I want to know… I would like to participate. If it is Opals IRC chat I tried that tonight… but it seemed so damned complicated, I worked on it, but I could never get to a freakin chat room. Can someone help me out here?
Well, you can download mIRC from cnet or another similar place, or;here’s how to get in using opal’s site. Type you prefered nickname in the nickname box. Change the channel from OpalCAM to '#straightdope" and hit connect. Viola!
I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. I’d love to try it out, if I had any idea where it is. 
http://fathom.org/teemingmillions/chat.adp
Wait for the chat window to download, click “yes” when the download completes, put your name in the top, click “connect” and you’ll be talking to all of us in no time. 