Well, not exactly.

For a spur of the moment fan call, the chat room experiment last night was a resounding success.  The word spread fast through blogs, Twitter and Facebook.   I got loopy after awhile and lost count but over six hours, 25+ people revolved through, lending their voices to the chatter.  Sadly the event began too late for most of the  European contingent but Canada and America represented as well as possibly Australia or New Zealand (not quite sure).  We did have some one from Jakarta!

Topics changed a zallion times covering everything from s*x (the program running the chatroom was prudish) to BBS and TR80s (if you know what those are, you’re old).  I do think  a certain british actor was discussed at least 70% of the time.  Maybe. 

Atendees seemed to enjoy themselves so efforts are underway to make the chatroom a regular feature in Armitage World.  A bigger event is in the works and we are trying to pinpoint an ideal time frame so all time zones can participate, like we did in the Christchurch telethon chatroom.  Watch this space and other blogs for more information.

A few problems popped up last night that my computer guru Trinalin (some of you met her last night) and I will work on.  Before the big event, I would like to stage an all time zone call to chat either this weekend or the next, depending how coherently I can parse code.  Ideally it will start on Saturday at 10:00PM GMT, similar to the Christchurch event.  Again, watch blogs and Twitter for an official announcement.

As I said before, this chatroom is for you, RA fans.  If you have any ideas on how we can have fun online while we weather the drought, I certainly want to hear them.  If you have any comments, complaints or love to share, feel free to comment or contact me in the tab above.

Remember, the chatroom is available 24/7  Click the chat link on the right to join, invite a friend and BOOM, you’ve got a party.

I have been working on a post that’s turned into a magnus opus with the point getting lost somewhere along the way.  Meanwhile it’s come to be attention that several people have visited the chat room, although not at the same time.

I think it’s time for creating a chat schedule.  Because we are located all over the world, I’m sure how to go about this.  Looking on Twitter, it seems that most of the North Americans, Europeans, and Aussies and Kiwis are acquainted with their respective groups.  One person from each group can organize a time beneficial for that region.  As I said, this room is available 24/7.  The important thing is if you arrive first in chat, stay awhile and lurk; others will show up soon.

I’ll start out by inviting everybody to come right now and start brainstorming!  Somebody should be there until midnight EST.

Since I was home sick today, I seized the opportunity to set up a live chat room on my server.  After a few failed attempts, I announce we have a working chat room!  Things are still a bit primitive but I don’t think anything complicated is needed right now.

This chat client is based on the old IRC dynamic. Since most of you probably have no clue what I’m talking about, there are only three things you will probably use frequently:

Ideally the client should ask you to type a nickname when you enter.  If it doesn’t, you will be called Guest 12345 or whatever.  Naturally you’ll want to present your unique self.  Simply type in the text box at the bottom of the screen:

/nick CoolName

(CoolName obvious is whatever you choose.  /nick is the command needed to change the name.)

If there are enough people discussing different topics, keeping track can get a bit confusing.  Then you may want to create a new chat room called whatever you want.  This is quite simple, just type:

/join HawtRA

Well, you get the picture. With the /join command followed by any room name, you create a new tab at the top of the client.  You will be in two chat rooms at the same time.  By clicking the tabs, you can see what is going on in each.  Or you can leave that room by clicking the tab closed. You can be in as many chat rooms as you like.

Lastly, you can privately message a person in the chat.  For example if you wanted to privately tell me how awesome I am, you would type:

/privmsg judiang You are awesome!

/privmsg is the command you need, then the nick, then the message.

Seriously, this might seem complicated but you will be a pro in 5 minutes. You are free to organize chats and discussions at any time or just drop by. This chat was mainly set up for us in Armitage World, but if you are a fan of Richard Armitage, you are welcome.  Activities like trading and linking pornography, illegal media, spamming, and flooding are  strictly forbidden.  Racist, bigoted, sexist,  homophobic and otherwise highly offensive language will not be tolerated.  Lively discussion and dissent is encouraged but members are expected to treat each other in a respectful and courteous manner.  Violators will be warned and then permanently banned.  If you encounter problems, send me an email through the Contact tab at the top of the blog.

So c’mon in and pass the word!   I need a few guinea pigs for possible troubleshooting.  You can access the chat by clicking the Chat! link at the top of the right-hand column.  The direct URL is www.jagrant.com/chat.  You can bookmark it or put a link/widget to the link on your blog.