Hello, I have seen it done on other forumotion forums but I am unsure how to replicate it. How do I make the chat box only available/visible to certain groups/special ranks (ie admins) and not everyone?

Hello @Major_John,

Give the following a try. First go to Administration Panel > Display > Colors > CSS stylesheet and paste the following code.

Code:

body.chatbox, #chatbox_top { display:none }

Then go to Modules > JavaScripts codes management and create a new script.

Placement : In the homepage
Paste the following code and submit :

Code:

$(function() {
  var fa_chat = document.getElementById('frame_chatbox'), top = document.getElementById('chatbox_top'), frame;

  if (_userdata.user_level == 1) {
    top.style.display = 'block';
    fa_chat.onload = function() {
      if (fa_chat.contentDocument) frame = fa_chat.contentDocument;
      else frame = fa_chat.contentWindow.document;
      frame.body.style.display = 'block';
    };
  } else top.parentNode.style.display = 'none';
});

This will allow you to hide the chatbox from non-administrators, and show it for admins on the index. You wont be able to see the chatbox by going to the direct link unfortunately.

If you want to display the chatbox for both moderators and admins, replace _userdata.user_level == 1 by _userdata.user_level