Old School #straightdope IRC Night July 9

[delphica]

A while back, Sampiro started a thread about virtual dopefests. Way back in the day, Dopers used to have quite an active IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel, and every now and again the chat crowd gets back together, and kicks it old school for the night.

Here's the info for the upcoming Chat Night -- Friday, July 9 -- it would be awesome to see people who used to chat often, as well as new folks who would like to jump on in. :) It's really fun and only somewhat scatological. I think we're saying start time is 8 PM East Coast, 5 PM West Coast ... but it's pretty casual so come whenever. End time is determined by the last man standing.

We have a Facebook group, which might be the easiest way to get reminders and info: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121063237924252
So please join!

If you don't use Facebook, here's the gist:

The chat client we use is mIRC, you can download it here --
http://www.mirc.com/

It's important that you use the correct server, Undernet, and the correct channel, #straightdope

If you have never used IRC before, or if it's been too long, here's a quick way to connect:

Download and install mIRC. Open up mIRC - hit "continue" if the register box pops up -expand 'connect' in the left menu - put in your nick in the tabs there, spoofing email is ok - click on 'Servers' -find the 'Undernet' folder and click on it and choose the closest server to you in the list - click back on the 'Connect' tab and hit... 'Connect' - wait to fully connect and then type in "/join #straightdope" (no quotes). You should be in the channel.

If you want more detailed instructions for getting mIRC and joining the chat, you can PM me here, or if you join the Facebook group, I'm one of the administrators (the Lady Administrator, if that wasn't obvious) and you can Facebook message me as well.

Just like a real world Dopefest, this is a grassroots activity that has no relationship to the SDMB or the Chicago Reader.

[tr0psn4j]

I'll hop on if I don't forget about it.

[Covered_In_Bees!]

Does it really need to be in more than a week? Can't someone just create that room on a nightly basis and just steadily build up the amount of people that visit?

[tr0psn4j]

Does it really need to be in more than a week? Can't someone just create that room on a nightly basis and just steadily build up the amount of people that visit?

Yeah, I don't see why not.

[delphica]

Oh yeah, totally. People can chat whenever they want, go for it.

The July 9 date is a night that was scheduled so that we know we'll have a critical mass of folks.

[Demo]

Does it really need to be in more than a week? Can't someone just create that room on a nightly basis and just steadily build up the amount of people that visit?

Yeah, back in the day it was hard to enter #straightdope any time, any day and not see anyone in it. Over the years it ended up dying off but there's no reason it couldn't be like that again.

Also feel free to IM me if you run into any troubles connecting. I think all of my IM info is in my profile.

[Smeghead]

I'll be there...in spirit. Life's too busy for me these days.

[NinetyWt]

Man. Last time I was in #straightdope was way before BrianJedi got married. Aesiron was just out of high school. Smeghead was ... nevermind. :p

[Ephemera]

Well, relatively speaking. I was 21 or 22 around then, I think. I'll be 29(!!) in six months, though, so it has been a damn long time.

Of course, we're not even the real old-timers. delphica, Demo, and their group predate us by a couple years.

[Smeghead]

I remember the first time I dropped by was when Wally "died". There was a thriving community already there.

[NinetyWt]

I'll be 29(!!) in six months, though, so it has been a damn long time.

Gawd-a-mighty! :eek:

Of course, we're not even the real old-timers. delphica, Demo, and their group predate us by a couple years.
Quite right.

[Ogre]

And...there's nobody on. :(

[tr0psn4j]

And...there's nobody on. :(

I can't connect to udnernet at the moment. I was idling there though.

[Demo]

I remember the first time I dropped by was when Wally "died". There was a thriving community already there.

Ahahahaha, he went there! :) It's gonna be a good time, come ON Smeggy!

[delphica]

Of course, we're not even the real old-timers. delphica, Demo, and their group predate us by a couple years.

Old-timers? I feel faint. And ancient. :D

[Kyla]

I would, but I hate you all.

[psycat90]

I'll be trotting around Portland with jjtm ('member him? ;)) and friends, but I might borrow Demo's laptop so we can pop in and say hi and hand out a few trout slaps. :-)

[kopek]

OK - tech question that probably belongs elsewhere. I'm running OS X 10.4.11 and the download site says its for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2k/XP/Vista --------- suggestions?

[Ogre]

Hmmm, I had it idling all night, only to check in this morning and find out that Demo and tr0psn4j had been plotting my murder! :eek:

[Frodo]

July 9 is INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!111 one eleven.

But I think i'll be there :D

[Demo]

kopek, you might try X-Chat. I hear that is a good Mac IRC client. http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchataqua/

Ogre: Muwahahaha!

