Fortunately for me, I was the first, although it seems that other parties have taken my idea and developed things better than what I’ve made. It looks like I’m not doing a good job of advertising Chategory — if I spend more time on it, I’m sure I can succeed in getting a wider audience, though… Right? I really hope so. I’ve put a lot of time and work into it, and I don’t want anyone to take that away from me. For this reason, I’d like to develop a team — nothing large, just a couple of exceptionally skilled PHP and JavaScript programmers. People in-the-know, if you will, who are ready and prepared to execute the most cutting-edge technology. Is anyone interested in beating the competition?
Here are a few things about the project that may spark your interest (or convince you not to be part of the project, depending your background and point-of-view).
- The project will be managed by multiple users in a Backpack account; we’ll continuously update it and keep a changelog.
- I’m thinking about buying a domain name for Chategory.
- I’m also considering implementing a development blog (powered by Textpattern, most likely).
- A new web site design is appropriate, so I plan on devoting some time to that.
Update: it looks like there’s more than one competitor.
Hey Jona, I’ll help in any way I can, but I’m only just getting into PHP, however I might be able to help out on the JavaScrtip front.
May 24th, 2005 at 2:50 am
David, that sounds great. I’m thinking of implementing something highly visual, and as far as PHP goes, I’m sure this will be a helpful experience for you to get familiar with it.
May 24th, 2005 at 6:04 am
I’ll do what I can, even though I don’t know PHP or JavaScript yet.
May 24th, 2005 at 8:10 am
I don’t see what Lace has that’s sooo special. Chategory already has the backbone complete, and has nice features. It’s very flexible, from what I’ve seen of it. Most likely now it’s about adding additional features, refining the system, maybe some bug fixing, and advertising. The fun part, that is!
I’ve finished up a lot of my projects here, and things have been going kind of slow. I’d love to get on board if you have a use for me.
May 24th, 2005 at 10:27 am
Ryan, as the creator of this project, I’m committed to it. I know you have loads of things to do — like myself — so please don’t feel compelled to help out. If you still want to help, I think you can help with managing/designing the site/development blog, advertising (maybe? any good at that?) Chategory, and maybe helping us out with some CSS trickery (the forms in Chategory have gotta’ get fixed). Still interested?
Bob, I’d love to have you on the team. I’ve seen you work in JavaScript, and I know you’re a skilled PHP programmer.
May 24th, 2005 at 11:39 am
One other thing… I’m thinking about giving Chategory a new name (since the domain Chategory.com is already taken, there is no good substitute, and I’m NOT paying $499 for it). Any ideas on that?
May 24th, 2005 at 12:02 pm
Sounds like a great idea. I’d like to help, but the next month is a bit hectic for me (A-level exams) so I don’t know how much time I will be able to give the project. I will keep an eye on how you get on, though, and jump in if I can. I’m reasonably au fait with a range of technologies (HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript being the relevant ones), though I’m definitely a coder rather than a designer.
BTW, when I last tried to download the software I had problems with the gzip and bzip2 archives, specifically the appropriate programs wouldn’t recognise them and file(1) thought they were in RAR format. The zip file worked fine.
May 24th, 2005 at 3:04 pm
Good luck with find a domain name. Anything halfway decent is already taken, or bought up by one of those fooking companies that resell domain names at a huge profit. Unless you don’t mind a TLD other than .com
May 24th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
Adam, if you’re too busy to become part of the team, we can put you in the “special thanks” sections (unless sometime later on you become an official member of the team, whichever you prefer, but either way rest assured you’ll be credited for your participation).
Bob, I wouldn’t mind going with something under the same mindset as del.icio.us or blo.gs, but I can’t think of anything that would fit. There’s no “chat.egory” or “chate.gory” or anything like that. I think we should launch it under a new name, but we need to come up with something creative, simple and descriptive (perhaps along the lines of Amazon, Google, eBay and Flickr).
May 25th, 2005 at 12:02 am
Yes, I am still interested.
May 25th, 2005 at 8:51 am
I have entensive experience with PHP and Javascript, Jona, so I’ll help, too.
May 25th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
Glad to see so much interest in the project. You guys have earned yourselves special opportunity! ;) I haven’t thought of a new name yet (how about “Mello”?), so there’s no domain, but I’ll be working on a new web site and development blog until I can come up with something. Hopefully I’ll get some spontaneous inspiration for a new name (like I did when I came up with “Slightly Remarkable”). If you’ve got ideas, shout out!
