chat-examples

chat examples

Examples of how chat transcripts are marked up currently, with the idea of moving towards a microformat for marking up logs/archives of chat sessions (IRC etc.) that are posted on the Web. Next steps are documenting chat-formats, and doing some chat-brainstorming.

Contributors

• Kevin Marks
• Robert Boyce
• Christopher St. John
• Chris Messina

IRC transcripts

These are plaintext logs with space separated fields, so are posted wrapped in <pre>

12:06 Tantek: what does the datetime stamp represent?
12:07 KevinMarks: in iRC, when it was said
12:07 Tantek: is it a point in time *before* they started speaking?
12:07 Tantek: or *after*?
12:07 Tantek: or somewhere in the *middle*?
12:07 KevinMarks: usually it is quantised to seconds
12:07 KevinMarks: and it is time the msg was received
12:07 Tantek: but the second they started typing or pressed return?
12:08 KevinMarks: prssed return i think

Or as plaintext + <br> (eg http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/8/25/1169654.html)

(22:20) gturneruk: oh, i just remembered. windows 95 is ten years old today
(22:22) Suw: good god. i mean, i shouldn't be surprised, it being 2005 and all. but still, where did that time go?
(22:22) gturneruk: lost clusters
(22:23) Suw: i obviously need to defrag

xChat2 log format

**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Wed May 14 04:36:29 2003

May 14 04:36:29 -->     You are now talking on #test
May 14 04:36:29 ---     Topic for #test is Test Topic
May 14 04:36:29 ---     Topic for #test set by nick1 at Thu May  8 18:45:05
May 14 04:58:45 ---     You are now known as nick1
May 14 05:03:44 -->     nick1 (~nick1@2.1.3.narf-42905) has joined #test
May 14 05:05:48 <nick1> test message
May 14 05:10:24 *       nick1 test action
May 14 05:11:19 <--     nick1 has quit (quit)

**** ENDING LOGGING AT Fri Jul  4 00:28:22 2003

Snak log format

Log file opened at: 5/26/04 12:00:11 AM
[12:00:11:] nick1: test message
[12:10:29:] * nick1 test action
[12:13:16:] ***: nick2 (~nick2@test.net) has joined the channel
[12:20:35:] ***: nick2 has quit IRC ("Computer going to sleep...")
[12:21:31:] ***: You have joined the channel
Log file closed at: 5/26/04 2:29:08 AM

iChat transcripts

iChat handles timestamps differently, inserting them between statement blocks, every 5 minutes.

12:25 AM
Reconnecting to tantekatwork…
Kevin Marks: So, iChat shows timestamps between entries
Tantek: yes
Tantek: what about Adium?
12:30 AM
Kevin Marks: my copy is 230 days old...

Bash.org

Bash.org and other QDBs collect funny IRC transcripts and let people vote on them. They use plaintext + <br />, wrapped in <p> http://bash.org/?23396

<Donut[AFK]> HEY EURAKARTE
<Donut[AFK]> INSULT
<Eurakarte> RETORT
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-RETORT
<Eurakarte> QUESTIONING OF SEXUAL PREFERENCE
<Donut[AFK]> SUGGESTION TO SHUT THE FUCK UP
<Eurakarte> NOTATION THAT YOU CREATE A VACUUM
<Donut[AFK]> RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> ADDON RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> COUNTER-RIPOSTE
<Donut[AFK]> COUNTER-COUNTER RIPOSTE
<Eurakarte> NONSENSICAL STATEMENT INVOLVING PLANKTON
<Miles_Prower> RESPONSE TO RANDOM STATEMENT AND THREAT TO BAN OPPOSING SIDES
<Eurakarte> WORDS OF PRAISE FOR FISHFOOD
<Miles_Prower> ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND ACCEPTENCE OF TERMS

Log Library

Log Library displays a tabular format with divs

<div class="row" name="GusVanNos">
   <div class="timestamp">18:36:28</div>
   <div class="nick"><GusVanNos></div> 
   <div class="message">.+. is a lazy way of saying .{2,}</div>
</div>

