freechat/readme.md
shockrah ba13de2064 More background information regarding what can use the help or not
* Better wording in readme about chat history
2020-12-12 16:36:40 -08:00

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# FreeChat
## What this is
A FOSS chatting platform that brings in more modern features that _a lot_ of people have come to expect.
> Why not just IRC/Discord/Slack/Mumble etc?
A tonne of IRC channel are basically dead since so many have moved to Discord/Slack. Why? Because those platforms have features that IRC just doesn't have. A lot of people have deemed those features worth the switch.
Discord/Slack are proprietary spyware with no real alternative. The quality of the service is high enough for people to ignore the datamining, it's time a proper client came by.
Mumble could work but has an awful reputation amongst regular non-technical users.
> So it's a Discord/Slack clone?
Chat history is limited similar to nearly every chan/booru. _This can be turned off to preserve all chat history_.
The biggest difference is the lack of data collection; servers collect the following data:
* User id - generated by the server
* User password - generated by the server
* User name - provided by user
* User chat - How much depends on how the server was configured or if a message was pinned to NOT be deleted.
* Users Status - user is online/offline: HOWEVER this is controlled by the user.
* User permissions - To discern admins from less privileged users.
## Working Status
> Is this finished or almost finished?
Short: The API has basic functionality for chatting but still requires more endpoints to be **fully featured**. So yes the API at least is in a MVP state. But everything else is either in infancy or not done.
Long: No. A basic client is still underway and the chat API is missing a metric tonne of features. However The state of the chat API is such that it shouldn't be hard to implement many of the desired endpoints.
## How to help - if you want to
Check [the contributing guide](./contributing.md)