bhcli
So Daniel Winzen’s PHP LE Chat is probably the most used web script/app on the dark web, and for good reason. It’s simple, easy to use, it’s featureful, private, and it just works. It doesn’t require any client side javascript (which if you know anything about the dark web, you know that this is a huge deal), and it has a reasonably nice interface for chatting. However, it’s also terrible. The interface is clunky and slow, and it can be a pain to use, and it’s plain ugly. His script is based off the original Lucky Eddie’s Chat script, which was written in Perl. The original script was pretty bad, and Daniel’s version is a bit better, but it’s still not great.
Then an amazing dev and somewhat-friend of mine by the pseudonym “n0tr1v” came up with a Rust TUI client for it. It’s a huge improvement over the web interface, and it’s just a joy to use. It’s fast, responsive, and it has a nice interface for chatting. Some of the noticeable quality of life improvements added by n0tr1v include: - Sound notifications when tagged/pmmed - A toggle to filter out messages in certain channels (like the “members” channel). - Clipboard integration for easily copying messages. - Tab completion for usernames
It was awesome. Then another ‘friend’ of mine, “Strange” decided to make a fork of it and add some more features, like:
- Message translations (if someone sends a message in a language you don’t understand, you could now translate it with a simple keybind).
- Message hiding (clear spam off your screen).
- Programmable shortcuts to expand !hello into “Hello, how are you doing today?” or whatever you want.
- The ability to downloaded embedded media (like images and videos) and open them in you native media viewer instead of having to open them in the browser.
These are just a few of the amazing enhancements that n0tr1v and Strange have added to a fairly mediocre script, and it’s just a joy to use.
My Additions … also on GitHub and forgejo and soft-serve
So naturally, I had to get in on the fun and add some of my own features to it. I won’t go into too much detail about the features I added, but some of the highlights include: - Notes editing (you can now edit your notes in a nice TUI editor instead of having to edit them in the browser). - Added filtering options for all channels, not just the “members” channel. - Added duel-account support (a master and a slave account, so you can have one account that you use for chatting and another account that you use for lurking and reading messages without having to log out and log back in). - Vim like message editing (you can now edit messages with vim keybindings, which is a huge quality of life improvement for me). - Filter management (staff can now manage the filters for the channels in a nice TUI interface instead of having to edit them in the browser). - Huge performance improvements (the other clients can be a bit laggy and slow, especially when there are a lot of messages, but my version is lightning fast and responsive even in the busiest of hours). - Multiple identities (you can now have multiple identities and switch between them easily, which is great for people who have multiple accounts or who want to have different identities for different channels). - A bot system (you can now write your own bots to automate tasks or add new features to the chat, which is a huge improvement over the static web interface). - Man Pages. - Moderation features. - And much more! (check out my repo for the full list of features and improvements).
Don’t get me wrong, the original web interface changed the landscape of communication on the dark web, and n0tr1v’s and Strange’s clients were huge improvements over the web interface, but I just wanted to take it to the next level and add some of my own features and improvements to make it the best possible client (that I can make) for chatting in LE PHP Chats. It’s a joy to use, and I highly recommend it to anyone who chats in LE PHP Chats.