Testing out MeFi jabber

January 21, 2006 4:49 PM

I'm testing out a jabber server on MetaFilter. Use any jabber client (iChat, adium, trillian, gAIM, etc) to connect to metafilter.com. Enter your username as [e-mail] and your password is your existing website password here. Once logged in, you can IM other members that are online (my current status: ). Oh, this jabber server supports SSL for encrypted chat by default and also lets you talk to jabber users on other servers, including Google Talk (just add them to your buddy list). If this works out, I'll be experimenting with more features like chatrooms and perhaps allowing chat with Yahoo and MSN users as well. Let me know how it works for you, everyone that is a member here already has a login to the jabber server, automatically.
posted by mathowie (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 4:49 PM (172 comments total)

I added the little jabber presence to user pages.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:49 PM on January 21, 2006

I also added the little presence gif to your contacts page, so you can see what friends are currently online easily.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:55 PM on January 21, 2006

Here's how to do it on iChat:



Open up prefs, accounts, hit the plus sign, then enter your details like this.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:33 PM on January 21, 2006 [1 favorite]

Some systems don't require the domain in the username, but iChat does.

If anyone wants to submit config screens for other apps, drop them here and I'll throw them on a separate page for all this stuff.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:35 PM on January 21, 2006

I downlaoded and installed Pandion for Windows and tried to connect.. (do spaces in mefi user names work?). It said my online status was 'available' but the contact list portion of the screen jsut said "one moment please..." for a few minutes then the program crashed.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:35 PM on January 21, 2006

This is great, thank you. One question though... If you have spaces and/or special characters in your mefi name, how do you input them? I can't login the way it wants me to (EmperorYamamotosEggs). Perhaps it is client side (I am using Adium). Any ideas?
posted by Emperor Yamamoto's Eggs at 5:37 PM on January 21, 2006

If you have any suggestions on good Jabber clients, I'm all ears. Mixed Win/Linux/OSX network.

I could, obviously, figure it out, but if someone else already has, I'd rather take advantage. :)
posted by Malor at 5:39 PM on January 21, 2006

The MSN-styled status icon looks ugly here, but I guess it's easily recognized by most users.
posted by D.C. at 5:42 PM on January 21, 2006

Dunno about spaces. inputting them directly didn't work?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:42 PM on January 21, 2006

Is there a standard group to join?

I'm using pandion for windows... seems to work, I think.
posted by ph00dz at 5:42 PM on January 21, 2006

From Jabber.org:

n addition, certain characters are not allowed in your username:

@ ('at' sign)

:(colon)

' (single quote)

" (double quote)

< (open angle bracket)br>
> (close angle bracket)

& (ampersand)

\r\n\t (whitespace is not allowed!)

cntrl-* (control characters)

:(

I don't know if that's for the jabber protocol or just the jabber.org server, though. I'm such a n00b.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:44 PM on January 21, 2006

Okay, I logged on. Now what?
posted by ColdChef at 5:46 PM on January 21, 2006

My status is:
posted by riffola at 5:49 PM on January 21, 2006

wow, this is cool. that is all
posted by menace303 at 5:50 PM on January 21, 2006

Wow. That was easy.
posted by ColdChef at 5:52 PM on January 21, 2006

OK, downloaded and installed Exodus, and it won't let me even type in the space in the username part.

Well, I tried.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:53 PM on January 21, 2006

There's a general chatroom, with 30 member limit at [e-mail]
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:53 PM on January 21, 2006

Dunno about spaces. inputting them directly didn't work?