[tr0psn4j]

Hmmm, I had it idling all night, only to check in this morning and find out that Demo and tr0psn4j had been plotting my murder! :eek:

You weren't supposed to find out...







YET! :cool:

[Ephemera]

I was drunk enough to download mIRC again and figured it out, even in my alcoholic fugue, but it seems no one is there at the moment.

[Oslo Ostragoth]

I *think* I have it set up. I'll leave it connected tonight if anyone wants to check on me.

[FloatyGimpy]

I made it in! Wow, it's been so long since I've used irc.

[tumbleddown]

No one's chatting on a holiday's eve, it seems. It is rather late, I suppose. Oh well. I shall try again!

[Autolycus]

Not to be a total Negative Nancy, but I work Fridays. Even if I wasn't working, I'd be out on a Friday night with friends from Meatspace. I love y'all dopers more than you know, but I would not sacrifice a night out with friends in order to chat about kittens and poop with y'all on IRC. I've been there, done that haha.

It's probably too late, but I highly recommend changing it to a weekday where the more social among us will have less going on, and perhaps everyone can join in.

[AHunter3]

Generically "the evening of 7/9", or did someone ever set a time?

[imthjckaz]

The past few times we had Old School #straightdope IRC Night people just popped in whenever, but usually in the evening when some of us had our drink on.

[Tripler]

Daggum! I used to hop on #straightdope a lot. . . it was in the pre-Facebook years, back when North Dakota only had dial up Internet access (I think they're still stuck there).

If I'm around, I will.

Tripler
. . . should be here, though.

[Cat Whisperer]

I was on straightdope chat once. For about twenty minutes. It was quite a while ago.

[Cat Whisperer]

kopek, you might try X-Chat. I hear that is a good Mac IRC client. http://sourceforge.net/projects/xchataqua/

Ogre: Muwahahaha!
This seems to have worked. I'm in there now, but no one is talking to me. :(

[delphica]

Generically "the evening of 7/9", or did someone ever set a time?

8 PM East Coast, 5 PM West Coast is the general guideline, but consider it a drop-in sort of thing. :)

[Arnold Winkelried]

OK - tech question that probably belongs elsewhere. I'm running OS X 10.4.11 and the download site says its for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2k/XP/Vista --------- suggestions?
http://irchelp.org/irchelp/mac/

[Silver Tyger]

I'll be there if I remember.

I used to have fun with other Thundercats fans chatting as two or three people at once.

[bouv]

Ahhh, #straightdope...I think most of my time spent there was my last couple years of college and my first couple years out of school at a "real job." (2002-2006.)

I'm fairly certain all I ever did was bitch about girls, my job, and where I lived...life of the party over here! :D

[Jophiel]

Memories... in the corner of my mind...

[Demo]

JvO?

[voguevixen]

Memories... in the corner of my mind...Same here. I just tried to log on and got needlessly flummoxed. I got as far as finding the undernet then got lost. :/

[MamaHen]

Wow, all the hours I spent in #straightdope. Yeah, I'll be there, some things you just can't get enough of. Being taunted by all of you is about 100 of them.

[Drain Bead]

Pretty sure I and my meatflaps can make it.

[needscoffee]

I tried getting on a few nights ago. It took forever for Undernet to let me in, and then after about 8 minutes it kicked me out and wouldn't let me back in... I know when I'm not wanted.

[Number]

You shouldn't anthropomorphize the servers.

They don't like it.

[Rasa]

Can we find that guy in #pantyhackers that used to take Maeglin's name?

I can't make it most likely but have fun! I'll try to stop in sometime.

[Maeglin]

Can we find that guy in #pantyhackers that used to take Maeglin's name?

I can't make it most likely but have fun! I'll try to stop in sometime.

Hot damn, I had completely forgotten about that. Now it's making me angry all over again and it's been what, eight years? Nine?

[psycat90]

Well I won't need to lug the laptop around after all.

Because we are nothing if not complete dorks, Demo and I just sat on the couch for 10 minutes and played around in IRC on our (Android) phones. And...it worked like a charm.

So, I'll pop in to say hi for a few minutes from whatever pub I happen to be in. And now we know we're good for an IRC chat should the zombie apocalypse fall upon us and render our computers useless somehow.

[Cat Whisperer]

I'm going out later, so I'm in chat now. Hi everybody! :)

[AHunter3]

Warmup phase:

Tcl interface loaded
--- Looking up eu.undernet.org..
--- Connecting to eu.undernet.org (82.196.213.250) port 6667..
--- Connection failed. Error: Invalid argument
Cycling to next server in UnderNet...
--- Disconnected ().
--- Looking up us.undernet.org..
--- Connecting to us.undernet.org (66.186.59.50) port 6667..


If I have to reset my server list, I will. I got time :)

[Rasa]

Hot damn, I had completely forgotten about that. Now it's making me angry all over again and it's been what, eight years? Nine?

