IRC Live Nappy Chat

Wednesday Night is "Free For All" Chat Night

Our new "Free For All" chat for all Australian and New Zealand clothie parents is on Wednesday nights, from 4 pm Perth time. This is 6/7 pm Sydney time (depending on Daylight Savings), 8 pm NZ time - but you're welcome to drop in earlier or later to see if anyone's around. Whether you're from Nappycino, Essential Baby, Alternative Baby, Natural Parenting, Belly Belly, Bubhub, Birthtalks, TNN-NZ, or somewhere else altogether - come one come all, we all have our cloth nappies in common.

Guidelines

Please jump in and introduce yourself once you're in channel - no "lurking".
Please use your real first name. A well-known, readily recognised handle that you use in Aussie parenting forums can also be acceptable. The channel has operators at all scheduled chat times who keep out the (very occasional) "intruder".
General civility to each other is expected, just as in other forums.
Operators have the right to remove and/or ban chatters completely at their own discretion.
Please do not set your IRC client to auto-rejoin on kick.
Chat topics range from nappy talk to general conversation - there is no "off-topic".
The topic line will contain any relevant spoiler notices. Remember that WA is two (and occasionally three) hours behind when discussing TV shows that might be spoiler-sensitive.
We ask that you log out if you're going to be away from your keyboard for any length of time. If you are away from your keyboard for a long time, you may be routinely kicked from the channel. Don't take this personally - you're more than welcome to rejoin the Wednesday night chat when you're present!

Outside of "Free-for-all" chat time, the channel remains members-only. The above rules continue to apply. The Monday Night Chat, for ozclothnappies members only is from 4 pm Perth time, 6 pm Sydney time, 8 pm NZ time.

How do I get into the nappy chat?

First you need an IRC program. If you don't already have one and don't know where to start, there are a few options:

Windows

mIRC for Windows: www.mirc.com (Windows)
Go direct to the mIRC download page here.
Trillian: www.ceruleanstudios.com/ (Windows)

Scroll down for detailed guides on getting mIRC or Trillian up and running.

Multi-Platform

XChat (Linux and Windows): www.xchat.org

Macintosh

Colloquy for Mac: www.colloquy.info
Conversation for Mac: http://homepage.mac.com/philrobin/conversation/

Classic Macintosh (pre-OS X)

Ircle: http://www.ircle.com

Our IRC server and channel are here:

The server is any oz.org server. For an up to date list, go to http://www.oz.org/servers.html .

The simplest thing is to just plug in irc.oz.org in the server box and let your server be selected automatically from there. Fairly reliable if you're having difficulty connecting, are germany.oz.org and sandiego.oz.org .

The channel is #ozclothnappies (must be spelled exactly!). If you can't connect first time, try using different servers from the list above. If you inadvertently log onto a different server or mis-spell the channel, you will just find an empty channel and be talking to yourself!

Detailed guides for people completely new to IRC

If you're a Windows user and new to IRC chat, we have made step by step graphical instructions for you to set up and connect with mIRC, downloadable in Word and PDF formats below.
* New - Trillian instructions PDF added! *
You may need to right-click on the link and choose Save As before opening for these downloadable guides:

If all else fails: Web Interface

Please use your own IRC program where possible. If that's not possible, there is an unsupported web interface to IRC at http://www.flooble.net/irc
If this is slow or disconnects you sometimes, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do about that. How to use it:

Top line: type your name. If your name doesn't work first time, try it with an underscore (_) or other character at the end. It won't let you use the name if someone else on the server has it already!
Second line: leave as is
Third line: choose #ozclothnappies

Ozclothnappies IRC-Speak

Abbreviations

rehi: Hi again! Said when someone comes back into channel.
wb: Welcome Back
brb: Be Right Back
afk: Away From Keyboard
biab: Back In A Bit
bbl: Be Back Later
ttfn: Ta Ta For Now
ttyl: Talk To You Later
lol: Laughing Out Loud
lmvo: see LOL
fak: Feeding At Keyboard
fakak: Feeding And Knitting At Keyboard
op: IRC operator. The people who have absolute power in your channel.
nick: your nickname in IRC. Real firstnames are preferred in ozclothnappies.

Commands

All commands in IRC begin with / at the start of the line (make sure you don't put a leading space in front of it).

/nick: First names are preferred in #ozclothnappies. If you'd like to change your nickname, just type
/nick newname
where "newname" is your first name. If someone on the oz.org servers has your name already, this won't work. You might need to then try newname_ , or add some other thing to the end of your name to create a unique ID.

/me: Actions: On IRC you can "do" an "action by typing
/me verb
where verb is whatever you'd like to appear to be doing. So if you type
/me slaps Lara around with a large trout
what will appear on screen will be:
yourname slaps Lara around with a large trout