Adium wouldn't let me, presumably because of what Space Coyote posted....
posted by Emperor Yamamoto's Eggs at 5:53 PM on January 21, 2006

I've tried every possible variation on my user name to log in with no success. It keeps saying that I have entered an incorrect password. (I logged out of MeFi and back in to check to see if I was in fact using the correct password).
posted by Mijo Bijo at 5:57 PM on January 21, 2006

Try %20 for each space.
posted by riffola at 5:57 PM on January 21, 2006

No dice.
posted by Mijo Bijo at 5:59 PM on January 21, 2006

I might have to write custom code for spaces, like Foo|[e-mail] that gets translated.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:04 PM on January 21, 2006

Spent 3 minutes trying to figure it out, gave up. I don't much care for chat anyway.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:07 PM on January 21, 2006

Nice.
posted by youarenothere at 6:07 PM on January 21, 2006

Presence error 400 in Trillian, whatever that means...
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:07 PM on January 21, 2006

One cool feature to consider: giving all users a group of contacts thats identical to the contacts listed on their user page. Its been awhile since I've played with ejabberd, but it should be doable by replacing the table that stores contacts with a view.
posted by gsteff at 6:27 PM on January 21, 2006

Just a reminder. Those of us that have slower computers and haven't moved to Mac OS 10.4, can't use the Jabber network through iChat (or Proteus or Fire). I suppose that fugly Adium would do.
posted by reflecked at 6:34 PM on January 21, 2006

yeah, gsteff, I was going to auto-authorize your bi-directional usercontacts. Something to do down the road.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 6:36 PM on January 21, 2006

Exodus seems to work pretty well, it was the third program I tried. Gaim didn't work for me, and Trillian Basic doesn't support jabber, apparently.
posted by pjern at 6:49 PM on January 21, 2006

This is cool Matt, thanks.

And just because someone has to say it: this is truly MetaChat. Fitting, perhaps, that she is currently offline.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 6:53 PM on January 21, 2006

With iChat, people's usernames don't show up in messages. It just shows up as Metafilter.
posted by youcancallmeal at 7:01 PM on January 21, 2006

It appears that Adium doesn't seem to play with Jabber unless you use Mac OS 10.4+. Admittedly I only tried once.
posted by reflecked at 7:01 PM on January 21, 2006

Can those of us who already use jabber somehow get access (e.g., XMPP)?

The whole point of jabber is to not have to have a separate account for every single service you use...
posted by dmd at 7:01 PM on January 21, 2006

I could enable XMPP for other servers, at the moment just talk.google.com is enabled.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:03 PM on January 21, 2006

Got it to work on Gaim 1.5 on Windows, cool.
posted by octothorpe at 7:04 PM on January 21, 2006

Anyone get Gaim working? I can get a connection to conference, but I can't figure out how to get into the chat room...
posted by VulcanMike at 7:07 PM on January 21, 2006

Settings help, octothorpe?
posted by VulcanMike at 7:07 PM on January 21, 2006

Why does Trillian crash every time I try to connect? This is getting frustrating . . . maybe I should just stick with intermittent appearances in #mefi.
posted by jenovus at 7:09 PM on January 21, 2006

It appears that Adium doesn't seem to play with Jabber unless you use Mac OS 10.4+. Admittedly I only tried once.

It worked for me. I am on 10.3.
posted by vacapinta at 7:14 PM on January 21, 2006

I works on meebo.com, but for some reason doesn't reliably show who is online.
posted by cali at 7:18 PM on January 21, 2006

Sad about the spaces. This seems like fun.
posted by The Bellman at 7:22 PM on January 21, 2006

VulcanMike: I thought that there wasn't a chatroom yet. I just was able to connect to the server and see a little green icon in my user page by putting "octothorpe" as my screen name and metafilter.com as the server and clicking save.
posted by octothorpe at 7:24 PM on January 21, 2006

Thanks vacapinta. I needed to update Adium, your post encouraged me to do so.

It seems to be connected (not that there's anything to see or anyone to talk to).
posted by reflecked at 7:27 PM on January 21, 2006

The problem I had magically fixed itself when those I added accepted me. I guess you can't see that some one is online if you aren't on their approved list.
posted by cali at 7:27 PM on January 21, 2006

i'm doing something wrong... i've logged in fine via gAIM, but i've got no buddies... not that i was expecting buddies... but i had hoped... anyway, when i manually enter a buddy who appears to be online (ie: mathowie), it tells me "not authorized"... can a remedy for this be suggested, please?
posted by RockyChrysler at 7:29 PM on January 21, 2006

