Old School #straightdope IRC Night July 9

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

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. :slight_smile: 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: Facebook Public Group | Facebook
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 –

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.

2

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

3

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?

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Yeah, I don’t see why not.

5

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.

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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.

7

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

8

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

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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.

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

11

Gawd-a-mighty! :eek:

Quite right.

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And…there’s nobody on. :frowning:

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

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

15

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

16

I would, but I hate you all.

17

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. :slight_smile:

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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?

19

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:

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

But I think i’ll be there :smiley: