Dosgames members meeting

[The_Sinister_Mastermind]

Since when? I’m sorry but that’s an utter load of crap. I'm always on 2 IRC channels, one of them usually has 50+ users, often nearly/in excess of 100, but nothing ever happens in there, it's the most boring channel ever, I only go there out of habit. Another channel I go to rarely has more then 15 people on it, but it's a lot of fun because people are always talking, doing stupid things to keep the rest of us entertained and such.

Clearly a crowd is not needed to make a successful IRC channel even without that example I gave you’d still be wrong. You know why? Who cares how crowded the channel is if you don’t want to talk to any of the people in there? It’s not about getting a lot of people; it’s about getting a couple of people who actually care a little, who are interesting/share similar interests and that are actually worth talking to.

[NewfieBullet]

Well at least the DOS games one would need a bigger crowd than what it has now. That includes the forum. Maybe other sites might get by on smaller numbers, but as you can see, the DOS games chat room is not doing too well with its sparse population.

I go on, stay for a few minutes, and nobody is there. I'd bet many others have done what I did. The more people there are, the more likely it will be that 2 people will be on at the same time.

Sorry I didn't quite communicate my point correctly the first time.

[Dogbreath]

Not really. Back when I had a shitload of time (I was around 14, 15 years old) I ran #dosgames on Austnet. We only had 16 people on our busiest day, but for a while we'd have insane, 3 hour long conversations going, and at a very fast pace too, with just a couple people. The popularity of IRC has really gone down in the past couple years. What we really need is just a dedicated crowd of people with waaaaay too much time on their hands, and those people can't be dumbasses and never talk about anything interesting either. (So smart people with lots of time on their hands, this forum needs more teenagers and geezers)

[The_Sinister_Mastermind]

I go on, stay for a few minutes, and nobody is there. I'd bet many others have done what I did. The more people there are, the more likely it will be that 2 people will be on at the same time.

Then you’re not logging onto the right channel mate, I leave my PC running almost 24/7 and I always leave MSN and IRC signed in. The only person besides me whose been on the DOSgames IRC recently was NPS (The owner of the channel when it was still on Slashnet).

It's possible that if you were on in say the last few days I missed you due to the fact that I was in Sydney, but apart from that I'm always signed in, though granted I'm not always at my PC it still would have shown that you'd joined/left the channel.

And Dogbreath actually makes a very good point, the channel I was referring to that I really enjoy going to because even though the crowd is small it’s always entertaining, I’m actually one of the youngest people on there. A couple of the other people are still at school, though I think one is at college. But many of the other regulars are married with children. The age ranges from about 16 all the way up to late 40s, early 50s.

What makes it work is because we all share a common interest, the case in question it’s music. But we’re all at this site because at one point or another, even now, we were/are interested in DOS gaming right? Ding ding! Common interests right there, plenty to talk about right there.

And that’s just to start things off, for instance, in my MSN DOSgames contacts group I have 24 contacts, 15 of which I talk to on a regular basis, and seldom do we even talk about games. My point is we know there’s a common interest there to talk about, but it’s not needed, we talk about other things and it works fine.

IRC just makes the whole thing easier because you can hold a discussion on any number of issues with any number of view points all at once and everyone gets to have their say. Yes you can do this in MSN, but it’s somewhat simpler in IRC. You don’t have to worry about adding contacts, blocking and all that. You just need to know the channel name and you’re set. Of course problems can arise if the channel isn’t properly moderated, but right now, I don’t think that’ll be much of an issue.

[NewfieBullet]

Then you’re not logging onto the right channel mate

I did both channels/servers, Freenode and Slashnet. But it's been about 3 weeks or a month since I've been on IRC, did things get better perchance?

[Wally]

DB: You have to be at the right channel at the right time.

There are plenty of active chans still.

For example efnet (irc.easynews.org) or freenode (irc.freenode.net) have a rather HUGE user base for everyone

[The_Sinister_Mastermind]

Then you’re not logging onto the right channel mate

I did both channels/servers, Freenode and Slashnet. But it's been about 3 weeks or a month since I've been on IRC, did things get better perchance?

Not really, but that’s the point of this topic. What I was saying is even though I’m the only person in there right now; there is still someone in there. All it takes to get the channel going is a couple more of you guys to swing by from time to time.

[Dogbreath]

DB: You have to be at the right channel at the right time.

There are plenty of active chans still.

For example efnet (irc.easynews.org) or freenode (irc.freenode.net) have a rather HUGE user base for everyone

Yes, there are quite a few active IRC channals yet, probably my favorites are #christian on AUstnet, and #civfanatics on God-knows-what, my client knows how to get it. (I feel like such a script kiddie) However, the IRC dosgaming, zzt, and megazuex community which I was once an active member of has more or less died off. most of us are in college now, or out of college and being busy with work and marriage and kids. Sadly, I don't really have time for more than an hour a week, at most, for IRC chats. (Though when I do I always enjoy them)

[The_Sinister_Mastermind]

Well just remember guys, I'm almost always on the IRC channel (I'm on there as I type this infact). And if I'm at my PC at the time, I'm more then willing to have a chat.