-SHA. The voice channel carrying speech and positional audio is encrypted with OCB-AES 128 bit. You and the server authenticate to each other using digital certificates like they are used for secured connections in Web-browsers.

Mumble is widely used in WoW Guilds.

---------- Post added at 19:58 ---------- Previous post was at 19:06 ----------

Just say the word and I will spin up a mumble server

Edited by LinuxMaster9

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We are talking about text chat - not voice chat. :)

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1. mumble and teamspeak are vor voip, not for text (although text is available, but it is limited somewhat)

2. skype is older than most other solutions out ther

3. google hangouts could, just like talk be a temp solution

4. this community is older than 2013, and is reluctant to changes

btw, skype also works inside your browser level, and allows for offline maj and infinity history on multiple devices

---------- Post added at 02:22 ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 ----------

of which you can do both in mumble. or did you miss the section in the post about encrypted chat?

I personally have been using skype for quite a while now. Also, most of the people here are familiar with mumble and teamspeak, most with both.

What you donțt understand is that for groups, it is actually better to have no voice option. Skype for ArmA communities is not used as a platform for playing together, but for rather for asking, answering and working together on different projects. The public channels around arma created by dwarden are simply a faster working forum.

Most clans/squads/teams use teamspeak or muble for their gaming purposed. This is NOT about gaming..

What neither mumble not teamspeak have is the ability to chat with someone who is not present. Able to read all the talk history within a group when you connect, ability to have that history synked between multiple devices etc.

and btw, skype is available for Windows, OSX, IOS, Android, Linux etc just as well.

To conclude, there is no other better free platform at the moment for what skype does, and for the purpose of those skype channels / groups.

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Mumble is not just for VOIP. If you want to talk about VOIP, Skype and Gtalk/hangouts are also primarily VOIP. So, your argument is moot. Mumble runs on the Murmur server which will you to do both talk and text. Plus, a mumble server is just that. a server. people have issues connecting to a skype group. just use a voip server. voip servers like mumble or teamspeak are NOT limited to voice.

---------- Post added at 00:33 ---------- Previous post was at 00:29 ----------

1. mumble and teamspeak are vor voip, not for text (although text is available, but it is limited somewhat)

2. skype is older than most other solutions out ther

3. google hangouts could, just like talk be a temp solution

4. this community is older than 2013, and is reluctant to changes

btw, skype also works inside your browser level, and allows for offline maj and infinity history on multiple devices

---------- Post added at 02:22 ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 ----------

I personally have been using skype for quite a while now. Also, most of the people here are familiar with mumble and teamspeak, most with both.

What you donțt understand is that for groups, it is actually better to have no voice option. Skype for ArmA communities is not used as a platform for playing together, but for rather for asking, answering and working together on different projects. The public channels around arma created by dwarden are simply a faster working forum.

Most clans/squads/teams use teamspeak or muble for their gaming purposed. This is NOT about gaming..

What neither mumble not teamspeak have is the ability to chat with someone who is not present. Able to read all the talk history within a group when you connect, ability to have that history synked between multiple devices etc.

and btw, skype is available for Windows, OSX, IOS, Android, Linux etc just as well.

To conclude, there is no other better free platform at the moment for what skype does, and for the purpose of those skype channels / groups.

hmm. actually you can. If the person has "registered" on the Mumble server, you can leave a message for them. When they log back on to the server, they get the message and can respond. As far as not allowing talking, all you have to do is use the ACLs on Mumble to disable Voice.

---------- Post added at 00:41 ---------- Previous post was at 00:33 ----------

But if you are bound and determined to not use voice. IRC or something similar. Like ICQ or the like.

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ok, my bad, not VOIP, but server based.

and i am not talking about sending a message to a certain person, but rather placing a question to a group of people, in general terms. If anyone knows the answer, you'll get it when that someone reads it or is back online.