May 25th, 2005 at 3:02 pm
How about mejorchat.com tis available
May 25th, 2005 at 3:46 pm
For the name: how about Zak Chat ;)
May 26th, 2005 at 2:39 pm
I’ve decided to stick with the name Chategory and just buy Chategory.org instead of Chategory.com. Expect to see it online within a few days…
May 26th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
Jona, nice work on Chategory. I found it through Lace’s referer logs. I was suprised to find how many other projects are out there, as I went into Lace blindly, without doing much research.
Robert, I agree, Lace doesn’t have much that’s sooo special at all. It’s barely gotten started. I didn’t expect the exposure it got so quickly. It’s inferior to most other choices for now.
May 26th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
Sorry mate, I’m not taking a jab at your software. Just keeping a competitive spirit, you know? Chategory has been around for a bit, if I recall correctly, even if the Ajax implementation is (relatively) new.
So Jona, are you gonna set up ftp folder or cvs or some such thing? Just interested in how you do this, I love messing with other people’s code. =P
May 26th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
The domain isn’t up yet, but the basic site is up (pages that don’t work need a .php extension until the domain is fully activated). I’m trying out A Small Orange’s Tiny package, but I’m going to keep downloads on my iPowerWeb server because I have way too much bandwidth on iPower anyway.
I’ve been thinking about all of us signing up for a Backpack account and managing it there, but I’ve never used CVS. I want something that is easy to use, and something that we can keep a readable changelog in, too. What do you suggest?
Also, I’m working on setting up a Textpattern blog right now. We’ll all be able to contribute to the Chategory weblog soon. (Do you think we should have an email address for each person’s name @chategory.org?)
May 26th, 2005 at 6:19 pm
Email addresses are always good so you can tell which emails come from who, but I really don’t care. Jona did you like my idea for a layout?
May 26th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Whoah, QWAD Chat is pretty nice. Is that the direction you’re looking to take this?
May 26th, 2005 at 10:28 pm
Ryan, what layout?
Bob, absolutely! There are some things that I’m not fond of, but Chategory needs to be more flexible and capable of morphing — that is, it could be a full-fledged page (like it is now), a popup (like QWAD), or a sort of shoutbox (something small that can be put in a sidebar of any web site). Obviously that will take a lot of work, but the ability for it to be integrated into a site is extremely important.
May 26th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
www.rgabbard.com/idea.jpg that idea.
May 27th, 2005 at 7:38 am
Robert: No worries! I’m just trying to calm the waters surrounding Lace. It’s gotten a lot of attention, and mostly undeserved.
The demo of Lace is a chatroom - nothing new, and incredibly simple at that. And the idea behind Lace, a client-server data pipeline, is also nothing new.
The only thing ‘new’ about Lace is the buzzworthy Ajax, and even then there’s plenty of better implementations out there.
Just keepin’ it real. ;]
May 27th, 2005 at 11:30 am
Brett, I have to say your system seems more stable than my own (and for that reason I rewrote all of my JavaScript the other day). I’m also considering, well, “borrowing” your intelligent-updates idea, if that’s all right with you. :)
Fellas, Chategory.org is online now (as is the Chategory development blog). Drop me an email so I can get you logins for the blog. Also, Bob and I are/have been looking at some CVS/SVN systems for us to keep all our Chategory versions synchronized and stuff like that.
Ryan, that layout idea is awesome. That’s what Bob and I were referring to when he mentioned QWAD (see link in update of the blog entry I posted).
May 27th, 2005 at 2:31 pm
“Chategory needs to be more flexible and capable of morphing — that is, it could be a full-fledged page (like it is now), a popup (like QWAD), or a sort of shoutbox (something small that can be put in a sidebar of any web site)”
That’s no short order. The dream of software developers - light, fast, solid, extendible, portable. I think the best thing to do is to split the software then into two pieces. The chatting core with the neccessary functionality, and then the UI. Now, how we include the UI and core, be it many different in one package, different release, customisable, whatever is a different story. But a separate, OOP core is probably neccessary.
May 27th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
Jona, by all means use it!
May 28th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
Thanks, Brett. :)
May 29th, 2005 at 2:16 am
Hi Jona:
Let’s me know if you believe this is a worthwhile comercial endeavor and I’ll fund it.
Great stuff Jona!
February 24th, 2006 at 7:44 pm
What?! Still working on Chategory?
March 4th, 2006 at 6:13 am
aah? don’t force me.
August 14th, 2006 at 7:28 am
Hola este sitio es muy bueno se los recomiendo a todos que lo viciten
September 20th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Hello
Excellent work… much respect dudes…
September 21st, 2007 at 2:18 pm