User blog comment:Kirkburn/Technical Update: September 2, 2014/@comment-452-20140903172809

An explanation of what is happening in the chat. (I've only noticed this behaviour over the last 24 hours.)

(I have already reported this via Special:Contact, but I am posting it here so that others can better understand what is occurring.)


 * I was in Chat A, with regulars User2 and User3.
 * I saw new users UserC and UserD join.
 * I said hello to each of them individually.
 * Both of my messages appeared as if UserC said them.
 * I saw UserD reply, confused.
 * Then I typed "uh oh" and it looked like UserC said it.
 * Then the chat crashes, giving me the message "you have connected on another browser"
 * User2 and User3 never saw UserC or UserD, or any of the messages after they joined. But they did see the chat crash.

Meanwhile, in Chat B:
 * UserC and UserD were sitting there, minding their own business.
 * Suddenly, UserC randomly says hello to UserC and UserD individually
 * UserD reponds to UserC, confused why he's suddenly saying hello.
 * UserC then randomly says "uh oh"
 * (The chat never crashes for Chat B.)

So,
 * If you see people join, then your messages appear as them: Your chat session has been attached to someone else's session, and your messages are appearing in their chat. No-one in your home chat can see this.
 * If someone else's messages start appearing as you: someone else's chat session has been attached to your chat session. Everyone else can see this, including the person typing as you.
 * If you see someone you know saying odd things: someone else's chat session has been attached to your friend's chat session: they can see their messages show up as your friend, and they can see what you type.

If ANY of the above happens, I suggest saying:
 * "Hi, I'm User:Bob from the Bob's Wiki Chat, and the chat appears to have glitched, refresh the chat and all should be back to normal." - which will help the other people present understand what is going on.