Yes.. what RockyChrysler said. There's no indication of who's online. (I'm now offline.)
posted by reflecked at 7:30 PM on January 21, 2006

i'm in the same boat with Adium and 10.3, it lets me log in and my icon is green, but no one to chat with. i'm going to assume it's (kinda) working, because it correctly identified the server as conference.metafilter.com, which i didn't type in.
posted by quin at 7:34 PM on January 21, 2006

conference worked for me on Adium. Cool feature. Thanks matt.
posted by terrapin at 7:38 PM on January 21, 2006

everyone that logs in the first time has no one in their buddy list. the way jabber works is like AIM and ICQ and everything else -- you have to manually add people.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 7:38 PM on January 21, 2006

Matt's my buddy: Google Talk says so :)
posted by pjern at 7:41 PM on January 21, 2006

This is superawesome. I'm so there.
posted by Mercaptan at 7:43 PM on January 21, 2006

The Coolness. It works, our fearless leader has typed words specifically to me!

i am a unique snowflake :)
posted by quin at 7:49 PM on January 21, 2006

Hmm. 407:Registration Required from Gaim now. Though I did go back to my chat window and was surprised to see that I did get in properly earlier, but just missed the tab...
posted by VulcanMike at 7:55 PM on January 21, 2006

Does anyone have gaim settings that work? I get a couldn't connect to host message.
posted by 6550 at 7:57 PM on January 21, 2006

I got it figured out. On gaim, screen name is only "6550" and server is "metafilter.com".
posted by 6550 at 8:00 PM on January 21, 2006

on gAIM, this works for me:


posted by quonsar at 8:07 PM on January 21, 2006

Hmm. I just deleted gAIM because I couldn't get it to work, but I'll try again.
posted by yhbc at 8:10 PM on January 21, 2006

I'd recommend Psi. It is not as pretty, however.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:12 PM on January 21, 2006

Is the mefi room full? I tried to add it in Adium (I was able to easily connect to the mefi jabber server), but adding or messaging [e-mail] doesn't work.
posted by Gnatcho at 8:12 PM on January 21, 2006

Shouldn't be full.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:13 PM on January 21, 2006

Adium:
once you're logged on, File -> Join Group Chat and then:

posted by 31d1 at 8:17 PM on January 21, 2006

Same here
posted by Gnatcho at 8:21 PM on January 21, 2006

ok, there are two seperate things going on here: IM, and the chat room. in gAIM, after connecting, i have to go to the menu and choose "Join Chat" and fill in another box, like so:


posted by quonsar at 8:26 PM on January 21, 2006

ok, now I get it. i saw the jabber tag in iChat but it cornfused me. see you timewasters shortly!
posted by mwhybark at 8:34 PM on January 21, 2006

The conference isn't working at all from my gtalk account. Maybe XMPP isn't quite up to snuff yet?

I'd hate to have to manage yet another identity, since the whole point of Jabber is to avoid that problem.
posted by majick at 8:37 PM on January 21, 2006

I just tried it out, and when I signed out of it, my pants were off and someone had been touching me in a bad way. I'm using Pandion on a windows xp pro box, if that helps diagnose.
posted by jonson at 8:44 PM on January 21, 2006

*washes hands*
posted by quonsar at 8:48 PM on January 21, 2006

I'm sorry, jonson.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:49 PM on January 21, 2006

dudes... uncool. boundaries, people.
posted by jonson at 9:01 PM on January 21, 2006

I couldn't get in at all, but it may be my own firewalls and/or fios settings. I couldn't get any of the clients I downloaded to work at all, much less communicate with metafilter itself.

