I’ve been doing some thinking (bad, bad thing… thinking=more projects) and I’ve been considering whether or not to make up an AJAX plugin that will work for EE. This could definitely get me to work on AJAX applications. Though I’m not too keen on starting a new project ( especially since I’ve been trying to hash out the new 1.3 linklist ) although a project for work has a small sideline of using AJAX in the ginormous application I’ve been building.

So, I might consider doing something. But I think I’m just wondering if anyone Really uses these things anymore. There are a few things (and let me brainstorm here):

1. spammers… we’re gonna get them. there’s no doubt. One method is to rely on the .htaccess file that the Blacklist/Whitelist module creates (or can create). Or if you don’t use the .htaccess file method (for those unfortunate to not be able to use them) we could compare posts to the blacklist/whitelist just like comments. We’d also have to use the same method of preventing comment spam in the shoutbox as well. I say this because I KNOW spammers flock to things like a shoutbox. Especially if it’s displays their URLs.

2. Bandwidth… it might not seem like a big concern, but the potential is there. It can happen.

3. Member Integration… It almost has to be just like posting comments. If you’re logged in, then there should be no reason whatsoever to put in your name/alias or URL. That stuff is in the system, it should be used.

There are a few things to keep in consideration. I guess I just want to know if there’s truly an interest out there. After a while, I’ve seen comment boxes as a way for spammers to spam the hell out of a site.

And of course, there’s always the “old” way of creating a shoutbox.