Chatzy — online chat service
Email is great, but sometimes you just need to talk realtime with a group. Making decisions on who will do what on a project, for instance. You can do it by email, but it seems to take forever. This is when a synchronous communication service is needed.
The most common synchronous (”same time”) communication that most people are familiar with is telephone, of course. But not everyone has conference lines available. Instant Messaging is another, but you need accounts with the various services, and there are so many services it can be hard to agree on which one to use. Sometimes you just want a quick, no download, no registration, no hassle chat.
That’s what Chatzy (http://www.chatzy.com/) provides. There are no downloads, no registration, anyone can start a chat and you just need the URL to join (so you don’t even need to give an email). It’s also free (with fairly discrete banner ads–and no “adult” website ads). It takes about 5 seconds to create a “quick chat”, just choose a user name and a “subject” or room title. The form looks like an email form, but you don’t have to include an email to start a room. Once your room is created, just send the URL to whoever you working with and you have a nice collaborative space to work out details in real time. URLs are very similar, just http://www.chatzy.com/XXXXXXXXXXXX with the X’s being a random 12 digit number assigned to your chat room.
Chatzy is an experimental site run by a couple of “Internet professionals”. It’s been around for several years, however, and they are upgrading. There is a new beta test site with some advanced features, but the main focus is simple Javascript based functionality that will work on any javascript-enabled browser. If you have disabled javascript for security reasons, you will need to turn it on to use Chatzy. Since Chatzy uses javascript, it may not be accessible using screen readers or other aids for the visually impaired.
Chatzy doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but they aren’t trying to do that. It’s a pure, text-driven communication system. The FAQ states that all HTML codes embedded in the text are stripped out, though http:// links will show live. (Links open in the chat interface in Firefox, at least, so you should probably copy and paste or right click and select open in New Window/Tab for links.) This means that it would be very difficult for someone to pass a virus or malware onto your computer through Chatzy. You’d have to click on a link to go to an infectious page. In the beta version there are also chat commands possible, like /flipcoin will “flip a coin” and deliver a random “heads” or “tails”. It seems that some gamers use Chatzy for online role playing games! But this is a strictly internal function and is not doing anything on your computer. So just using general Internet safety rules (be careful what you click on, use virus protection and firewalls) should provide sufficient security. Since HTML coding is stripped out, the type of “fake” links that are so common in phishing email won’t work, you’ll always see the text link only.
Chatzy keeps rooms active as long as they are used. Unused rooms will be deleted, eventually. The messages sent are kept until the room is “cleared” manually. This is handy if someone can’t make the chat, since they can review it later. But you can still provide privacy by clearing the room after use.
There are also advanced “Virtual Rooms”, which allows for passwords and some customization. If you will be meeting often, and wish to do things like exchange phone numbers or other private data, you should opt for this. Remember that “private” is relative and you still should be very wary about “publishing” private information in any web accessible space. You can also clear the Virtual Rooms of the previous messages. The owner of a Virtual Room is asked to provide an email.
Chatzy is an excellent example of a simple service that provides a basic function and doesn’t try to do anything else.
I agree… Chatzy is a great thing… BUT!
I have not been able to contact or my Chatroom since Saturday 6 May 2006.
It was working fine then, but now my browser just times out while trying to load.
Any news about this?
Chatzy seems to be dead. No one has been able to get in for a week or so and there is no news at all from them. I haven’t found another service that allows creation of chat rooms on the fly or that requires so little info to use the chat. I do use Chatango for one to one chat on the web with no required log in or download for the other person, but it’s not good for groups. It’s a little more like a web IM system that the other person doesn’t have to register for. As soon as I find something, or if I here more, I’ll post.
I used chatzy May 4th, and now it’s dead. I’m a teacher and was using the chat for a group discussion project. No site, no more project. Any updates on when it might be back up?
I had been using chatzy for quite a while; it was the perfect way to chat safely and privatly. However, it has been dead for several days now. Does anyone have an idea of when it will be repaired? Or any reccomendations on any other private chat sites? Thank you
what with all the people payed for the enhanced History ?
The Server is up and running the port 80 is up , but there is only a Error Message when posting a Get command to it.