And I was so looking forward to some hot jonson action, too.
posted by yhbc at 9:10 PM on January 21, 2006

If the Commish ain't playing then I ain't playing.
posted by ColdChef at 9:13 PM on January 21, 2006

I mean, apart from not having anyone to chat with in iChat. waaaahhh!
posted by mwhybark at 9:17 PM on January 21, 2006

I tried to do what 31d1 said above re Adium but nothing happens. Is it because no-one is online or what?
posted by keijo at 9:20 PM on January 21, 2006

Now it says

Error joining chat [e-mail]/keijo

404: Remote Server Not Found
posted by keijo at 9:24 PM on January 21, 2006

restart adium...that worked for me.
posted by Gnatcho at 9:24 PM on January 21, 2006

Did that already, updated to latest version and I'm on 10.4.4. Hmm. I must be doing something wrong. I just don't want another client.
posted by keijo at 9:26 PM on January 21, 2006

keijo, remove the www in your chat address.

yhbc, try meebo.com
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:32 PM on January 21, 2006

Wait, so are we going to get little Jabber icons next to our usernames?
posted by bshort at 9:32 PM on January 21, 2006

Oh, I see. It looks like it's only on our user pages.
posted by bshort at 9:33 PM on January 21, 2006

huh, meebo.com doesn't do chatrooms in jabber, oh well.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:36 PM on January 21, 2006

Thanks Matt, really stupid mistake
posted by keijo at 9:36 PM on January 21, 2006

This is pretty cool.
posted by danb at 9:40 PM on January 21, 2006

Anyone figure out how to join group chats in iChat? I'm logged in OK but can't see anything comparable to the Adium screenshot posted above.
posted by mikel at 9:48 PM on January 21, 2006

Works for me in iChat fine, just don't want to use it. Just go to File/Go to chat and enter mefi
posted by keijo at 9:50 PM on January 21, 2006

Duh. Thanks Keijo. I was trying to make it too complicated.
posted by mikel at 9:52 PM on January 21, 2006

FWIW: I don't see a way to bookmark [e-mail] in iChat. i added the ID as a jabber buddy, and it's
"awaiting authoorization" with an email of [e-mail]; same results if i try to set it up with [e-mail] as the email.

iChat users may be interested in the font rendering, which I had never had occasion to play with previously.
posted by mwhybark at 10:17 PM on January 21, 2006

Also, thanks again, Matt. Fine idea! You are the pony master.
posted by mwhybark at 10:19 PM on January 21, 2006

I downloaded gAIM and entered everything exactly like on quonsar's screenshot, but no matter what I do it still tells me I cannot connect to host. What am I missing? I can't even figure out how to make it work in my already-installed trillian.
posted by Meredith at 10:21 PM on January 21, 2006

Nevermind. It was my own firewall.
posted by Meredith at 10:30 PM on January 21, 2006

Hangs on "authenticating" in Gaim for me.
posted by kenko at 10:32 PM on January 21, 2006

Thanks 31d1, that worked for me in Adium.
posted by smackfu at 10:45 PM on January 21, 2006

I have the same problem as kenko. :^(
posted by deborah at 10:59 PM on January 21, 2006

It was the wrong password. Yay!
posted by deborah at 11:03 PM on January 21, 2006

Troubles here with Adium, too.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:25 PM on January 21, 2006

Troubles here with Adium, too.

Mind, it would be beneficial were I to confirm that Adium's Jabber is working at all.

Also, while I just diddled my router's firewall, it occurs to me I might have to fiddle with OS X's firewall, too...
posted by five fresh fish at 11:29 PM on January 21, 2006

FFF, it should work like we talked above at least if you're on 10.4. Otherwise, iChat.
posted by keijo at 11:29 PM on January 21, 2006

Aah, don't know about firewalls, I managed to connect even with very tight settings on my physical firewall. (but not that I know much, maybe somebody wiser can help)
posted by keijo at 11:30 PM on January 21, 2006

Oh. Spaces aren't fixed yet?

Do I need to create a jabber account on jabber.org?
posted by five fresh fish at 11:34 PM on January 21, 2006

Goddamnit, #1, I'm completely addicted now! Are you satisfied?
posted by brundlefly at 11:37 PM on January 21, 2006

Yeah, I've spent all morning there. Are you happy mathowie?
posted by keijo at 11:40 PM on January 21, 2006

FFF: I don't think so, I didn't.
posted by Meredith at 11:44 PM on January 21, 2006

fff: I think we're SOL for the moment. Alas.
posted by I Love Tacos at 11:58 PM on January 21, 2006

I gave up using Adium for jabber a long time ago. Among other things it keeps losing the connection to the yahoo and aim transports. I use psi on every platform now.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:08 AM on January 22, 2006

