A Brief History of #earthbound
I remember that the first time we had a meeting here at EathBound.net, we had to use a horrific conversation mechaniasm known as Javachat. The javachat was horrible. It had flickering ads flanking it that frequently led to epileptic seizures and the self destruction of your personal computer. It took forever to actually load, and once you had the java chat up on the web, the speed of everything else was cut in half. So one Monday night I went to go to the horrible place known as EarthBound.net java chat, and the only remnance of its existence was a message from the webmaster. "The EarthBound.net meetings have moved to IRC channel #earthbound." I panicked, having no clue what IRC was, except that it was another abbreviation of some horrid alternate net incarnation such as ICQ, ISP, or some other acronym that made no sense to me.
I thought for a good ten seconds about what I should do. I was not yet a staff member, since this was pretty much the first meeting, but I knew that if I wanted my talents to frequently appear on EB.net, just as the rest of the staff did, the meetings were the ticket. It wasn't long before I remembered seeing something about IRC on reidman's now frozen page. Immediately I downloaded IRC, getting back into the swing of the meetings. At first, IRC is very confusing. All these symbols and commands and name changings. The first topic of conversation when I arrived at the #earthbound channel, was an argument over who had "ops." Of course I had no idea what that meant. But I did notice that reidman and EBounding had them and the other ten members in the room did not. It means channel OPerator. Enables you to kick out, ban, and make other members operators in the channel.
The actual conversation in the chat, save the obstacular power struggle for OPs, was pretty much the same as in the java chat. Only no hazards to your health. Soon enough, I became staff article writer, and on an on and off basis had that "@" next to my name. It led me to wonder, "reidman obviously knew about this for a while, so why were we using java chat?" The answer hackers. IRC is jam-stuffed with them. They come in, they somehow op themselves, they kick you out. We had to wait a long time before we could be clear of them. However, business in #earthbound really began to pick up for the better when reidman registered the channel with IRC, and acquired an opbot named X. X opped only the people who were programmed to be opped, and the bickering over ops was no more. If you'd like to join us in the meetings, but have the same feelings that I had about IRC, don't be afraid. Download it at www.mirc.co.uk. You'll thank us later.
I remember that the first time we had a meeting here at EathBound.net, we had to use a horrific conversation mechaniasm known as Javachat. The javachat was horrible. It had flickering ads flanking it that frequently led to epileptic seizures and the self destruction of your personal computer. It took forever to actually load, and once you had the java chat up on the web, the speed of everything else was cut in half. So one Monday night I went to go to the horrible place known as EarthBound.net java chat, and the only remnance of its existence was a message from the webmaster. "The EarthBound.net meetings have moved to IRC channel #earthbound." I panicked, having no clue what IRC was, except that it was another abbreviation of some horrid alternate net incarnation such as ICQ, ISP, or some other acronym that made no sense to me.
I thought for a good ten seconds about what I should do. I was not yet a staff member, since this was pretty much the first meeting, but I knew that if I wanted my talents to frequently appear on EB.net, just as the rest of the staff did, the meetings were the ticket. It wasn't long before I remembered seeing something about IRC on reidman's now frozen page. Immediately I downloaded IRC, getting back into the swing of the meetings. At first, IRC is very confusing. All these symbols and commands and name changings. The first topic of conversation when I arrived at the #earthbound channel, was an argument over who had "ops." Of course I had no idea what that meant. But I did notice that reidman and EBounding had them and the other ten members in the room did not. It means channel OPerator. Enables you to kick out, ban, and make other members operators in the channel.
The actual conversation in the chat, save the obstacular power struggle for OPs, was pretty much the same as in the java chat. Only no hazards to your health. Soon enough, I became staff article writer, and on an on and off basis had that "@" next to my name. It led me to wonder, "reidman obviously knew about this for a while, so why were we using java chat?" The answer hackers. IRC is jam-stuffed with them. They come in, they somehow op themselves, they kick you out. We had to wait a long time before we could be clear of them. However, business in #earthbound really began to pick up for the better when reidman registered the channel with IRC, and acquired an opbot named X. X opped only the people who were programmed to be opped, and the bickering over ops was no more. If you'd like to join us in the meetings, but have the same feelings that I had about IRC, don't be afraid. Download it at www.mirc.co.uk. You'll thank us later.
