Spigot is a great site but the chat sectiom needs improving. Instead of getting a custom code why not use one from xenforo? I really think spigot needs this, maybe we'll have chat moderators and more..
Uh you mean like all the moderators we already have? It's based on IRC which is a pretty common standard for projects such as this and you can connect with any client you wish.
Most the the people who frequent the IRC doesn't use the webchat anyways, they use their preferred IRC client. Most of which is highly customizable.
Like @qlimax5000 sad above, the people that are on it a lot have a client. I personally have a really nice client and it looks amazing.
Additionally, we do not use it for the look. We use it to get help and to give others help. I think helping others in a chat box would be very hard. It also would be a pain to moderate (which the staff have no time to do). It took me a whole weed to get my thread moved (goes to show you how busy they are).
I agree, iris is kind of ugly. But, you know what? I have one of the worst aesthetic senses of anyone I know. If you want to make a prettier webchat to integrate with our IRC network, go right ahead.
Maybe changing the colors a bit? I think the actual chatbox has some way to choose the background color - at least -.
Did you just say it has a lot of messages? Of course it does, it's IRC! At least the IRC has channels, a chat box would be one channel and be impassible to chat on.
You can also use some XenCode or whatever they have and put their username ther automatically. Also supports themes and is free & open source (meaning you can edit it).