<div class="row" name="jawong">
    <div class="timestamp">18:36:48</div>
    <div class="nick"><jawong></div>
    <div class="message">your model is waaaay better, xal.</div>
</div>

• row
  • timestamp
  • nick
  • message

JWZ

http://www.jwz.org/hacks/irc2html.pl was used to generate the irc logs for Bar Camp Dallas : http://barcamp.org/f/barcampdallas-irc.html

<table bgcolor="#ffffff">
 <tbody>
  <tr>
   <td bgcolor="#eeeeee" nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">
    <font color="#000000">
     <i>[2006/01/28 11:21:34] </i>
    </font>
   </td>
   <td bgcolor="#eeeeee" valign="top">
    <font color="#000000">
     <i>@ jdunck joined channel #barcampdallas</i>
    </font>
   </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
   <td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top">
    <font color="#000000">
     <i>[2006/01/28 11:21:40] </i>
    </font>
   </td>
   <td valign="top">
    <font color="#000000">
     <i><tantek> is there a subethaedit-compatible client on windows?</i>
   </font>
  </td>
 </tr>
 ...

MSN Messenger XML Format Logs

Examples at: http://stupidpeople.commo.de/logs/After%20August%202004/, there are a bunch there but not sure how widespread it is. General structure appears to be a Log element wrapper, with toplevel Join and Message elements. It's a little strange how the To element has children indicating all the recepients, normally that would be implicit, but there may be a reason that isn't clear just from this example. Original posting for example: http://microformats.org/discuss/mail/microformats-discuss/2006-February/002937.html Note that these get published with a stylesheet that makes them viewable directly, they appear to be human-directed.

<Log FirstSessionID="1" LastSessionID="1">
 <Join Date="9/12/2004" Time="6:48:20 PM" DateTime="2004-09-12T23:48:20.716Z" SessionID="1">
  <User FriendlyName="'' Quando não tem oq se ama...É preciso amar oq se tem!!! ''"/>
  <Text Style="color:#008000; ">
   '' Quando não tem oq se ama...É preciso amar oq se tem!!! '' has been added to the conversation.
  </Text>
 </Join>
 <Message Date="9/12/2004" Time="6:48:20 PM" DateTime="2004-09-12T23:48:20.846Z" SessionID="1">
  <From>
   <User FriendlyName="Você vive inventando maneiras pra dizer semp pra dizer que me quer!!"/>
  </From>
  <To>
   <User FriendlyName="http://commo.de/StupidPeople/"/>
   <User FriendlyName=":@TE ODEIO:@"/>
   <User FriendlyName="|I{•------»Victor«------•}I|1 2 3 o corh fregueis! -LLUSSAA EOOOO"/>
   <User FriendlyName=""Tô com sono!!! Acho que vo durmi!!!""/>
   <User FriendlyName="||||Gabriel||||| A Clockwork Orange.."/>
   <User FriendlyName="Pensar para acertar, Calar para resistir, Agir para vencer"/>
   <User FriendlyName="*>.Jessy.<*genteeeeeeeemmmmmmm..trokeiser  tá  aqui:09098217635!!!"/>
  </To>
  <Text Style="font-family:Sylfaen; color:#ff0000; ">
   nossa qnta gente
  </Text>
 </Message>
</Log>

• Log
  • Join
    • User
      • FriendlyName
    • Text
  • Message
    • From
      • User
    • To
      • User*
    • Text

MSN Messenger Marked Up By Anne van Kesteren

Found at: http://annevankesteren.nl/2005/10/msn-sessions

<nowiki>
<p>Late night <abbr title="Microsoft Network">MSN</abbr> sessions…
<ol class="conversation">
 <li>
  <cite>zcorpan</cite>
  <q><code><form></code> does not imply <code><body></code> in <abbr title="Internet Explorer">IE</abbr>6</q>

 
 <li>
  <cite>anne</cite>
  <q>interesting</q>
 
 <li>
  <cite>zcorpan</cite>
 <q>it’s worse…</q>
 
 <li>

  <cite>zcorpan</cite>
  <blockquote><pre><!DOCTYPE html>
<title>001</title>
<style>
 div { position:relative; }
 form { width:40em; }
</style>
<div>

