## Cover Sheet: Chat

### I. The Big Picture:

The Chat application offers a reliable means by which site members can initiate and participate in both real-time and moderated discussions. Discussions can be both public or restricted to people in certain user groups. The Chat application allows for the archiving and retrieval of these discussions as well. The Chat application also may be used for one-to-one real-time browser-based discussions, which can be helpful in a customer service setting. Unlike ordinary instant messaging systems, this enables a customer service representative to transmit images to the customer and, if appropriate, preformatted responses to frequently asked questions. This application can also serve as a user-to-user instant messaging system, allowing users to send private messages to each other.

### II. Features:

- Maintains a comprehensive view of a community member's chat participation on a site
- Allows for the initiation and maintenance of browser-based public chat rooms
- Allows for the initiation and maintenance of browser-based private chat rooms
- Allows for the initiation and maintenance of one-to-one discussions
- Supports moderated chats and custom moderation determination
- Supports custom message expiration intervals for chat messages
- Supports different levels of accessibility to chat message history
- Allows for the comprehensive tracking of user input from these chat rooms

### III. Related Links:

- Requirements Document
- Design Document