It's happening.

Why didn't you stop it?

It's been a long time coming, but TSD finally has its own IRC server. Although our legendary and iconic "mailing list" will always hold a place in our hearts, IRC allows for much quicker and more intimate conversations, and gives our esteemed members opportunity to interact with the common folk.

For the initiated, here's the info:
Server: irc.teamschoolyd.org
Port: 6667
Main channel: #tsd

For those who are totally unfamiliar with the concept: IRC is chat rooms, and TSD now has its own IRC. You should join so you can chat in real time with others across the globe. This video pretty much captures most of what we're dealing with here, and how hype you should be about it.

What is there to do, you ask? We-he-hell, how about...

Talk to kanbo about anime!
Talk to Schooly_D about anime!
Talk to tarehart about anime!
Listen to Tex talk about her dog to a captive audience!
Talk to Nart about "whatever, I'm going to bed"!

The TSD Programming Crewe is at it again, this time turning their formidable talents to the world of IRC robots. Behold their latest creation: TSDBot your friendly robot helper with only one goal in mind: enhance your Internet Relay Chat experience.

HBO/DBO Forum Notifier
Marvel as our robot regularly scours the H and DBO forums, alerting the chat to newly-posted threads, complete with options to expand or preview posts inside the chat!

TSDBot: [DBO Forum] (20117) Xenos -- The Pentathalon is on! -- http://bit.ly/1gvGYYE

HBO/DBO News Notifier
Tremble as our mighty machine punches the H and DBO news feeds until they tell you what you want to know!

TSDBot: [HBO News] (40141) Louis Wu -- Grunt Costume for Sale -- http://bit.ly/1k4Dpy1

Schooly_D: .hbon pv 40141

TSDBot: Awesome. A truly spectacular Grunt costume for an 8-10 child is for sale on eBay right now; auction ends 21 hours from when I'm writing this, so if you want this, now's the time to jump in. I sort of wish...

Straw polls!
Give thanks! Our benevolent bytecode gives users the ability to pose quick votes to the chat. After a specified period of time, votes are tallied and displayed to the chat.

Twitter integration!
The TSDPC has developed a first-in-its-class system that integrates our IRC server with our Twitter account. Not only do tweets from people we're following stream directly into the chat, but you -- yes, you! -- can perform the following functions from the chat room:
- follow a user (ops only)
- unfollow a user (ops only)
- send out a tweet (ops only)
- reply to a tweet (ops only)
- propose a tweet (or a reply) to send -- it will open up for a vote to the rest of the chat, and if there are enough ayes it gets sent out

TSDBot: [Twitter] (@KPaul) I love you, Schooly (id=1234)
Schooly_D: .tw reply 1234 I love you too, dawg
TSDBot: The tweet has been sent!

Tom Cruise database
You type a command and the bot spits out a random Tom Cruise quote or clip. Yawn.

And that's just a taste of what's to come!

I'm in, Schooly. What do I do?

If you already know what you're doing, point your IRC client of choice to the info earlier in the post.

If you would like a standalone desktop IRC client, the two most popular Windows programs are mIRC and X-Chat. Unfortunately I don't know enough to recommend a good OSX or Linux client. I'm sure others would be willing to help there, though.

If you're not very good with computers, or you just want to stick your toe in the water, try this browser-based IRC client: https://kiwiirc.com/client

channel: #tsd
Server and network ->
server: irc.teamschoolyd.org
port: 6667 (no SSL)

REMEMBER 80% of your time in IRC should be spent idling. Especially in its infancy, the chat will be dead most of the time while people are at school or work. Standard procedure is to leave your client running while you go about your day, and if you happen upon a conversation, great! And don't be afraid to ping the chat if you want -- guaranteed there are people lurking who are also looking for a reason to type.

What I'm saying is: don't join the server, stare intensely at your screen waiting for people to type, then leave out of boredom never to return. We talk, sometimes about things, honest!

I'm looking forward to seeing you all in the new OFFICIAL unofficial IRC server of Bungie.org