DALnet

[yesthattom]

I really miss some of the IRC channels I used to hang out on @ DALnet. Now that DALnet is gone, I wonder... can anyone suggest a good replacement?

Comments

[geminigirl]

Have you ever visisted #soc.bi on Freenode.net?

[jss]

Not having been on DALnet, it's hard to say. What are you looking for in an IRC network?

I'm still on both EFnet (mainly for historical reasons, since I've been on it or its precursor since 1988 or 1989 or so) and Undernet (because that's where the ex-employees of a former company of mine hang out to chat). And some sysadmin folk I (and you) know have a channel on Cognet (irc://irc.sage-members.org/#sage-members). Between the Undernet and Cognet I can get my technicalese addressed; all three have people I chat with on a regular basis (friends who use IRC as the medium for real-time conversation instead of IM clients or MaBellNet (usually for $ reasons)).

Are you looking to converse/keep up/... with old friends or make new ones? If the former, email 'em and ask which IRC network they use now that Dalnet is kaput (assuming, of course, that it is). If the latter, pick a network and happy hunting. Are you looking for social or professional ties? If the former, any network will do; if the latter, Cognet's probably a good starting place.

Is IRC itself a requirement? There're tons of chat clients/networks nowadays (Netscape/AOL IM and Yahoo! Messenger are the big two, plus various topic-specific sites that use that annoying always-crashes-my-Mac Java chat client). Jabber is another chat network (about which I know little). There're clients for various OS platforms that let you use multiple networks (gaim for Unix/Linux can interact with AIM, YM, and IRC, for example).