Strange, because Adium works best for me on all networks. Jabber seems to work fine as well. I've never used it before.
posted by keijo at 12:24 AM on January 22, 2006

I'm hoping to have a fix for spaces in a day or two.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:24 AM on January 22, 2006

keijo -- I meant when I use Adium to connect to a jabber network which has transport gateways to the yahoo and aim networks; as opposed to using it to connect directly to yahoo or aim. It always loses the transport connections in the former case. I've made little use of it in the latter sense, though I've little doubt that it's probably fine.
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:37 AM on January 22, 2006

Aah, sorry misunderstood. Never tried that.
posted by keijo at 12:44 AM on January 22, 2006

Thanks for looking into the spaces/special chars thing, matt.
posted by Emperor Yamamoto's Eggs at 2:46 AM on January 22, 2006

mathowie, could you please enable XMPP for Dreamhost's jabber servers?
posted by dmd at 6:15 AM on January 22, 2006

Can someone expleain to me how this works on Trillian? Is there some kind of jabber client I have to download first? My only connection options on Trillian are MSN, AIM, and Yahoo.
posted by spicynuts at 8:06 AM on January 22, 2006

I think only Trillian Pro has jabber support, though I might be confused about this.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 8:12 AM on January 22, 2006

dmd, what's the server name for dreamhost's jabber stuff?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:10 AM on January 22, 2006

I think we're gonna need pictorials for all this!
posted by five fresh fish at 9:24 AM on January 22, 2006

Yeah, I don't think the free Trillian supports jabber. I just downloaded Gaim last night and it works fine, after I got it set up with quonsar's help. Gaim seems to do everything I need so I'm going to uninstall Trillian.
posted by 6550 at 9:29 AM on January 22, 2006

i wonder why this transparent gif isn't transparent on the userpage, or in matt's post above: but it is transparent in reality and shows as transparent in live preview and in this comment? some css nit i imagine?
posted by quonsar at 9:31 AM on January 22, 2006

dmd, what's the server name for dreamhost's jabber stuff?

Dreamhost Jabber is set up using each user's domain (my Dreamhost-hosted server is at puddingbowl.org), so I don't think there'll be any way to just enable everyone who has a server hosted there.
posted by mph at 9:41 AM on January 22, 2006

Testing:




posted by riffola at 10:36 AM on January 22, 2006

Hmm so Matt can use style tags in his post & comments but we can't? Unfair! :)
posted by riffola at 10:37 AM on January 22, 2006

Okay, I dislike Trillian because it constantly crashed when I used it, so I'm not going to go get the Pro version just for the jabber. I simply run AIM with the ad hack right now. What program should I download that can run this jabber and the AIM at the same time, without spending huge amounts of time combing forums to figure out the set up?
posted by FunkyHelix at 11:19 AM on January 22, 2006

Unfortunately you can only be signed into one Jabber account at once with iChat, so I have to disconnect from Google Talk to be logged into MeFi. :(
posted by mrbill at 11:28 AM on January 22, 2006

That's why you should install Adium, mrbill.
posted by keswick at 11:30 AM on January 22, 2006

Just to re-iterate George_Spiggott's comment, the Psi Japper Client worked like a charm and it works with both Mac and Windows.
posted by purephase at 11:31 AM on January 22, 2006

That would Jabber, not Japper
posted by purephase at 11:32 AM on January 22, 2006

Trillian Pro does support Jabber, but you have to download the plugin and install it. Worse, the plugin crashes a lot. It's mostly stable for me with Google Talk and with MeFi's server as long as I only chat to individuals. But joining the conference room causes pretty regular crashes, although it does work sometimes.

I generally love Trillian, but so far their Jabber support is a bit iffy.
posted by Nelson at 11:33 AM on January 22, 2006

I'm a technoidiot and I somehow got gaim and jabber to work so anyone can. I did it a while ago though and can't remember what I did.
posted by CunningLinguist at 11:39 AM on January 22, 2006

FunkyHelix, try gaim. I was able to get it working with a little help.
posted by 6550 at 11:45 AM on January 22, 2006

How does one join a chatroom/conference room with Trillian Pro?
posted by Asparagirl at 11:58 AM on January 22, 2006

I'm using Pandion and it's working pretty nicely
posted by mk1gti at 12:03 PM on January 22, 2006

This thread has made Space Coyote creatively eponysterical.

