CalcBot Chat: Talk to Other Players

We just shipped a real-time chat widget. Look in the bottom corner of any page and you'll see the chat toggle. Click it, pick a guest nickname (or sign in to use your account name), and you're in. Messages appear instantly for everyone else connected — no refresh, no polling.

The chat runs on a separate socket.io service, so it stays live even when you navigate between pages on the main site. Guest nicknames are auto-generated as Guest-XXXXX (five random characters) and saved in your browser's localStorage so you keep the same name across visits. Registered users automatically appear with their account username and an avatar.

We're keeping moderation lightweight for launch. There's a profanity filter on the server, and we'll be watching the first few weeks of traffic to set policy. If you see anything abusive, hit the report button — we read every report. Repeat offenders get muted at the IP level.

The chat is intentionally small — it's a side widget, not a full IRC client. We wanted a low-friction way for players to share high scores, ask for help on a tricky level, or just hang out. If it gets traction, we'll add channels (per-game rooms, off-topic, looking-for-group) and richer message formatting.

Chat is one of those features that gets better the more people use it. Lurk if you want, but the more conversations happen, the more useful the widget becomes. Drop in, say hello, tell us what you're playing.