chataclysm (noun)

a disconnect that results in a user losing all their chat channels
an addon which automatically repairs the damage caused by a chataclysmic event

source: The Medivh-Wrynn Common Dictionary (Revised Edition)

Many users suffer from a disconnect problem that tends to occur while logging in when switching between characters. After recovering from the disconnect, they will find (though maybe not notice for a while) that they are no longer in the chat channels that they had previously joined. Usually it is only custom chat channels that are lost, though sometimes server channels such as General will be lost as well. An added inconvienence from losing a chat channel is the loss of associations between channels and chat windows.

This addon attempts to fix this problem automatically for users. On log out, it will save the current list and index positions of the chat channels you belong to as well as which chat windows subscribe to each channel. On log in, after a short wait for the game to perform its normal duty of rejoining the user to their channels, the addon will run and ensure that the user is joined correctly to all the channels they were in before. Please note that this addon has no user inteface nor options to configure as they are not needed. It simply tries to make sure that what you have matches what you had.

This addon offers some advantages over using a macro to rejoin your channels:

Will restore the settings for which custom channels should or should not show in a given chat window
Will repair automatically; you don't have to remember to run something after reconnecting
If you wish to have different channel setups between characters, you need to waste additional macros for each. This addon stores all settings on a per character basis.
Handles adding channels to chosen index even if there are gaps. For example, say you belong to 7 channels which occupy the first 6 channel slots with the last one being your channel number 10. The addon will join, and then later leave, temporary channels so that the last channel is correctly put back into channel number 10 instead of 7.
Handles loss of capital only channels like Trade or Looking For Group when logging in outside of a capital zone. In this situation, the channel cannot be rejoined immediately. Instead the addon will create a placeholder channel to occupy the channel slot until the character eventually enters a zone where we are able to restore that channel.

The addon will run and ensure proper channel setup a couple of seconds after the game has finished automatically rejoining you to channels. This is the case where no channels or only custom channels were lost. In the rarer case where all channels, including server channels, are lost we will wait 10 seconds before deciding that its time to repair all channels. Part of that 10 seconds will be time you have to spend waiting on the blue bar; just be patient and the channels will get fixed soon enough.

While the addon is meant to just work automatically, there are a few commands for when things aren't working quite right.

/chataclysm backup: Creates a save of your current channels and which chat windows show them that is seperate from the automatic save point. To be used with the restore command.
/chataclysm restore: Copies the settings stored in the backup save point to current and runs the channel checker. Should something cause you lose not only your channels, but for Chataclysm to also save out that channelless state as your setup, then restoring from a backup save point will allow you to recover quickly.

Please report any bugs or issues by opening a ticket at http://www.wowace.com/addons/chataclysm/tickets/.

Chataclysm