I too look forward to joining you guys when liberated.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 12:31 PM on January 22, 2006

I never thought I'd be discriminated against because of my spaces.
posted by five fresh fish at 2:08 PM on January 22, 2006

Ok, people with spaces try logging in and use a pipe character instead of a space. So:

five|fresh|[e-mail]

Let me know!
posted by mathowie (staff) at 2:13 PM on January 22, 2006

Works for Mayor|Curley
posted by Mayor Curley at 2:43 PM on January 22, 2006

Asparagirl writes 'How does one join a chatroom/conference room with Trillian Pro?'

Once you've set up the mefi jabber account, go to the main Trilian window. Click on the purple dot (jabber) and select "Join Conference Room..."

Room: mefi
Server: conference.metafilter.com
Nick: should be filled in
Password: you'll need to re-enter it

Click "Join" and you're in.
posted by blag at 3:14 PM on January 22, 2006

I've got it working on Trillian Pro with the Jabber plugin. Everything seems to be in it's right place, and I'm in the mefi chat room.
posted by vodkadin at 3:27 PM on January 22, 2006

skip the nick and password in blag's example actually
posted by mathowie (staff) at 3:40 PM on January 22, 2006

I entered them both (nick is already filled in) and it worked fine :p
posted by blag at 3:49 PM on January 22, 2006

I still say they look like green nipples.
posted by deborah at 4:41 PM on January 22, 2006

How does one go about rediscovering one's password?
posted by five fresh fish at 4:49 PM on January 22, 2006

your password is "12345"
posted by keswick at 4:57 PM on January 22, 2006

/me blows kiss to blag
posted by Asparagirl at 4:57 PM on January 22, 2006

According to Exodus for Windows, "You're not allowed in the room."

Am I not cool enough, is the room full, or did I do something wrong? Exodus chose conference.metafilter.com for the server, and I typed in my username and password. There wasn't a field for [e-mail].

Where do the B-list MeFi users hang out?
posted by grumblebee at 5:15 PM on January 22, 2006

monkeyfilter.
posted by keswick at 5:21 PM on January 22, 2006

I'm logged in fine using iChat on 10.4.4, but everyone has the same lightbulb icon. Rather confusing not being able to distinguish between folk.

I tried adding people in the channel to my 'buddy list' - thanks chrismear - but they remain lightbulbs, iconwise. Any ideas how to fix this?

(Um, this problem may be down to me never having used iChat, nor any other instant messaging type program, before...)
posted by jack_mo at 5:22 PM on January 22, 2006

Never mind: hit "Show Names and Pictures" in the View menu.
posted by jack_mo at 5:42 PM on January 22, 2006

ok...I'm feeling like a techno geek. I've got Psi set up, but when I try to logon as Ms|[e-mail] it tells my there's an authentication error and that the user isn't verified. What am I missing?
posted by Ms Snit at 5:44 PM on January 22, 2006

Okay, I figured it out. In case anyone is as new to IM as I am, they should know when Matt says [e-mail], conference.metafilter.com is the server and mefi is the chatroom. I'm sure that's basic to most here, but I never use IM.
posted by grumblebee at 5:47 PM on January 22, 2006

*coughs* I was using the wrong password.
posted by Ms Snit at 6:15 PM on January 22, 2006

Hot diggety damn! 40|Watt is in the heezy for sheezy!

Thanks, Matt!
posted by 40 Watt at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2006

Works for me in Gaim for Windows. Here's how to set it up for those perhaps still not sure.









