STEP ONE:
Your screen should look like this after you finish with Chatzilla's instructions.
This is where the magic begins. You see those extremely exciting blue-bold-underlined words at the bottom of the image there? We need to click on ircnet, because it hosts our little channel. I've got an unhelpful underlined picture here because what kind of instructions in the modern age simply say what to do:
Right. If you did that, you've arrived at the ircnet page. It should look thus:
We need to tell Chatzilla where we want to go - in this case, the Mentalpod one. Type (or copy-paste) the following into the textbar at the bottom: /join #mentalpod
And then you get to where you need to be! It looks like this:
And there you have it! It's not difficult to make branching channels for other people, so if you want to go and talk to someone specifically there are several ways to do it from the rather anarchic IRC environment. I'm not really a good person to ask about restrictions but I would really like to see people in the forum using their handles here on IRC. You can change your handle, of course, but the continuity of the thing is enhanced by being a part of the forum too. Also, I'll be away for a couple of weeks so I'll try to get on when I can but I won't be able to prune or take care of much until then. Because I'm a home-dwelling pink-collar temp slave and my bouts of employment are fitful struggles between hatred of the workplace and the cold sadness of being unemployed, I'll be able to keep an eye on things for a while at least.
Right. A pitch. I'm not the wordsmith you are, but an IRC channel to me is great for those moments when you're feeling like shit, beating yourself up while staring at your computer, and you really need someone to talk to so the hours don't feel as heavy when they pass. It's a good place for completely unprofessional advice given with love by a bunch of people who want to be heard as much as you do. Join the forum, tell us about yourself, and something-something-there's-a-reason-I'm-not-a-writer.
Hope that's helpful. Thanks for taking an interest, Paul and everyone!