You are talking about a part of the development that you simply don't know how it works. I am not bound and determined not to use voice, i do, but on a more personal level. You are talking about 20-50 people all trying to talk / reply at the same time? Voice is anything but stupid in this particular case.

People are replying and using skype from their phones, while at work, while commuting etc, there are more times when text is more useful than voice than the other way around it...

I personally prefer Skype to a lot of other solutions, IRC/ICQ included. Plus, i don't need multiple accounts to keep things in line in multiple private or public groups. It does EVERYTHING it needs to be doing for what it is needed. Yes, it lags at time (used to lag less when m$ was not part of it), yes, the mobile apps are shitty (at least the IOS app). but then again, there is no real replacement for something that is supposed to be between voice and forum for large group of people.

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Skype is defacto IM standard in Windows, for home and especially business use ...

Mumble is nothing in the terms of persistent IM alike features ...

for me IRC would be 'expansion of the skype' for some huge/fast realtime chats which are too rapid for skype

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I have been doing some digging and have found 2 methods that are VERY viable and easy to do. The first and most professional of the two is called Zimbra. I have used it in the past and it is very good. It is an Opensource Collaboration platform. There are 2 models: Opensource and Commercial. The OpenSource one is free as in beer and speech.

The second option is: hosting an XMPP server. something like jabber which supports archived messaging etc. I am doing both of these options on my DigitalOcean account if you want to test it out. Since the XMPP server method tied with a protocol like jabber allows you to connect with damn near any platform or messaging application it seems like a very attractive option. The Zimbra option includes a free mobile app as well as an app for every platform (Win/Mac/Linux).

Here is a list of features from their website www.zimbra.com/open-source/features

Here is a PDF of EVERYTHING Zimbra openSource Collaboration offers:

https://files.zimbra.com/website/docs/Zimbra%20Collaboration%20Product%20Overview.pdf

Administration Benefits

  • Lower-Overhead Management
  • Native Hierarchical Storage Management or Information Lifecycle Management (HSM / ILP)
  • Multi-domain support and administration on a single node
  • Online single mailbox restore to point-in-time
  • Online mailbox moves (and backups)
  • Integrated High Availability Solution
  • Rich, zero footprint, AJAX-based administrator interface (cross browser/OS)
  • Dashboards for real-time system activity
  • Comprehensive command-line tools
  • SOAP APIs for every administrative action
  • Server and Storage Consolidation
  • Substantial reduction in managed storage - One copy of email & attachments per server (rather than one per user or one per storage group)
  • Substantial increase in the number of users per CPU - Multi-level caching and optimization of underlying system.
  • Compatibility with Existing Infrastructure
  • Web services – Full API for easy Bi-directional integration with enterprise applications like CRM, ERP, etc…
  • Client - Outlook, Mobile, IMAP, POP, iCalendar, RSS, etc.
  • Directory - Active Directory/LDAP integration, provisioning support
  • Messaging Server - Co-existence and migration tools (including Microsoft Exchange)
  • Security
  • Web security model - Single sign-on, TLS/SSL, no VPN required
  • Secured attachment opening and HTML rendering
  • SpamAssassin and ClamAV included
  • Compatibility with existing anti-spam/anti-virus (via Postfix & amavisd-new)
  • Open solution
  • Open source
  • Open formats - One MIME message per file means Zimbra storage is not opaque to sys. admin. or operating system utilities

