IRC Chat

[RoyGBiv]

Would there be in any interest in setting up an IRC Chat room for members of the BOG to meet and chat occasionally?

I still use IRC a lot. It's a convenient way to set up a "place" where people can go and talk about various things. I confess one reason I'm suggesting this is Graywarrior's decision to leave DU. I would like to think there's a convenient method of staying in touch available for us should more decide to take this course. Also, it could provide a place to vent frustrations, discuss things we can't or shouldn't discuss here, or even converse about non-political things among like-minded individuals.

If any of y'all remember Kleebster, he had an IRC room going for quite awhile that a bunch of Lounge regulars would use occasionally, and at various times, such as during the Presidential debates, temporary rooms were established so those who wanted to do so could chat about the debates in real time.

Reply here with interest, non-interest, complaints, questions, or a good recipe for stew. (I need to try a new kind of stew, I think.) Details would have to be worked out, and we'd need a method of restricting access to prevent intrusion by those who like to monitor us for no good reason, but I have some ideas for that as well I'll reveal later if there is any interest at all.

[Cha]

1. I've never done a

a chat room but I'm guessing..IRC stands for Internet Room Chat?

Anyway, I'd be up for that with BOGsters..sounds like a good idea. We don't just want to disappear..someone can tell graywarrior through facebook.:)

[RoyGBiv]

2. Internet Relay Chat, actually ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat

Don't bother reading all that unless you're just interested. That article goes into a lot of technical details. For all intents and purposes, yes, it's a chat room.

If you use Firefox, there's even an extension you can install called Chatzilla that allows easy access. There are also tons of other programs/clients that make access easy.

It's one of the oldest parts of the Internet. If you've never used it, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but it's not hard. My mom figured it out pretty quickly when she discovered there was an IRC room for collectible dolls. :) If there's enough interest, I'll provide a quick and dirty primer on getting set up.

The Oil Drum has an IRC room that I've been following for about a week now. Lots of good info in there.

[Cha]

3. Thanks..I'm interested.

anything new on the internet does take a little getting use to for me..old dawg and new tricks kinda thing but it turns out you can teach us.:)

That's what it's going to take though..lots of interest.

Thanks for the link, BIV.

[Born_A_Truman]

4. We had a great time during the debates on IRC

I haven't DL's mIRC since I got my new laptop. I hope I can remember my login.

[Number23]

5. Roy, you're one of my favorite posters here

And I'd love to participate but considering I'm 15 hours and some change ahead of EST I don't see how I can participate really.

You guys do what you need to do and I'll just try to keep up. I sincerely hope that no one else leaves but I know the likelihood of that is very small considering the climate here.

[Cha]

8. How is Austrailia for you,

23? My son-in-law is from Melbourne living in Portland, Ore with my daughter and their kids. They do go visit his family and his sister last summer in New Zealand.B-)

[Number23]

9. It's going just fine, my sweet Cha

Chilly and rainy. First day of winter was last week and the only time it rains here is in winter, pretty much. We've been spending a fortune on firewood and my three year old has had the sniffles for what feels like forever.

Melbourne is fabulous. I highly recommend you accompanying your daughter and son in law the next time they go visit!

[Cha]

10. Good to know! I want to make

that trip someday from the shores of Kauai..a very worthy goal.

[RoyGBiv]

12. That's the beauty of it though ...

What I'm proposing is keeping this thing open 24/7 as long as people occasionally wander through and having it serve as a "place" people can go if they want and chat if anyone else happens to be there. Considering that we do have people who frequent the BOG at all times of day or night, there's at least the potential that you'll run across someone. Hell, given how screwed up my sleep schedule's been lately, I'm probably closer to being on Australia time than Oklahoma time. :)

I should also admit that to some extent this is a personal "geek" project. I do this. I get these ideas in my head and want to play around with the technical part of it. I've been working on an IRC robot for a few days, and if all goes according to plan, the robot would sit in the channel 24/7 and keep it open unless I had to reboot my computer or the electricity/Internet went out temporarily. 'Course, the robot doesn't make for a good conversationalist, but that's not its purpose. It's main purpose is to automate the process of protecting the channel from people who would try to attack it in some way.

I have three IRC channels I visit frequently. I stay connected to them almost all the time and just start participating when I feel like it.

