Chat room for MDb users: IRC channel

[Naner]

Some of you already know what this is about, but since we're having many new users lately, well... I just have to explain.

Last year, MDb user Silver Skree created an IRC channel, #mdb, so that MDb users could chat. The place was fun, and we normally had from 6 to 10 users posting. Then, Skree got into a fight with Infinity's End and sharonlover, and everything went down the hole.

Now the place is dead, being managed by people who don't even access the MDb (with the exception of Mental). Only Reconite, myself, and an eventual lurker show up there. So I create this thread with the intention of giving new life to the channel!

So, for those of you who have no idea on how to get into it, here's how:

1- Download an IRC client. I recommend Chatzilla (an add-on for Firefox), mIRC, or XChat 2 (these last two are standalone programs).

2- Once you've downloaded and set up the client, it's time to get in the channel:

ChatZilla
Simply type irc://irc.esper.net/mdb in Firefox's navigation bar.

mIRC
When you open mIRC, a window will pop up for you to set it up. Type in your name, e-mail and nicknames. Now, click on "Servers" on the list to your left. Find EsperNet in that huge list, double-click it, click "Random Server" and click the "Select" button. A small window will ask you for a channel name. You can type in #mdb there, but, if you click "Add", type #mdb and choose "join on connect", you'll get rid of this task on future uses.

XChat 2
The first thing that will pop when you open it is a servers window. So you have to set up esper.net for it. Click "add", name the new channel irc.esper.net, hit enter and then click edit. In "servers for irc.esper.net", add one named irc.esper.net/6667. Choose any favorite channels you want (like #mdb), type in your nickserv (more on that in the channel) password and click "Close". Now just choose nicknames and connect.

*You can choose more than one nick so that, in the case of there being another user with the same name, you use your second option.

3- Now, you can chat!

I don't think I'll post any rules, since I think they are pretty obvious... Just don't be an useless douche.

There are still things to be resolved about the channel, but having some activity will really help.

As for old IRC users, I don't want #mdb to end up like #sr388 or #metconst, with all those useless ops. But this is a discussion for another time.


Thanks for the attention, and I hope we'll have fun conversations soon!

PS: Infinity's End, I PMed CapCom and he authorized this. Don't kill me.

[Lazarius]

It will be nice to have this up and running again, it was pretty fun.

For you Mac users, Colloquy is what I use, it takes about 2 seconds to set up.

[Reconite]

It'll be good to see this up and running again.

Hope it doesn't hit face in the dirt like last time.

[mental]

Well, it never really stopped running. We just haven't had many visitors from the board for a while.

[Reconite]

By "running" I mean the advertising process. We could never get anyone in to there without the thread. The channel has always been there, no matter if it was empty or not.

[Naner]

I seriously hope I (or anyone else) won't give the admins a good reason to blow this up this time, so I'm pretty confident it'll live now.

[Jesse D]

We removed the last thread because it festered into a spam can and childish flame wars. To prevent that from happening again, I'm going to make an official statement on behalf of the MDb. Cap and Inf may supplement this as they wish.

The #mdb channel is unofficial, unaffiliated and unmoderated by MDb staff.
While I do drop by from time to time, I don't have any involvement with the function of the channel.

Don't copy/paste conversations from IRC into this thread.
Don't perpetuate conversations from IRC into this thread, especially personal disputes. One flame war and this thread will be removed. Leave personal conversations to some form of private messaging. If there is an interesting topic that would make for great discussion on this forum, you may by all means make a new thread in the appropriate subforum.

Reserve this thread for information about the IRC channel, and how to access it.
Troubleshooting issues or inquiries about the channel itself may be posted here, but let's try to leave it at that.

[sharonlover]

good points JD

glad to see it's still been around, I've had some decent conversations there, just haven't had the time lately to visit.

[CapCom]

Thanks, JD. Yeah, IRC is something that kind of spawned from MDb users. It's never really had anything to do with the admins. I think it's a good place for people to chat up more, but please, keep your complaints out of the board. Squabbles and flame wars there should be under the care of whoever mods the IRC channel, not our problem.

[Silver Skree]

I'm glad to see this was brought back, and as a proper sticky thread, too. Also, I apologize for throwing a fit back then over the old chan/thread. Here's hoping this iteration has a longer lifespan.

Personally, I don't think I'll be dropping by much. The whole thing is kinda embarrassing at this point.

[Outlaw]

I only pop in to see who is there. It is mostly dead, so I just leave after a minute.

[Darren]

I myself have visited the chat a few times recently and i've had no reply at all from the few users that are there. It used to be a lot more active. I personally feel a chatroom takes productivity from a forum, because most of the discussion takes place in the chatroom. This is one of the reasons I didn't include one on my website.

To talk to more people instantly though, I think it's a good thing if managed correctly. There are a couple of chatrooms on skype that are used often with members from MDB, I wish they'd merge together to form one larger chat, it'd be quite active then.