End-user Benefits

  • Freedom of Client Choice
  • Browser - Zimbra Ajax client
  • PC Client - Outlook (Online, Offline, Cached Mode), Apple Mail and iCal, Eudora, Evolution, Thunderbird/Sunbird, RSS, etc.
  • Mobile - Wireless devices "over the air" synchronization: Blackberry (via partner solutions), Palm, Nokia, Motorola, Good, PocketPC, etc.
  • Self-Organizing Mailboxes
  • Powerful, fast search (including messages and attachments)
  • Saved searches across folders
  • Conversation views across folders
  • Filters
  • Comprehensive Calendaring
  • Group scheduling with free/busy management and controls
  • Multiple calendars per user
  • Calendar delegation and sharing
  • Multi-calendar views
  • Subscribe to external calendars in .ics format
  • Extensible model for linking message content to external web services and applications (expressable via hover-over and/or click)
  • Intranet - ERP, CRM, Support, Finance, HR, VoIP phone, etc.
  • Internet – Google/Yahoo Maps, Skype, Travel, Package Tracking, etc.
  • Efficient context switching
  • Quickly view/create calendar appointments while in mail
  • Quickly create/edit contacts while in mail
  • Quickly view sender’s website while in mail
  • Any Place, Any Machine
  • Rich, zero footprint, AJAX-based end-user interface (cross browser/OS)
  • Security sans VPN
  • Secure, read-only access to attachments without special-purpose client software
  • Modern collaboration styles/formats
  • RSS/ATOM feeds
  • Tags

The XMPP Messaging Service Applications that can be used easily are:

Talkr.im

ejabberd

Prosody

XMPP messaging servers can be easily accessed with Adium, Pidgin, Trillian, etc. Anything that can speak XMPP.

Edited by LinuxMaster9

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are there still people actively using the skype group? i tried to join a few of them and got in 1, i was referred from nighteyes. I wonder if there is a group or would like to make a group specific for insurgency based missions?

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yes, it's some Skype bug where it fails to show new users any activity ...

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Gettings reallly tired of the skype-chat now. Are we ever going to switch?

Voting for https://slack.com/ or something similair.

Edited by Llano

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Slack and Hipchat and Tox and similar all got some other issues ...

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What are the problems with Slack?

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let's start with the fact that everyone that counts uses skype...

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let's start with the fact that everyone that counts uses skype...

True, but unfortunate :( What about IRC?

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let's start with the fact that everyone that counts uses skype...

Yes, and? Can't we make people switch to slack?

Surely slack isn't 100% perfect, but the fact that the devs choose to stay with Skype is ridiculous.

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it's more ridiculous to try change from one messed system to another similar ;)

remember this is not about some small group but several thousands people using Skype already

for now BIForum, BIKI, Skype channel and IRC works...

BIF gets major update next week ...

I still think about uplift of IRC part but that's long term shot

Skype related anything will be resolved one day too

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it's more ridiculous to try change from one messed system to another similar ;)

remember this is not about some small group but several thousands people using Skype already

for now BIForum, BIKI, Skype channel and IRC works...

BIF gets major update next week ...

I still think about uplift of IRC part but that's long term shot

Skype related anything will be resolved one day too

Similair? Slack is ten times better when it comes to group handeling and messaging. Making people switch to another client can't be so hard. Let the people who wanna stay stay. The key is that you (The devs) switch, and people will follow.

I'm sorry, but no, skype doesn't work good at all. It's worthless on handligs groups, specially with many users in.

 

I left the skype groups because i couldnt stand the message desyncing, group handeling, and people posting multiple lines of unformatted code.

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you obviously don't get it, I already tested both HipChat and Slack several times in past 3 years ... for me neither is good enough (same goes for Skype)

 

only reason is that there is several thousands active community members using it ... compared to just some on the rest ...

 

anyway I've plans for expanding operations on IRC (more channels, better web-client) after the forum issues are resolved ...

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ACE Team are using slack and I've gotta say it was a great choice. Skype is horrible for this type of thing and everytime I've tried to connect, it doesn't work. I'd vouch for slack since this is exactly what it was made for

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slack is fine for small group and small number of channels and small history ... not for what I need it to ...

plus it just replace 'one cloud' with 'another cloud' so in the end same dependency on 3rd party

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slack is fine for small group and small number of channels and small history ... not for what I need it to ...

plus it just replace 'one cloud' with 'another cloud' so in the end same dependency on 3rd party

What do you base this on? How small is "small groups","small number of channels" and "small history"? What exactly do you require?

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