I guess what I'm saying in my typical long-winded way is that it's sort of an open-ended deal. It'd be there if anyone wanted to use it. We *could* set up specific times for live chats during special events or something, but that wouldn't be the main purpose.

As for people leaving, that's another of the proposed purposes -- providing a pressure relief valve when things go all wonky around here by providing a place where we all know we're pretty much on the same page and can rant about it at each other without having to censor ourselves.

I clearly have too much time on my hands. :)

[Number23]

16. Wow, Roy. You're like King Techie!

I know alot of this stuff because of my work but you put me to shame! A robot??! Work it, Roy! :)

Like I said, you guys do what you have to do and I'll try to keep up. I do think that DU is getting a bit more serious with the disruptors. In the last few days/weeks, alot of major assholes have gotten the boot or long overdue suspensions.

[sandnsea]

6. I just hooked up with Kleeb on facebook

He is doing so well, it really was a kick to find him. I hooked up with graywarrior too. So that's an option.

I've never used IRC because chat rooms go too fast for me, usually.

Mom's Easy Vegetable Soup

Boil 2 lbs beef stew meat for an hour. Drain off all of that icky water. Fill a 5 qt dutch oven about 1/3 full of water. But stew meat back in, simmer with 3 bay leaves, onions and small baby carrots. A little while later, add diced potatoes.

About a half hour later add, (rinse extra salt off)

1 can kidney beans
1 can butter beans
1 can lima beans
1 can green beans
1 large can whole skinned tomatoes, (maybe 2)

Salt and Pepper to taste.

I love this soup. It's not all fresh and organic, but it is still so dang good. I can get the exact measurements if you want, but it goes together pretty easily.

I've also got a forum here that I never have time to do anything with, but ning is going to be pay pretty soon, so I'll have to put in a different forum before it's usable.
http://potshotpolitics.com/

[Cha]

7. Kleeb the Kerry supporter..you too. :)

I was a Deaniac.:)

[RoyGBiv]

13. Mmmmm ...

I will be having that this weekend. Sounds yummy. Thank you. :)

[treestar]

11. Sure

Especially with all the forbidden topics and locks here! And people who leave because they are sick of it could come into it!

[RoyGBiv]

14. Okay, here's the deal ...

As mentioned up-thread, part of the reason I'm wanting to do this is that it's a personal project satisfying my inner-geek.

So, I'm going to go ahead and set up the room and will provide info on it in a couple days, once I've worked out some kinks and make sure it's not going to blow up in my face.

The group will be flagged as "secret" which simply means it doesn't show up in a raw channel listing, and to some extent access will be limited, but we'd have to work out the details on that later. The safest thing to do is require anyone who wants in to send me a PM, but that might be too restrictive. Anyway ... just letting you know.

And if I just end up in there talk to my bot, that's fine too. :)

[Cha]

15. Sounds like a plan.

:)

[goclark]

18. I'd love to do it

but I would be new to the experience.
I'd love to stay in touch with everyone here.

[Peacetrain]

17. Me too!!!!

:)

[angee_is_mad]

19. interested

count me in.

[RoyGBiv]

20. Okay, it's open ...

I'll try to be in the channel as much as possible over the next couple days. My human nickname is OldPete. RoyGBiv is a robot. If I seem to be there but do not respond, I have left my desk for awhile but will be back eventually. The RoyGBiv bot should be there at all times unless my computer goes down for some reason or the Internet takes a dump.

The channel's name is #thebog. I chose to put it on EFnet because that network provides a web-based access portal that addresses the concern some have of being able to connect easily. (If that sounds like Greek, don't worry about it.) I don't think this is necessarily the best way to connect, but using it prevents you from having to learn anything really new for the time being.

I assume participation will be low to nonexistent for a time, so if you find yourself the only person in there when you join, don't be surprised. You could either try to come back later or just hang out for awhile and see if anyone shows up. I tend to stay logged in to IRC channels I frequent pretty much all the time and just participate when I feel like it

I set up a small webpage with detailed instructions on how to connect at www.bdhamp.com/thebog

The first section shows you how to use the webchat. The second section shows you how to set up a dedicated OpenSource client called XChat. Either is fine.

If this experiment turns out to be without purpose, that's fine too. It was fun setting it up.

