Live Chat Message Rules: Plain Text, URLs, Emoji, and Mentions

QCLF live Messages use a lightweight one-line plain-text composer rather than the permanent rich-text editor. Each submitted live Message is normalized and limited to 2,000 characters.

URLs and emoji remain usable in plain text, and live @mentions can resolve current participants when the Category Mentions feature is enabled. Live Chat does not accept attachments.

Plain-Text, One-Line Input

The live composer is a one-row text field with a 2,000-character browser limit. On the server, tabs and line breaks are flattened to spaces, control characters are removed, repeated whitespace is collapsed, and the final Message is trimmed to the 2,000-character limit.

The content-policy service still applies prohibited-content, duplicate, pacing, link, and mention limits where configured.

URLs Are Linkified Safely

Stored live content remains plain text. When rendered, QCLF HTML-escapes it and linkifies recognized http://, https://, and www. URLs. Generated links use a new tab plus safe noopener noreferrer nofollow behavior.

Emoji are ordinary Unicode characters in the plain-text Message; they do not require rich HTML.

Live @Mentions

When Mentions are enabled for the Category, QCLF exposes current present participants to the live composer and resolves submitted mentions against those participants. A mention candidate must correspond to an @name actually present in the Message.

Live mention notification handling is separate from the permanent-reply mention path. Mention availability can therefore differ between the live composer and permanent forum replies.

No Attachments or Rich-Text Toolbar

  • There is no live attachment control and the live send action does not process uploaded files.
  • There is no rich-text toolbar, poll builder, Quote formatting, or permanent Reply Reference control in the one-line live composer.
  • When live Messages are archived later, QCLF converts their plain-text conversation into durable forum history.

Server Rules Still Win

Changing browser markup or submitting a crafted request does not bypass the 2,000-character normalization, participation checks, sanctions, chat lock, mute state, cooldown/Slow Mode, content policy, or mention validation.

Community Discussion

Want to compare forum workflows, share practical QCLF tips, or discuss how other Joomla site owners use this feature? Visit the QC Live Forum Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific entitlement problems, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.