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Need Recommendations for Hosting an Online Chat

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.

4 Responses to "Need Recommendations for Hosting an Online Chat"

  1. 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.

  2. UStream.tv

  3. 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.

  4. [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.


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