Quote of the night, when I brought the above up in chat:

(08:33:04 PM) Demo-: Didn't he become a firefighter? That was probably like 17 years ago though.

HAHAHAHA. Firefighter. Maeglin. HAHAHAHAHA!

[NinetyWt]

Hey! That's today!

[delphica]

Not only today, but RIGHT NOW. :D

[NinetyWt]

Yeah, like an idiot I went to newnet first. :smack:

[Silver Fire]

I always forget about these things until it's so late that it's mostly just west coast dopers and, really, fuck them.

Sigh.

(Kidding, nothing but love.)

[MeanOldLady]

Oh shit, this is now. Okay, when did I get so old, and how come I can't figure out these here interwebs?

[Electric Warrior]

Smork smork smork

[Autolycus]

Oh.... I'm back from work now. Let me try to load it up. What floppy disk do I use again?

[MeanOldLady]

I figured it out, but no one will talk to me. Do I smell bad, guys? It's okay. Be honest.

[needscoffee]

I figured it out, but no one will talk to me. Do I smell bad, guys? It's okay. Be honest.I don't see you in there. Do you see me?

[Jophiel]

JvO?
Hahahahaha....

Hooo boy. Way to take me back.

[MeanOldLady]

I don't see you in there. Do you see me?Maybe I didn't figure it out? Maybe I should change my name to something more recognizable? I'm melbatoast?

[Autolycus]

I don't see you in there. Do you see me?

How many people are there now?

[needscoffee]

I see:
Demo
Hamadryad
Janis
JavaMama
Kricket
Kyla
needscoffee
Pettirossa
rasa
SDkushiel
seadiver
slvrfire
Uumblie
zyzzyva

I don't see melbatoast.

[Autolycus]

Quite a few people, zomg. Can't even remember if I have IRC installed on this laptop, but I'll start the process soon.

[needscoffee]

melbatoast just got "automatically banned for excessive connections" ???

[Silver Fire]

Yeah, no shit she wasn't doing it right. Sorry, melba! Maybe just keep your name if you ever come back? :/

[MeanOldLady]

Yeah, I'm a spammer or something... I guess?

[Silver Fire]

Oh WOW I am an ass. It's /nick not /name.

Sorry. Fifteen other people there you would think somebody would have caught that.

[Autolycus]

IRC is a harsh mistress. Make a new name and try again. I'd offer to help but I'm only a smidge away from a total newb.

[MeanOldLady]

I tried again as my SDMB user name, and it said the same thing.

[Maeglin]

Quote of the night, when I brought the above up in chat:

(08:33:04 PM) Demo-: Didn't he become a firefighter? That was probably like 17 years ago though.

HAHAHAHA. Firefighter. Maeglin. HAHAHAHAHA!

A firefighter. Moi. Can you imagine? :)

[Rasa]

A firefighter. Moi. Can you imagine? :)

I can try to imagine, Maeglin. And it's just as funny today as it was last night!

[delphica]

You guys, chat was rocking! So many people came in over the course of the night, it was terrific to see everyone, especially meeting new folks. I'm only sorry I missed the later arrivals and late night West Coasters. Oh, and the lack of ops, I think there was a misunderstanding about the etiquette of that, so I apologize.

I hope there is interest in continuing to chat whenever the mood strikes, and I also think having a designated time works for periodic large groups, so we'll plan to do this again in the future!

[Wicked Blue]

Tried to pop in, but when I got there it looked like I was the only one in the room. Did any of you guys see me come in? Maybe next time!

[GaWd]

Wow. My first visit to this site in like 6 years and all the old timers are in the same place they were when I left!

lol

[Francesca]

Goddamnit, I missed all the fun.

~~~~~~~

[Rasa]

I think Francesca just called us all gay.

(It WAS chat where that started, right? That tilde = gay?)

[Silver Fire]

Doob's GAY??

[Smeghead]

Ten point five!!!!!!!!

ETA: That was supposed to be all caps. Stupid software.

[AClockworkMelon]

Wait, I can troll you talk to you guys in real time?

:D

[Silver Fire]

Greatest made for TV movie EVER.

Just popped in to chat. Nobody there, except Number who I suspect is idle. OH SIGH.

Hmm... can't all caps title lines either. Stupid boards.

[Rasa]

I'd been idling there too till I rebooted and forgot to log back in--I don't get a notification if someone joins the channel but if you join and talk I'll see it flash if I'm there and will say hi back!

[Oslo Ostragoth]

I wanted to pop in, but my Friday nights are rededicated to SYFY with new episodes of Eureka and Haven.

Plus I don't have a clue about how IRC works/used to work. I did get it set up so I can get into the chat, though.