Anyway, nice work, Matt. Thanks.
posted by sjvilla79 at 8:15 PM on January 22, 2006

I thought, oh cool, what a nice pony. What a disappointment to go to MeFi Jabber and see the same old crap that took over irc.metafilter.com; mostly offensive "jokes" and I use the word guardedly. Too bad. Guess one wishing for more scintillating conversation will have to stay in these parts. Thanks anyway for all your hard work, Mathowie.
posted by Lynsey at 8:34 PM on January 22, 2006

Re: Dreamhost requests above, mph has it right -- the only way to reliably allow all Dreamhost Jabber users to connect to the MF Jabber server is to let all potential servers to connect to the MF Jabber server -- all the Dreamhost servers live under the domains of their users. (So, for example, I have my "own" Dreamhost Jabber server at the domain I host there.)
posted by delfuego at 8:58 PM on January 22, 2006

Lynsey, I think you just timed it poorly. Sure there is some sillyness going on - but that has more to do with people just trying to get their clients working and others just shoot the shit to give them somehting to look at. I'd wait a bit before I threw in the towel and wrote back home about it...
posted by qwip at 10:00 PM on January 22, 2006

I'm trying connections by way of Google Talk, and I can get into the conference, but actual instant messages from MeFi members isn't working out too well. Has anyone else had any luck?
posted by ChrisR at 10:42 PM on January 22, 2006

Yeah, Lynsey stepped in at just the right time to catch some pretty terrible jokes but missed the long discussion on books for example.
posted by 6550 at 10:49 PM on January 22, 2006

Yeah, Lynsey stepped in at just the right time to catch some pretty terrible jokes quonsar but missed the long discussion on books for example.
posted by quonsar at 11:10 PM on January 22, 2006

Wootings, it works.
posted by By The Grace of God at 1:46 AM on January 23, 2006

How does one join this with google talk? Is there a port issue? For instance, I can't connect to IRC at work because I think the port is blocked. So, will I have the same problem connecting to this with google talk?
posted by dios at 8:54 AM on January 23, 2006

*sigh*. How do I create a Jabber account with iChat? My only options are .Mac and AIM. The "Log in to Jabber" option is greyed out.
posted by salmacis at 11:08 AM on January 23, 2006

Woot. It worked.

Having the correct password does indeed help. D-oh.
posted by five fresh fish at 4:16 PM on January 23, 2006

Unfortunately, it seems that no one I'm familiar with is actually hanging out on the chat channel.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:07 PM on January 23, 2006

Cant get this to work at all.
posted by sgt.serenity at 9:34 AM on January 24, 2006

I hear there's a page that shows all mefites that are currently online on jabber. Anyone gots da linkage on that?
posted by Ms Snit at 1:31 PM on January 24, 2006

found it...

http://www.metafilter.com/jabber.mefi

*la la la*
posted by Ms Snit at 1:36 PM on January 24, 2006

Have we figured out a fix for : yet?
posted by 6:1 at 7:17 PM on January 24, 2006

I wasn't aware that : was a problem; had you ever alerted anyone to it being one? (I only say that because your post implied that we should know about this bug... but it's unclear how we would have.)

I'll see what I can do later today...
posted by delfuego at 9:22 AM on January 25, 2006

Out of curiosity, how are you doing the integration? Is the Jabber server "configured" to look at the MeFi user db, or is some back-end script silently creating Jabber users?
posted by mkultra at 11:34 AM on January 25, 2006

I'm using custom classes on the Jabber server to query the actual MeFi user DB. It turns out to be reasonably simple (especially when you learn Java!). :)
posted by delfuego at 3:33 PM on January 25, 2006

Is anyone having problems logging in? I can't get in with gaim (stuck at authorizing for 20 minutes now), can't get on with pandion "one moment please..." and can't even load the mefi "who's online" page. Haven't changed any settings on my computer, but is the problem just on my end?
posted by Meredith at 3:36 PM on January 25, 2006

It didn't work with Gaim with me until I opened port 5222 in my firewall
posted by jouke at 8:45 PM on January 25, 2006

It was noted above as a problem, didn't know if anyone had figured out a fix. Matt doesn't know of one. Thanks.
posted by 6:1 at 4:37 PM on January 26, 2006

I cannot get gaim to work, anyone want to help me please?
posted by Maishe at 1:10 PM on January 31, 2006

Thank you, Mr. Haughey.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:16 AM on February 4, 2006