FAQ about AW IRC Chat Channel (How to get there, who the operators are, etc.)

[MacAllister]

How to get into the AW Chat Room

The AW chat room is located here,


To enter the chat room from that link: http://www.starchat.net/chat/?chan=Absolutewrite

• Click on the link!
• Next to Nick, enter your AW userid (or the id you want to use in the chat room).
• Next to Please Enter the Name of the Room you want to go to, type absolutewrite (this should now already say this)
• Next to Channel/Room Key you don't have to write anything as there is no password for the main chat
• Click Connect to StarChat

From an IRC:

• Open your IRC.
• Type /join #absolutewrite
• Press enter. This should open up the chat room we will be using.
• If necessary, change your nick to your AW userid. (you can do this by typing /nick name-you-want-to-use so if you want it to be Bob, type: /nick Bob

In ChatZilla Type: /server irc.starchat.net

(if prompted for password for your id, enter your chat (nick) password)

Then type: /join #absolutewrite


Here are some helpful chat hints.

(We'll likely be copying some of that information over here, soonish.)

The room is open whenever there's an available Chat Op to moderate. Because of reported problems when the room isn't moderated, we no longer leave the room open when there's no available chat mod.

Watch this space for more information, and if you have suggestions for events, regularly scheduled writing-related exercises or other ideas for the IRC live chat, get involved, start a thread, and share what you're thinking!



How to get into the AW Crit Circle Chat Room

To enter the chat room from this link: http://www.starchat.net/chat/?chan=AWCritCircle .

• Click on the link!
• Next to Nick, enter your AW userid (or the id you want to use in the chat room).
• Next to Please Enter the Name of the Room you want to go to, type AWCritCircle (I've changed the link above so it should now already say this)
• Next to Channel/Room Key (optional) type birolsangels.
• Click Connect to StarChat

From an IRC:

• Open your IRC.
• Type /join #awcritcircle birolsangels
• Press enter. This should open up the chat room we will be using.
• If necessary, change your nick to your AW userid.

In ChatZilla Type: /server irc.starchat.net

(if prompted for password for your id, enter your chat (nick) password)

Then type: /join #AWCritCircle Birolsangels


Please note: If you spell the rooms incorrectly it will dump you in a newly created room all of your own. So check your spelling
.

[Pthom]

Here is a list of the chat room operators. If you have a hankering to chat and discover the chat room is closed because an operator isn't in there, by all means, PM one of the following (it'd be good to check to see if they're online when you do) and have them open up the room for you.

Pthom (Peter in chat) <Pacific GMT-8>
QueenB <Central GMT-6>
dpaterso <UK GMT>
SaraP <Portugal-GMT>
JMC2009 (JMC in chat) <Central GMT-6> --- best reached on Twitter: JMC_Writing
Shuemais <Pacific GMT-8>
10Trackers (IOTrackers in chat)<Netherlands GMT+1>
zanzjan (Eastern (GMT-5)
jvc (Jed in chat) <UK GMT>
Abby (AbielleRose in chat) <Central GMT-6>

[SaraP]

Fot those of you who want to chat but don't wish to or can't use Java, there is an alternative.

It's called Mibbit and it works on a browser, which means you don't need to download anything.

Here's the step-by-step howto:

1) Go to www.mibbit.com and click on MibbitWebChat.

2) You will see a window with three boxes with little input boxes on them. In the first box, click on Server.

3) This should make a new input box appear for the server address. Type in irc.starchat.net.

4) Next change the nick on the nick input box to whatever new nick you want. We recommend you use your AW nick but this is not necessary. Now you have two options. You can acess the AW chatroom from the Mibbit main window or from Starchat.

5a) From the Mibbit main window, after you've typed in the server address and your nick, in the channel input box type in #absolutewrite. After those three boxes are filled out, click on Go. Mibbit will open two new tabs on the single tab of your browser. One is for StarChat and you can ignore it for the most part, the other is for the AW Chat Room. Now you can chat away!

5b) To access the AW chat room from StarChat simply leave the channel input box empty and click on Go. This will open up the StarChat tab only. Within this tab, type /join #absolutewrite. This will open the new tab for the AW chatroom. You are now ready to go!

If you wish to join the chat for the Crit Circles, simply type in #awcritcircle birolsangels instead of #absolutewrite. You can also be present in both rooms at once. In this case, simply type /join #<the other room you wish to join>. This can be done either from the room you are in or from the StarChat tab. A new tab will appear for the second room.

