Well, I'm not a member of the Elitist Jerks guild - but I do feel as if there is an "Elitist Jerks" community. When another IRC topic showed up today it made me curious if The EJ forums had their own IRC channel (similar to #fires for FoH's forums on the uberguilds network).

Zoid mentioned that yes, they do indeed already have an IRC channel, I joined it, and it was just him and I. By the end of the day, about 20 people were floating around there from just a minor off topic post in the middle of someone else's thread. So, clearly there was some interest - and already within the channel there has been some decent discussion.

Anyway, those of you who don't know what IRC is, its the internet relay chat - one of the earliest elements of the internet, that essentially allows for real time communication, private messaging, and group chatter. Most large gaming groups, like the community that posts on these forums every day, generally have an IRC channel just to talk - or schedule things, or declare that Kazzak is indeed up... again.

But let me be realistic about what IRC is and isn't. Generally you idle on IRC, and it can go 12 hours with no one saying anything, then a 100 page (no joke) discussion can just appear out of nowhere. There is a lot of idle time, but also a lot of chatter. Lots of web links to gear, lots of batphone like information; discussions that are totally irrelevant, and often times discussions that inspire great threads of their own.

Also, don't assume everything there will be well thought out, have proper grammar, and be absolutely regulated (thats the nature of live chat at times - but it should at least be civil, interesting, and fun - I assume Zoid won't allow retards to just go crazy there - sorry Zoid!)...

IRC is not meant to replace the EJ forums, and probably won't do a thing to the post count, but it is at least a place to talk to other people in the community.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure that people who might be new to IRC were at least aware of what IRC is and isn't. It IS however, a great tool for communication, one that augments many gaming communities very well (especially guilds - just a suggestion for those of you without one).

To that end, EJ put their channel on gamesurge's network - those of you who are avid gamers before/after WoW probably were a part of some other clan likely to have their old channel on this network as well, so you can stay in touch with those folks simultaneously. Many WoW guilds (including ours) also have their channels here. Anyway, thats just my endorsement for the network


Here is the information:
Web details and instructions for new people: http://www.gamesurge.net

Server: irc.gamesurge.net
Channel: #elitistjerks

This is apparently their public channel (Zoid claims they don't have a private one), so I'm just inviting everyone there. Clearly, there may be some issue by the forum mods with this post, so feel free to do with this post as you may if I'm out of line here.

Those of you who need help with connecting to IRC, can get a FREE client at http://www.mirc.com
You can also google for x-chat, or trilian. I believe opera has built in IRC, and trilian links all the IM's you're already using with IRC in one package.
You can also launch an IRC session from the web at gamesurge's web site using Java.

With the exception of java, these clients can minimize to the taskbar using maybe 2 megs of ram at most - making them fairly versatile, even while raiding on low end machines.

Anyway, I hope this proves useful, and I'll see you guys there, I'm Marauder[FH] on IRC by the way.

Been looking for a reason to use IRC again, I'll be there. I'd love a place to theorycraft 24/7 .

Very shortly here, I hope to have a web front-end setup for our IRC channel. That way you can idle from the web and not have to install mIRC or whatnot.

Sounds great, I'll definitely start hanging out in that channel.

Something new to idle away the work hours....

Just a note, if you downloaded Trillian for IRC, you have to turn it on in plug-ins in the preferences before you can join. Took me a bit to find that out

fun fun, ill come and take a look later on.

And on a sidenote! Back in the CS days (and still I think) 99% of the guilds hung out in Quakenet.

Most EU guilds still do, though the US ones stuck to other networks iirc.

Sounds great, need stuff like that to get the "work" day over sooner. Will it be java based or?

bah gamesurge !

I'll see if i can remember my gamesurge details Oo

The fact that it's not on the Quakenet servers, like nearly all other "unofficial" WoW IRC channels, makes it /failure .. :p

if you prefer a cleaner interface for your IRC try NoNameScript (NNScript).

Anyway this is a great idea and offers an easy way to organise PTR raids and the such.

p.s. if im in the channel, "jaske" you can type !armory servername charactername for a quick link to a profile.

Burning blade IRC is usually pretty dead. I wouldn't mind a bigger channel to sit around in

If you don't like running 8 different applications to write to other people I recon:
http://www.miranda-im.org/ is a good tip. (combined msn/aim/icq/irc/what not and small memory usage).

good idea.

make it on quakenet and you will have hundreds of more idlers :P
people like me just cba to have more servers open and im already in 15 wow channels on quakenet.

Quakenet has and always will be a European thing. :/

Gamesnet, which later became Gamesurge has always been one of the most popular North American IRC networks due to CS and other games.

edit: not saying that Quakenet couldn't be used, I'm just explaining the reasoning behind the selection of the server.

Hehe. agree here. I'm on about 7 different WoW channels on quakenet and most irc clients don't support multiple servers.

I know uberguilds.org has a decent irc server as well, suprised you didn't go there

You can generally idle in an additional server with the amazing addition of 1 window. And yeah, quakenet is more Euro than US. Considering there are already 120 idlers at 6am on day 0, I would think the discussions and whatnot are already going to have at least plenty of responses. Perhaps its your loss, not theirs? Gamesurge is also vastly more populated and on better hardware than uberguilds - and I didn't choose the server, amazingly enough they did, and hey, its the same one we use!

I idle in 3 IRC Servers all using the same client - no problem.

Just no more Pally tanking itemisation/talent chat for periods of longer then 40 mins please.

So the channel just exploded with people...

If you dont know how to get a second window for a different server.

type /server -m irc.gamesurge.net

or put it in your perform.

This is a cool idea. I may stop by at some point, though I've generally kept away from IRC. I just want to throw in a reminder that this is ultimately more an EJ forums channel than an EJ guild channel. I take no personal responsibility for its contents/moderation! That said, have fun.