[HLUG] IRC chat tonight

[Julian Robbins]

Hi

At our last LUG meeting, Mark set up a IRC channel for the LUG.
Something we'd been considering for ages.

So as it ensure it starts getting used, can I suggest that we try to
have certain scheduled times, that IRC chats can take place. Weekly on a
Sunday night seems to be a good night when people are doing computery
things, so I suggest that we schedule the first IRC chat tonight :-) ...

This doesn't mean we are stopping normal meetings, or anything else like
that; IRC chats are effectively extras when many of our members are
likely to be on line at the same time anyway. You can go on IRC and see
whose online and chat whenever you want on course, but if we schedule
meetings informally, there's more chance that they'll be others online too.

Here's some quick notes on using Pidgin, a popular multi platform
chat/IRC client to go on our hlug channel.

Here goes :-

   1. Install pidgin. Its usually either installed already or available
      in the distro repositories, so just doing
      sudo apt-get install pidgin, or yum pidgin will do this
   2. Pidgin will show up in the task manager, usually top right in
      Gnome, (i dont know about KDE). Left click, and click 'Accounts',
      and then 'Manage Accounts'
      'Add IRC' account. use username :- Your chosen *username* (this
      can be whatever you want) , *server* :- irc.lug.org.uk ,
      *password* :- leave this blank, You dont need to set any of the
      Advanced settings.
   3. Enable the new IRC account, if not already done so.
   4. Then, under  'Buddies' -> 'Add Chat' , select the account you
      created earlier, and type #hlug on the entry for Channel. You
      don't need any passwords or whatever. You can also set options if
      you want Pidgin to auto join sign in if required.
   5. Then, you should get a Window that says #hlug, and the users in
      our IRC channel on the Right hand side
   6. Type in a quick hello and off you go !

I'll be around on and off tonight, if you want to chat, and a couple of
others are already on there.

Please note, with IRC, that sometimes other users many be signed in, but
may have disappeared for a while they'll be back soon ;-)

Good luck, and see you on IRC !

Julian