Hi, just a quick update on our new chat room.  I have spent some time looking for some good chat software that can be integrated with our community site.  That was not easy in itself.  But more than that, we need a chat solution which can be accessed on tablets and smartphones too (unlike our old chat rooms), and which is affordable too.  It also needs to be hosted elsewhere to prevent it slowing our site to a crawl.

I think I've finally found such a beast.  It checks all the boxes so far.  It's considerably less expensive that the Chinese chat room we had for years and which attracted a hefty bill every year.  Although different, I think this one is just as good and, as an added bonus, it offers video chat for those who want to use it.

Please take a look at the pictures below.  The cost will be a one-off payment of $437 and $14.99 per month for hosting.  I can't afford to pay for this on my own though and so far we have had four kind donations towards the cost.  There is a long way to go yet though, so if you are a chat user and you'd like to help, please go to our donations page now, to throw a few bucks into the kitty and between us we will be able to get this new romm installed very soon. 

Please click here to donate to this very worthy cause now

This post was edited by katieglover at October 7, 2015 8:38 PM BST

I've been talking to the developers of this chat software and now, having done some ducking and diving, I appear to have got the price down to $238 + $14.99 per month for chat hosting.  That's considerably cheaper than the previous best price.

We've already collected $169 so now we just need two or three more kind donations and our new chat room will be a reality.  Anybody got 69 bucks lying around?

Thanks, Katie