Any interest in having an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server for our own use? It'd be for ETS members only, and would concern itself with ETS-like topics. It would not be a replacement for this forum. I see it as a way to hold more dynamic conversations, and to go further off topic on occasion that we can here. It would in no way be associated with Equipped To Survive... I'd set it up, run it and probably call it something completely different to further distance it from ETS, but it'd be for us.


(Internet Relay Chat works sort of like AOL Instant Messanger, but you can talk to several people all at once.)

Interesting idea. Two questions:

1) Why set up a dedicated server? You could just set up a room on any IRC network and give out the password here.

2) Are there really enough people here to maintain an ongoing room?

Perhaps a better approach would be for Doug to add a chat module when/if he updates the site and software. I know this is straightforward with phpBB. I'm not sure about UBB.threads, but it likely supports this too.

Public or private, it won't matter to the group. It's just an address.

I have no idea if there are enough people to make this work. I know from checking "Who's online", that the same group of people tend to be on fairly often, and at the same times. I've had replies to posts within minutes of hitting the submit button, then replied to the replies. This starts to look like a conversation. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As far as the chat module... One advantage a non-ETS IRC channel would have is that we could continue interesting discussions without the need to worry about who's watching. Think of it as an ETS underground, or maybe a back room.

Well one thing that ETS prouds itself in is that we kind of keep on topic. No bad language, no flame wars about donkeys and elephants and for 99.999% of the time we are being civilized. This is especially important since Doug web site is children friendly. It's hard to control the chat room. You can modify the post but you cant modify instant message. Also sometimes when you sleep over an idea and cool down a follow up post comes up much nicer than the original thought. Groo's idea to create something outside ETS for us to chat is an excellent one. This way Doug doesnt have to worry about somebody flying off the handle and saying stupid stuff that may be rated R. I personally list my Instant Messanger screen name as a form of contact and got asked some questions that way many times.

That's a good point about keeping it separate from ETS, particularly because ETS is part of a real foundation and not just an enthusiast website. I'd be game to try it out if groo wants to set up an IRC room and an op bot and maybe even a private server.

And if people use Trillian, IRC really is just like a group IM.

It's just a matter of agreeing on a server to host the channel and make an #equipped channel somewhere. Most serious IRC servers have bots and some security to avoid channel takeovers and stuff like that.

Doesn't matter if it's public or private to me, either. Can you recommend a public server?

I have no experience with Windows and IRC... is there a good windows client?

MIRC is the only decent Windows client that I know of but it may not be suited for the less experienced. There are probably clients that are easier to use if you aren't doing stuff like DCC etc.

For casual use, Trillian, which is like a kitchen-sink IM program, might be the easiest to use as it has IRC built-in.

I looked around for a few minutes earlier to see if there are any more modern approaches than IRC, like some kind of IM based chatroom, but surprisingly I didn't come up with anything.

For a variety of security and liability reasons, ETS will not be adding Chat to the site. Even the Private Message function opens is up to issues, but since we started out with it early on, its been decided to keep it unless it is abused. So, if you want to do this, you'll need to do is completely divorced from ETS.

Philosophically, I am not a fan of Chat or IM for the purposes of exchanging information on the topics we discuss here. Personal and private issues are another matter. We have many more lurkers than we do active participants, as is the case with most such forums. These lurkers benefit greatly from the many great discussions that this community engages in and that is lost when discussions go private. Inevitably some will and that potentially very important information will never see the light of day where it can help others.

Just something to keep in mind.