Need Recommendations for Hosting an Online Chat
Posted October 14th, 2009 @ 02:45pm by Erik J. Barzeski
As I tweeted, I'd like to host an online moderated chat tomorrow and I'm looking for some recommendations on some good websites to use.
I'd like to host a chat tomorrow with two guests who can talk freely and x "viewers" who can ask (moderated) questions. Recommendations?
The fall-back plan is to ditch the guests and just use AIM, but I'd much rather do the moderated chat with guests.
So, recommendations? I'm not opposed to paying a little if it's a good service.
Update: To clarify what I want: I want three people (myself included) to be able to type freely. I want x number of people who can view everything and post questions to a moderation queue for my approval (or discarding). I don't need screen sharing, video, voice, etc. I do want to save the log of the entire chat for editing and posting as an article later on.
Donate Life
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 3:55pm #
Ars Technica uses CoverItLive for their live coverage of Apple events. They generally have a few different moderators covering the event and then post moderated questions sent in by readers. It also allows for live polling.
Looks like they have a free version, but I’m not sure how feature-complete it is.
Posted 14 Oct 2009 at 4:54pm #
UStream.tv
Posted 16 Oct 2009 at 11:49pm #
Wouldn't IRC be the best solution? Find a server, create your own channel, set it to moderated and give your special guests operator or voiced status. Ask users to PM their questions to a moderator or just voice them long enough to ask their questions.
Posted 17 Oct 2009 at 6:48am #
[quote comment="55792"]Wouldn't IRC be the best solution? Find a server, create your own channel, set it to moderated and give your special guests operator or voiced status. Ask users to PM their questions to a moderator or just voice them long enough to ask their questions.[/quote]
I ended up using CoverItLive. Two distinct advantages over IRC: no training required and it queued questions for posting at my convenience.