chat?

is chat down? I went to the chat applet page on Fathom, but it couldn’t connect to server. I downloaded mIRC, but nobody is in #straightdope.

Have I misspelled or miscapitalized the chat name? Do I have to screw around with settings in mIRC? Is it simply that nobody’s chatting? or is the whole thing fucked?

what’s up with that?

jb

First off, are you connecting to an Undernet server? There’s a lot of servers on IRC that aren’t necessarily Undernet. From your mIRC window, try typing the following:

/server baltimore.md.us.undernet.org

Then:

/j straightdope

If you don’t see anything here, there could be a netsplit (a problem resulting in the Baltimore server being split off from the rest of Undernet). If you see that, you can try some of these servers (all preceded by the /server command):

mclean.va.us.undernet.org
dallas.tx.us.undernet.org
atlanta.ga.us.undernet.org
sandiego.ca.us.undernet.org
santaclara.ca.us.undernet.org

There are many servers, and there’s not much difference between them as long as you’re not in a split (there is lag, but you’ll learn about that later). Also, the #straightdope channel tends to be busiest in the evenings, so it might just be dead when you get there. The bots (3 of them) should still be there though at any time.

zyzzyva, I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but you are da BOMB!
jb