All right! Hey, in July we had a fun time with mIRC chat, so we have another Old School Chat night coming up on Friday, September 10.
Here’s the info for the upcoming Chat Night – Friday, September 10 – all Dopers are welcome. As a rough guideline, start time is 8 PM East Coast, 5 PM West Coast. Feel free to stay the whole night, or drop in when you can.
There is a Facebook event that we’ll use to send out a reminder, feel free to join:
There are also instructions about using mIRC at the Facebook Old School #straightdope group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121063237924252
If you don’t use Facebook, here’s the gist:
The chat client we use is mIRC, you can download it here –
DON’T FREAK OUT WHEN YOU FIRE UP MIRC, IT’S LIKE A WILD FLASHBACK TO THE MID 90s. REMAIN CALM.
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 or Demo here at the boards, or Facebook message us (we’re the administrators in the Facebook group linked to above), either prior to the event or during, if you are having trouble connecting.
I am calling out Jack Batty in the event he does a vanity search … Jack, your presence is requested at Old School #straightdope IRC Night on September 10. 
Questions that came up last time:
But can’t people chat whenever they want?
Yes, of course … these specific nights are organized so that folks can plan in advance, but anyone could check out chat at any time.
Why is it on a Friday night? Don’t you know people have social lives in the real world?
That’s mostly because I’m old and my days of staying up all night chatting on a work night are long gone! But we do get a good crowd and a lot of people pop in to say hi either before or after their Friday night plans. It’s all good.
Just like a real world Dopefest, this is an activity that has no relationship to the SDMB or the Chicago Reader.