 <form>
  <p>test
 </form>
</div>

zcorpan innerHTML for that:

zcorpan

<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>001</TITLE>
<STYLE>
 div { position:relative; }
 form { width:40em; }
</STYLE>

<FORM></HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV>
<P>test </FORM></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>

anne ah, totally IE

zcorpan the contents of the div are invisible

anne hmm…

anne o well

anne debugging that sucks

anne emulating it might be cool

anne building IE again

zcorpan the thought of it hurts my brains

zcorpan javascript:alert(document.getElementsByTagName("!")[0].nodeValue)

anne you’re so crazy

zcorpan try that in a document that has a doctype declaration, with IE

anne heh

Later on:

1. zcorpan how can a node that is nodeType 8 be returned by getElementsByTagName?
2. anne euh, good question

</nowiki>

• Analysis TBD

ILRT Logger Bot Format

Found at: http://chatlogs.planetrdf.com/swig/, generated by: http://cvs.ilrt.org/cvsweb/redland/logger/, there are three formats: HTML, plain text, and RDF. The RDF format is described on the chat-formats page, this entry discussed the HTML and plain text files, as they appear to be directed at people.

<div class="log">
 <p>
  <span class="time" id="T00-27-42"><a href="#T00-27-42">00:27:42</a></span>
  <span class="nick"><CaptSolo></span>
  <span class="comment">Gromgull: nice quote re. x years later</span>
 </p>
 <p>
  <span class="time" id="T00-27-57"><a href="#T00-27-57">00:27:57</a></span>
  <span class="nick"><CaptSolo></span>
  <span class="comment">Gromgull: what could one do with those 17mb of invalid n3?</span>
 </p>
 <p>
  <span class="time" id="T01-38-48"><a href="#T01-38-48">01:38:48</a></span>
  <span class="nick"><karlUshi></span>
  <span class="comment">
   <a href="http://aaronland.info/python/pyupcoming/">
    http://aaronland.info/python/pyupcoming/
   </a>
  </span>
 </p>
</div>

• log
  • time
  • nick
  • comment
    • href?

Trillian Format

This is for an AIM chat, but one for a Yahoo! chat looks the same. It is saved as plaintext as well as XML. (user1 is local). This is a description of the plaintext format.

Session Start (user1:user2): Fri Apr 01 17:43:06 2005
[17:43] user2: ping
[17:43] *** Auto-response sent to user2: My hovercraft is full of eels.
[17:46] user1: hey
Session Close (user2): Fri Apr 01 17:47:00 2005

• log
  • timestamp
  • modifier? user
  • message

Skype Format

When viewing archived conversations, this is what you get... What's up definition lists...? Oh yes!

<p>
  Created on 2006-02-02 17:00:41.
</p>
<dl>
  <dd>
    <h3>
      2005-10-11
    </h3>
  </dd>
  <dt class="remote">
    <a href="callto://" title="[rUsername]">Brian Oberkirch</a>: <span>14:58:25</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    Chris
  </dd>
  <dt class="remote">
    <a href="callto://[rUsername]" title="[rUsername]">Brian Oberkirch</a>: <span>14:58:27</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    http://www.web20show.com/articles/2005/10/10/episode-3
  </dd>
  <dt class="local">
    Chris Messina: <span>14:58:41</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    ok
  </dd>
  <dt class="remote">
    <a href="callto://[rUsername]" title="[rUsername]">Brian Oberkirch</a>: <span>14:58:45</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    These guys mention your comment on the 37s thread during their podcast
  </dd>
  <dt class="local">
    Chris Messina: <span>14:58:51</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    seriously!?
  </dd>
  <dt class="local">
    Chris Messina: <span>14:58:52</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    ack
  </dd>
  <dt class="remote">
    <a href="callto://[rUsername]" title="[rUsername]">Brian Oberkirch</a>: <span>14:59:04</span>
  </dt>
  <dd>
    It's what it says in the transcript
  </dd>
</dl>

See Also

• chat-formats