The awesome Edmowrimo chatroom, #edmontonwrimos on irc.goodchatting.com, will again be active, with the word war bot, BattleJesus, again active and graciously provided by the talented and attractive mat. Woohoo! This chatroom is the pathway to victory for many of us - we are always having word wars, getting to know each other, and egging each other on to glory!

We do have access with a java channel, for those of you using public computers and unable to download and install anything, but if at all possible we ask that everybody who is able to download their own IRC client. There are several reasons for this: 1) It streamlines everything, and opens up a lot more for you as far as what you're able to do, and 2) it's more courteous, as otherwise with the way things are right now you will have to piggy back off the java client that is hosted by Julie, the admin for Goodchatting, which means more strain on her servers, which we want to avoid if we can.

There are innumberable options for accessing IRC, which stands for Internet Relay Chat. The most popular for windows users is the venerable mIRC, which is a free program, with the option to donate to the project. Your first thirty days are completely unlimited, but after that there is a short waiting period while the program displays a little dialogue letting you know that the thirty days are over, and inviting you to make a donation. Just wait a little while, and hit continue when the option is available. That can be downloaded at http://www.mirc.com. If you find that you like the program, and the IRC system, I reccomend donating - the programmers behind mIRC have been working on it for more then a decade, and it's a fantastic feat on their part. Support them!

For Mac users, especially first-time irc users, I reccomend Snak. (http://www.snak.com/Snak.html) I've never used it myself, but I've heard excellent things about it. Reference their website for more information.

If you are using firefox, there is also the handy and simple ChatZilla! which can be downloaded both from the Mozilla website, and from the developer's webpage at http://chatzilla.hacksrus.com/.

To connect to the channel, go to the server list and select the server Goodchatting. If it's not there, then add a new server by selecting the appropriate option for your chosen client. The server address is irc.goodchatting.com, and the port can be anything between 6660-6669. I personally use 6667, but unless you have a very secure firewall set up, then it shouldn't matter. Just allow the chosen port to access the internet when it asks, or add the port you chose to your firewall's allowed list. You're done!

The web link to use the program, if you can't get irc for whatever reason (on a public computer is the best example of this), is:
http://www.goodchatting.com/rooms/edmontonwrimos.php

If we're finding that we're missing each other all the time, we'll set up a meeting time to get writing. Otherwise, I'll see you guys there! Ask here or drop me a PM if you can't get it figured out. Whee!