Finally, a note to would be disruptive influences. I implore you not to bother. Anyone is welcome, but I set this up in the spirit of community and will, one time, politely ask that you not turn this into a game. Kick/bans, reports to IRCops resulting in klines, or just shutting it down altogether and establishing it in another format would cause me no irritation at all and are simple to accomplish.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me here or e-mail me at the channel's admin address: [e-mail].

[Cha]

21. Thanks again, Biv..I had fun getting

in and live chattin' as per your detailed instructions.

[RoyGBiv]

22. Speaking of detailed instructions ...

Here's the punchline.

Yesterday afternoon, I realized there's an even easier way to connect via the webchat interface.

Just follow this link:

http://chat.efnet.org/irc.cgi?chan=%23thebog

Put in your nickname and press the Login button.

On another note, if the person who was in there about 9am this morning (central time, June 11) is reading this, please contact me either by stopping by again or e-mailing [e-mail]. I'm sorry I missed you.

[yowzayowzayowza]

23. Jus gave ya a ping.

:hi:

[azmouse]

24. I have a question.

When I clicked on your link above, a "noob" nickname was there.
Should I delete that and put in the name I want to use? thx

[RoyGBiv]

25. Yes ...

That's just the default. It uses n00b and then some random numbers.

Just put in what you want. It will only accept 9 characters. You can put more, but they'll be cut off.

Just to let you know, nicknames on IRC (at least on the EFnet network) are not reserved, so it's not like you're creating an account ... just picking whatever nickname you want for the moment.

[Cha]

27. Oh, I get it

now..the next time I could be more creative! :)

[Born_A_Truman]

28. Yeah, I went in and it called me

Born_A_Tr

:rofl:

[Cha]

29. True rebel..

:)

[Cha]

26. Thanks for all

you're doing on this, Biv..I'll try that the next time.

[Number23]

30. Just tried it for the first time today. Thanks for setting this up!

Seems easy enough to use. The only downside is that as I expected, there was no one there when I went in. :(

[RoyGBiv]

31. Well, that's common ...

No one is ever there. :)

First couple days people were dropping by one at a time. It was weird. One would be there, say hello, then right after they left, there'd be another one ... then another. Never more than me at that one other person though.

And then I had some crap happen that took me away from the computer for a couple days, and the only "person" there was the robot complaining about how I'd abandoned him.

As I said initially, I'm just going to leave it up and running, and if it's ever needed for anything, it'll be there. I keep myself logged into it most of the time (under OldPete, FWIW), but am not always sitting at the computer. The robot occasionally spits out headlines from Googlenews and the White House blog. You can force that to happen by typing:

!gnews

-or-

!whitehouse

and sending it to the channel. It'll cause the robot to pull the top three stories right then and echo them in the channel.

Anywhoo ... glad it worked for ya.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

32. I'll try and keep an eye out for you

Since I live in Australia too, we should be operating under the same time frame

[Number23]

34. hey!

Fellow (sorta) Aussie! :hi:

[Cha]

39. So much fun! Thanks again, RoyG.

:)

[RoyGBiv]

40. Tango Epsilon ...

I repeat. Tango Epsilon.

[Cha]

42. Roger

that. :)

[TicketyBoo]

33. Well, I was there for a moment today

just to see if I could get there. Wound up talking to myself, of course. I have quite a bit of practice doing that IRL, so no biggie.

What happened to graywarrior? (I'll be searching to see if I can find out, but thought it may be easier just to ask?)

[RoyGBiv]

36. I talked to you for awhile ...

You were away, so I was just talking to myself also.

The idea didn't go over well, it seems. A lot of people have stopped by, and I've managed to catch a few, but most everyone logs out really quickly, which lessens chances of people ended up there at the same time. I've sorta stopped monitoring it myself. The bot is still hanging out though. He seems to like the place. :)

[treestar]

37. Would leaving it open and checking periodically work?

Other than that, we'd have to set a time!

[RoyGBiv]

38. That's the way IRC generally works ...

Most of the channels I hang out in have hundreds of people in them at all times, but only a few actually talking.

[Tarheel_Dem]

35. Bookmarking. I didn't know about graywarrior. That makes me sad.

There are some others I've wondered about, and just figured they were tired of the constant bashing. BooinBloo, Oldandintheway, Jackeens; just to name a few. I'd really like to know what became of them.

[HipChick]

41. Giving up and leaving just leave a space to the Naysayers..