Crazy …i am communicating with my Team Members all over the world with chatzy …..
What has happened ?
I thought that I would try sending them an e-mail to ask what is happening, but since I could not get the site to load, I could not find their address.
What to do?
Then I remembered the “Wayback Machine” and booted it up and went backwards through the old versions of the site until I found an address: feedback@chatzy.com
So, I sent them an e-mailat at that address…
The Bad News is that there has been no response.
The Good News is that the e-mail has not yet bounced back to me.
I live in hope!
I am still searching the internet for something to use instead of Chatzy but so far have not found anything that meets my needs.
Any of you find anything promising yet?
(I was also wondering what was happening to the people who went for the Premium service.)
Thank God, I’m not the only one who can’t live without Chatzy!
Is there any news about Chatzy?
The world was a better place when Chatzy was around!
I’m becoming too productive at work, Chatzy kept the brakes on, kept me under pressure, now I’m bored and I don’t look nearly as busy as I used to, my boss is starting to think I need more to do. COME BACK CHATZY, QUICK!
I haven’t seen anything from Chatzy yet. The closest service I’ve found (no reg required, no download, create rooms on the fly) is Vyew. But that’s a much more complex system, Flash-based, whiteboards, etc., so it’s not as accessible or as easy to use. More here.
Please comment if anyone hears anything from Chatzy! I didn’t use it that much, but when I did it was invaluable.
Thanks Disedlibrarian for the link to Vyew, pretty messy as you say, I loved the simplicity of Chatzy!
How do we start a world-wide campaign for the return of Chatzy? Do they need money? Maybe if we could get all the past users to tip in say $10 each, we could buy Chatzy a nice car or something! Maybe a villa in Spain!
The “wayback Machine says Chatzy has not been updated since 2005, is this the case, was Chatzy just left to die? I gave Chatzy money every month, where did this aid money go? Typical, it never reaches the beneficiary, Chatzy has starved to death!
Maybe Chatzy just needs some encouragement, “WE LOVE YOU CHATZY”
I’m technologically challenged, I need someone with supreme IT powers to find out what is going on with Chatzy, my life is in limbo at the moment………………….
There is nothing worst than losing someone without being able to say goodbye……………..
Chatzy is M.I.A., let the search begin………………..
I’ll help where I can, but PLEASE, someone with more ability than me, FIND HIM AND BRING HIM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Two pieces of BAD news:
1. The e-mail I sent to feedback@chatzy.com finally bounced back. Drat!
2.Going to http://www.chatzy.com/ now give this message:
Welcome to your future Web Site Creator
You have not yet published your website.
Double Drat!!!
I am just hoping that they have removed everything from the site in order to replace it with a new and better Chatzy.
Soon!!!!!!!!!!!
David
I checked my chatroom, as I do most mornings since Chatzy went away, and this morning I got the following:
Welcome to your future Web Site Creator
You have not yet published your website.
The Chatzy homepage has the following message:
Chatzy.com has been down for more than a week and we are deeply sorry.
Some time ago, our hosting company (Managed.com) was bought by another hosting provider by the name of WebHostPlus. WebHostPlus wanted to move all Managed.com servers to their location, which, in theory, should only have caused a couple of hours of downtime, had the migration process been carried out professionally.
Unfortunately, it seems that WebHostPlus is not a very professional company. On May 6, our server was taken offline and our harddisks were apparently moved to the new location. Since then WebHostPlus has been having great difficult getting us - and a lot of other web sites - online again.
We are deeply sorry for this disturbance in our service. We are doing everything we can (which unfortunately is not much since we are highly dependent on our hosting provider) to get Chatzy up and running again. Once Chatzy is back, we will take appropriate measures to assure that down-time like this will not happen again.
If you wish, you can read how we and a lot of other fustrated webmasters complain here:
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508358
I just sent the following e-mail to webmaster@webhostplus.com, support@webhostplus.com and sales@webhostplus.com
I understand that the present problem with Chatzy being down is due to your company. http://www.chatzy.com/
There are many of us who depend on Chatzy on a day-to-day basis and are none too happy with being deprived of its excellent service.
I would like to have some indication as to when it will be up and running again.