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Re: Party Online - a Curmudgeonly view of chat

To: "KILE, PAUL D" <Paul.Kile@Aerojet.com>, <mgs@Autox.Team.Net>
Subject: Re: Party Online - a Curmudgeonly view of chat
From: "Kai Radicke" <mowogmg@pil.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 1997 14:58:09 -0500
>Can someone explain to me the allure of chat rooms?  An MG friend sent
>me the address of a chat room he set up, and in the ten or fifteen times
>I logged on, there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING of substance being
>communicated!  Just "Hi there", "Gotta go now", and inane filler in
>between.  Now we are talking about some sort of MG chat party where
>everyone wishes everyone else a Merry Christmas.


Ok, what do you talk about at car shows and your local MG club?  I know you
don't just talk about MGs.  I think of chat as more of a 'worldwide club',
where the communication is done by technology.

>I know there must be some sort of "wow factor" for the computer
>enthusiasts out there, that indulge in chat because it's a new
>technology.

Computers = New Technology...that would be False.  I'm not going to start a
history of the Internet seminar right now, but IRC is pretty old...the
Internet is old.

>What do you think the chances are of finding the wonderfully detailed
>treatises of Bill Eastman or Rick Feibusch on a chat line?  Or the
>excellent "X-Files Xmas" of Tom Buchanan?  Not much.


Well in that case, it is much more fun to make fun of someone in real time
;-)  Also I find that things come to your mind much faster when chatting
online, because it is real time, and you are less likely to forget what you
wanted to write.

>Maybe someone can enlighten me as to the secret allure of chat?  'Cause
>at the moment, I just don't get it.


Well I can't convince you that chat is cool, but you can give it a try and
see what you think.  The directions are available for mIRC (Win3.1, Win95,
WinNT) at
http://www.pil.net/~mowogmg/irc/irc.html as earlier posted (Larry Macy?)
someone posted simple instructions for a Mac IRC client.  And if you are on
Unix (Solaris/Linux/*BSD/etc) you can use BitchX.  (sorry I don't have an
URL for BitchX, but I know it isn't hard to find!).

EFnet IRC network ( irc.mcs.net ; irc.ais.net ; irc.sprynet.com ; etc )
Channel/Room: #mg

BTW, to the person that mentioned my instructions were 'complicated' I
think the term to describe my instructions is VERY detailed.  Most of the
page is images, and the rest instructions.

If you try IRC/Chat (MG!) and you find you don't like it, you won't have
lost anything.

The day is Monday Dec. 22, 1997.
The time is 7PM EST.

BTW, I will suggest calling this the "Holiday Party" rather than the
Christmas Party as it was first termed, it is my assumption that not
everyone on this list celebrates Christmas, and I certainly don't want to
make them feel unwelcome.

So come join us!

Cheers,

KMR            (also my chat name)

Kai Radicke -- mowogmg@pil.net, 1966 MGB @ http://www.pil.net/~mowogmg
Dialogue Internet - Intelligent Internet Solutions (Net Khan)

IRC: irc.mcs.net, #inet-access (my nick: ActiveX or KMR)




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