Set up a free chatroom for your website

Before you start

You need an email address and the page where the room will live. Nothing else. The room is free, and free here means no trial timer and no card.

Step 1: Create the account and the room

Open the sign up form, confirm the email, then name your room. Pick something visitors will recognise, because the room name is what shows on the login screen.

Step 2: Choose your entry policy

Three sensible defaults:

• Open forum - guests can talk, registration is offered but optional. Best for public, high traffic pages.
• Members only - login is required. Best when you need accountability.
• Read first - guests browse, only registered accounts post. A good middle ground while you are small.

Step 3: Set ranks before you need them

Ranks are Owner, Founder, Admin, Moderator, VIP, Member and Guest. Set the permission toggles while the room is empty, before anyone is watching:

1. Leave Delete any message for Owner and Admin only.
2. Give Moderators mute, kick and message deletion.
3. Turn off guest posting if spam is a risk for your topic.

Step 4: Embed the room

Copy the iframe snippet from the embed guide and paste it into the page, with at least 640px of height. The standalone URL works the same if you would rather link to it.

Step 5: Make it look like you

Fourteen themes: Glass, Cartoon, Clay, Neo, Feed, Mono, Metro, Basic, IRC, Midnight, Sunset, Forest, Ocean and Candy, each in light and dark. Set your accent colour first; a theme never overrides it.

Keeping it readable once it grows

• Pin one message that explains the rules. One.
• Use the moderation log rather than memory when a dispute starts.
• Turn on link filtering early; retrofitting it after a spam wave is much harder.
• Check the online roster against the account list now and then, and notice any account you do not recognise.