>...and it turns out that's basically all I wanted. I wonder if the network hosting its own instance of such a capable client would be enough for new users to g

>...and it turns out that's basically all I wanted. I wonder if the network hosting its own instance of such a capable client would be enough for new users to get going? This is what we do on EsperNet (https://webchat.esper.net/ https://webchat.esper.net/), for what it's worth - using a forked version of The Lounge with some minor changes. It works reasonably well, but we do have to run it in public mode which limits some of the advantages (e.g. the bouncer-like behaviour). With that said, it's a well made application and is a big improvement upon CGI:IRC and Iris. xPaw and astorije are great, too.