Sometimes people speak via PM in Chat - also referred to as backchannel. In Java this will appear as a new window, while in Mibbit it appears as a new tab. If someone PM's you, the new tab will appear on its own. If you wish to PM someone you have two options:

a) Type /msg <nick of the person you want to PM> <message>. As it is explained in the FAQ, if I want to send a messsage to Pthom (whose chat room nick is Peter), saying "psst! Your epidermis is showing!" I would type /msg Peter psst! Your epidermis is showing!

b) When you click on the person's name on the list on your right, a small list of options appears. The first one is PM. When you click on that, a new tab appears and you can then type what you want.

Mibbit has two big advantages for me. One is that I can be in chat and browse away on AW from another tab. Whenever someone says something, the Mibbit browser tab starts flashing the message *People said stuff*. This means that for the times when the room is more quiet, for example during a word war, I can be notified of something happening without having to open the tab just to look. If I am working on something else, say, writing, the browser tab on Windows will also start flashing.

The other advantage is that the name of the tab turns blue when something happens in the tab while you're not looking at it. Very useful for example when you're talking to someone backchannel while chating in the room at the same time.

I recommend you also take a look at the other chat room info on this part of the forum. At this time, the chat room is moderated which means you can only chat when there is a Chat Mod around (also known as Op - operator). Though this does not happen 24/7, we are trying to have the room open as much as possible. If you log on the chat room and find there are no Ops around, you can try PM'ing one here on AW, or try again later.

Hope this info is helpful and you will join us soon.

*Thanks to KittyPryde for leading me to Mibbit.


IMPORTANT UPDATE: Although Mibbit was klined - kicked out of Starchat - for a very long time, it appears to now be working just fine. I have tried on two different occasions, separated by a good number of weeks, and all seems to be in good working order. Given the ease of access and just plain fun of Mibbit, if you don't want the trouble of downloading and installing an IRC client, I strongly suggest you give Mibbit a try.

See you soon!

[dpaterso]

This might help anyone wondering where to find an IRC client (I've been asked this a couple of times, recently).

The advantage of installing an IRC program instead of accessing starchat via JavaChat is that the display can be adjusted (text size, colors, etc.), chat logs are saved, and text on screen can be copy/pasted if desired.

This isn't a comprehensive list by any means, no doubt an internet search will yield more comprehensive results.

One of the best-known programs is mIRC:

http://www.mirc.com

Check out the "getting started" page, http://www.mirc.com/install.html

mIRC has a 30-day trial period, then you're prompted to make a donation if you continue using the software, I believe, but this isn't mandatory.

I know a few folks who use and like IceChat:

http://www.icechat.net

Check out the "quickstart" page, http://www.icechat.net/site/help/ice...ckstart-guide/

If you're a Firefox user, you can install Chatzilla, an IRC plug-in.

In Firefox, select Tools > Add-ons > Extensions

If you don't see Chatzilla in the list of available programs then use the search box.

Once you have Chatzilla installed, and start it via Firefox's Tools menu, you want to connect to the starchat server, then join the AbsoluteWrite chat room.

To do this, enter (in Chatzilla, on the input line):

/server irc.starchat.net

To join the main AW chat room, enter: /join #absolutewrite

To join the AW crit chat room enter: /join #AWCritCircle Birolsangels

Once you're comfortable with this... you can add these commands to your Chatzilla preferences so that the next time you start Chatzilla it will automatically connect to server irc.starchat.net and join #absolutewrite

To do this:

In Chatzilla, select menu ChatZilla > Preferences > Global Settings > Startup tab > in the Locations window, select the Add button and add irc://irc.starchat.net

Also in menu Chatzilla > Preferences, if you select irc.starchat.net under Global Settings, then the Lists tab, you can add /join #absolutewrite

Also, as mentioned above, Mibbit:

Originally Posted by dpaterso

Mibbit might offer the easiest solution, it's a web-based IRC, see Sara's post here. Or, goto http://mibbit.com/chat which should show this sign-in screen:



I selected the yellow Server link and typed irc.starchat.net into the Server: field.

I typed my usual nick into the Nick: field. (You would type your own nick here!)

I typed #absolutewrite into the Channel: field.

Then I selected the Connect button.

Which took me into the #AbsoluteWrite chat channel.

-Derek