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This chat works with a client at Mibbit.com who provide a free service for joining IRC (Internet Relay Chat) through your web browser. This means that the strain of the chat is no longer on the League of Reason server. There are a few differences between this chat and the old chat.

Another benefit of using IRC is that you don't have to use a web browser client (such as Mibbit) to connect to it. You can also use a standalone client like mIRC (Windows), or Colloquy (Mac).

The server we are using is provided by OFTC.net who provide free access to their IRC server.

Admins, moderators and other special groups will no longer have funky colours on their names in chat unfortunately.

Although there are a lot of compromises in doing the chat this way, the benefits far outweigh the downfalls. It's better that the site doesn't get brought down because of the chat.

For those of you who are familiar with IRC, the server has the usual Chanserv and Nickserv services available.

The following are some of the basic available:

/nick [nickname]	Changes your nickname to whatever you specify if it is not already in use. Please be aware that the name you choose may have been registered to someone else. Please see the FAQ tab for more details.
/msg [nickname] [message]	Sends a private message to the specified user with the message you enter.
/join [channel]	Joins the specified channel (e.g. /join #lor-show)
/me [text]	Describe an action.
/ignore [nickname]	Ignores a user in current channel.
/unignore [nickname]	Unignores a user in current channel.
/clear	Clear chat output in current channel.
/help	More help but mostly a repeat of some of the above commands.

1. My name is in use by someone else, what can I do?

   Because the server the chat is on is shared with the general public there is a chance that your name is being used by someone else. Nicknames can be registered with Nickserv so if someone is using your name you are able to claim it back. However, if someone else has already registered the name you would like to use you will have to choose another one. You can set the name you would like to use in chat in your forum profile.
   
   For more information about registering your nickname click here.

2. I've entered chat but my name has gone weird, what's going on?

   IRC requires that your name not have spaces or certain other characters in it. This page tries to format your name as best as it can to fit this. If you are not happy with the name you've ended up with you can specify one in your forum profile.

3. Why did the chat change to this one?

   The previous chat was handy because it integrated well with the League of Reason website. Unfortunately, it was rather resource heavy and in high traffic situations would cause the server to use up too much memory. It became necessary after a couple of serious downtimes to move the chat away from the web server we use.
   
   Other reasons for changing to an IRC based chat is that people can now access the chat through other methods, not just through a web browser. Also, the chat will continue to function even if the League of Reason website were to go down for any reason.

4. Why is there an advert at the top of the chat?

   The chat web client is provided by Mibbit.com free of charge, so they have to try and pay for it some how. There's nothing we can do to remove this advert, however it is fairly unobtrusive and if you have an ad blocking program or browser extension it shouldn't appear anyway. There is talk that Mibbit will be providing a 'premium' paid service that won't have adverts, we may adopt this in future if/when it is released.

5. I don't like this chat, can you improve it?

   Unfortunately no, because the chat is hosted off site we are unable to make any modifcations to the code. We have styled the chat as much as is possible using the Mibbit widget maker but unfortunately there are a couple of bits that look a bit dodgy, hopefully as they improve the client these will be easier to style.

6. I miss BotOfReason, will it be replaced?

   BotOfReason has been replaced with a new bot called Reezn. Its job is to log the chat, report back to the website who is in chat and who was last active, and various other less useful things.

7. Why doesn't my name change when I do the /away command?

   This no longer works in the same way as the old chat. Although the /away command does set you to away, it only displays when someone does a /whois on you.

8. Why didn't you use a web browser IRC client that could be hosted on League of Reason?

   We decided to use Mibbit.com because their client is very good, it get around a lot of issues of having to have the right ports open on a firewall that some people may not have control over. The Mibbit client is maintained and updated regularly, which means we don't have to worry about making sure we have the most up-to-date software. This also keeps it as secure as possible.

9. I am familiar with IRC already, how can I connect to it using my own client?

   You can connect using the server using the following details:
   
   Server: irc.leagueofreason.co.uk
   Channel: #lor-show
   
   The irc.leagueofreason.co.uk address points to OFTC.net's IRC server. The reason we have done this is because if for any reason we have to move the chat to a different server, people will not have to change their server address settings.

If you need any further assistance please send an email to webmaster@leagueofreason.co.uk.