IRC Channel

[Neito]

This seemed like the best place to put this, but....

I poked around, and maybe i didn't poke hard enough, but maybe an IRC channel for AFFers to hang out and exchange ideas. Or talk about nothing really.

Or am i walking into something that's been done and failed?

[Guest DarkAvenger]

There's simply no resources to moderate or maintain such a thing, much less anyone on the site mod team who knows how. I know I wouldn't even know how... I don't even have an IRC number...

[Neito]

You're thinking of ICQ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC

It's fairly easy to moderate and use. Alot of places far smaller than AFF have IRC channels, and really, if its a decent group, they kinda mod themselves.

[Guest Knorg]

You could always start an unofficial one on blitzed.org or somewhere, promote it yerself on the forums? Link people to the java client if they don't have mirc or whatever. Once you have a cadre of chat minions you could come back and say "Hey! look at all these interested mofos!"

[Guest DarkAvenger]

You're thinking of ICQ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRC

It's fairly easy to moderate and use. Alot of places far smaller than AFF have IRC channels, and really, if its a decent group, they kinda mod themselves.

I was actually mixing the two... (ICQ and IRC) because y!hosting has an IRC chat thing, and then for some reason or other, I decided that I needed an ICQ number to use this o_0.

*scrubs brain* This is why DA should not respond when not thinking clearly, lol.

Anyway, even if the group kinda modded themselves, we'd still be liable for it. This means we'd have to find a way to keep anyone under the age of 18 out of it or we'd potentially get our butts in a sling for some kid accessing it. Doesn't sound too fun, ne?

Remember, anything affiliated with this site is our legal responsibility, period.

However, if you create something unofficial and we never approve it, then at that point, it is your legal responsibility rather than ours. As a word of caution and warning, you will have at least some of our traffic finding you and the more traffic, the more likely the government will notice you and stick their nose in your business, and the more likely parents are to yell, scream, and sue you if their precious baby gains access to it.

In any case, we're looking into possibly integrating a chat into the forums if there's enough of a demand for it and it works the way that I suspect it possibly could.

[Guest Big Samurai]

I dunno, DA, IRC's a bit of a dinosaur, and it's extremely hard to regulate. Anybody can pose as anybody else with little or no difficulty, though I guess that's true of chat in general.

[Neito]

I was actually mixing the two... (ICQ and IRC) because y!hosting has an IRC chat thing, and then for some reason or other, I decided that I needed an ICQ number to use this o_0.

*scrubs brain* This is why DA should not respond when not thinking clearly, lol.

Anyway, even if the group kinda modded themselves, we'd still be liable for it. This means we'd have to find a way to keep anyone under the age of 18 out of it or we'd potentially get our butts in a sling for some kid accessing it. Doesn't sound too fun, ne?

Remember, anything affiliated with this site is our legal responsibility, period.

However, if you create something unofficial and we never approve it, then at that point, it is your legal responsibility rather than ours. As a word of caution and warning, you will have at least some of our traffic finding you and the more traffic, the more likely the government will notice you and stick their nose in your business, and the more likely parents are to yell, scream, and sue you if their precious baby gains access to it.

In any case, we're looking into possibly integrating a chat into the forums if there's enough of a demand for it and it works the way that I suspect it possibly could.

I don't really worry about the quote unquote legal responsibility really. IRC has far more things less legal than AFF that don't get hassled at all. I'd prolly set up a set of rules if i did, and the rules would be hard and fast.

But really, how do you know everyone accessing this site is 18+? You don't. So you have the disclaimers and take reasonable precautions, like quickly dealing with people who you know are too young, etc.

I dunno, DA, IRC's a bit of a dinosaur, and it's extremely hard to regulate. Anybody can pose as anybody else with little or no difficulty, though I guess that's true of chat in general.

Not really... No more so than AFF itself, really. And IRC really isn't a dinosaur. You'd be surprised how many people and new things work their way through IRC. It's still alive and kicking...

You could always start an unofficial one on blitzed.org or somewhere, promote it yerself on the forums? Link people to the java client if they don't have mirc or whatever. Once you have a cadre of chat minions you could come back and say "Hey! look at all these interested mofos!"

Sounds like a plan.

[Guest DarkAvenger]

I don't really worry about the quote unquote legal responsibility really. IRC has far more things less legal than AFF that don't get hassled at all. I'd prolly set up a set of rules if i did, and the rules would be hard and fast.

But really, how do you know everyone accessing this site is 18+? You don't. So you have the disclaimers and take reasonable precautions, like quickly dealing with people who you know are too young, etc.

Just because they haven't busted other stuff doesn't mean that they wouldn't bust you for allowing underagers. *shrug* One pissy parent is all it takes.

And we're taking steps to get a legally certified program that will lock the entire site down with a legally binding contract. We're very close to getting it.