Chat night- Please vote

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I've noticed that a few people have been asking about the chat room so thought that it might be an idea to organise a regular chat night. Obviously because we're all in different time zones it won't work having a set time, however if we have a set chat night there should be someone in chat for those who'd like to participate.

Can you please vote in this poll so we can see which night would be most popular??

Mel

EDIT: I'm locking this topic now since chat night is already running and the voting is over. Any comments about chat night can be made on the chat night sticky topic at the top of the forum

Last edited by Mel on 06 Feb 2005, 11:54 am, edited 3 times in total.

Saturday would be best for me, owing to the fact that my schedule is more flexible during the weekend than it is during the work week. Sunday would be less desirable because I have work the next day.

An additional thing to note is that since people in Europe are on a much earlier time schedule than people in North America are, "night" in Europe is generally during the middle of the work day for many North Americans. This would make weekdays a bit more difficult to manage than weekends, in my opinion.

another aspie website, a UK one, has a sticky on the forum where members can say they're going to be in the chatroom on a certain night. i've no idea how they set it up, and i'm not going to spam by giving the link here, but if it sounds like a good idea, i'll post the link (to someone who understands these computer things).

Good point Jay- that's why I didn't want to set a time for chat- so various people will be available for chat over a wider time frame so they should usually be someone in the chat room. Rather than it being like the more 'traditional' chat night when everyone all gets in chat at a set time, people will be joining chat at different times. I hope this makes some kind of sense.


Mel

If its the site I think it is they have removed that now- instead you can see from the front page who is in chat.

However you do have a good idea there- perhaps we could set up a sticky 'Any one want to chat?' thread.

Just a couple of tips for anyone who isn't familiar with IRC/chat applets etc...

The applet logs you in as an anonymous alias. To change your nick initially, enter in the text box /nick duncvis. (substitute whatever nick you want for duncvis obviously, lol) IRC commands should then work in the text input box.

You can also open a private window with another user by double clicking the username in the pane to the right of the main chat window, and clicking on their name box which appears next to the 'private' arrow, so you can switch between the main channel and the private message window.

any more tips, ask alex, or jilles on the channel is pretty helpful - I'm not that technical but theres the basics.

I will be watching the channel on and off when I am on the site, and mel too often - if you want to talk to either of us on site give us a shout on PM, or join the channel and whoever is logged in will check it shortly (usually)

dunc

Last edited by duncvis on 12 Jan 2005, 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can't seem to connect to the chatroom. It tells me this:

Connecting...
Unable to connect : java.net.ConnectException : Connection refused: connect

Is there a problem with the chat right now, or is it on my end? It's possible that my school's firewall is blocking it, but from what I've heard, other people around here have no trouble using IRC.

I've just been in chat Civet without any problems so it could be the firewall. I'm sure someone will be able to give you some help with this.

Thanks for checking it for me, Melvis.

Can anyone give me instructions on how to connect via MIRC? I'll check and see if that works any better.

I participate in a chats with people from Israel, UK and most other European countries (I am located in the US). We schedule our chats for 8:30 am on Sundays (PST). This seems to work out for all of us.

Tallgirl

Don't really know what to say, since my dinosaur of a computer won't let me access the chat...

Can't remember the exact instructions-- I use xchat rather than MIRC-- but the server name is irc.freenode.net and the channel is #wrongplanet... so you're going to have to add an entry for irc.freenode.net in the server list, if there isn't one already, and then type /join #wrongplanet in the server window once connected.

Incidentally, the programmers of xchat have decided to charge for their official Windows binaries, but there's an unofficial free Windows port available at silverex.org. Mac and Linux versions are, of course, free as always.

Last edited by codeman38 on 17 Jan 2005, 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

sounds spot on codeman - the same instructions apply for trillian.

dunc

Can I just ask that all those who have voted yet who are interested in chat please vote- I would like to get the first chat 'night' organised soon.


Also if you do come in chat be sure to say something otherwise my chat window won't flash and I won't know you are there.

Mel

Using mIRC, xchat, AmIRC or something similar to use the chatroom might be easier, especially if you have an older computer.

If you use Windows:

mIRC for Windows can be found on http://www.mirc.com/
As an alternative, you can use PIRCH, which can be found here. I cannot guarantee that these do not contain any spyware etc.

If you use Windows, OS/2, Linux, *BSD etc.:

You can use xchat, which you can find
here. xchat might require a more powerful computer than mIRC or PIRCH.
Also, Mozilla (not Firefox) comes with an IRC-client, which you can find on the small button-bar on the left bottom of the Mozilla-window. It's called Chatzilla.


Install the program in the normal way. Then, start it.
Many of these programs contains a list of IRC-servers, and gives you the possibility of entering your nickname. Doing the latter might be a good idea.
You can also add the details for the chatroom to the list, or you can connect directly - I'll show you how, in a minute.

Here are the details, for those who are interested:

Server: irc.freenode.net port: 6667
Channel: #wrongplanet

If you decide to connect "directly", ie. without adding things to the list in your IRC-client, here's how to do it:

Get a text-window (in the IRC-client). This can often be accomplished by connecting to any server. When you have the text-window in front of you, type:

/server irc.freenode.net:6667

Some time will pass. Hopefully, you will be connected.

Did you set your nickname? If you didn't, now might be a good time to do so. This can be accomplished by typing:

/nick YourNickHere

In my case, I would type "/nick Minus".

Finally, join the #wrongplanet-channel. You do this by typing

/join #wrongplanet

And you should be in. A new window pops up, with a list of the others that are there. Hopefully, there will be something happening in the chatroom.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks so much Minus for those comprehensive instructions

Mel