BLUG: #blug

What is #blug?

As many as 30 of our members can be found on the OFTC IRC Network in #blug. Come in and have a chat. Northern Ireland now has it's own OFTC server, care of Andrew Mulholland. irc.belfastlinux.org now points to it.

Statistics

Want to see who's chatting the most? Check out the statistics page (kindly provided by Andrew Mulholland).

Some Guidelines

To make everyone's IRC experience that little bit richer, try and follow these guidelines.

  1. Please don't run /away scripts.
  2. Please don't advertise "Now playing ...", or any form of automated message that will cause annoyance; #blug is a channel for humans to chat in.
  3. Please do not bring bots into #blug unless prior agreement has been reached about their presence. cpufreak and dw are likely candidates to talk about this with, however it will be the channel regulars that make the final decision.
  4. Please do not paste large amounts of text to the channel. Once again, #blug is a channel for humans to communicate in, and it's likely that more than one conversation is happening at any one time.
    If you want to paste 5+ lines, join #flood.
  5. Please avoid using #blug as a target for CTCP commands, especially VERSION or PING.
  6. If you are kicked or banned from #blug, it is because the general consensus thinks you shouldn't be in the channel. Do not try to thwart any bans placed, as it will only cause irritation to the operators, and you getting banned again.
  7. Try keeping automation in your IRC client to a minimal. This is targetted especially at auto-rejoin on kick.
  8. Do not keep clones in the channel. The only time a clone might be needed in an IRC channel is if the IRC network is prone to splits, or you are trying to thwart a ban.
    In the case of the IRC network being at fault, please join #OFTC and air your complaints there. Please note that we originally chose OFTC because of the high reliability of the network, and the well-organised administration.

History

Around the beginning of 2002, a few members of the group (Russell, Sean, Pete, and David) spontaneously joined #blug for no particular reason. They talked for a bit, then fell silent. This quietness (known on IRC as 'idling') was only broken with the occasional Is anyone here?, or cough.

The real explosion happened around the beginning of May 2002, when a new group member (Nicky King) posted a question to the list asking if the group had an IRC channel.

Someone replied and within a matter of hours, we had a good 20-strong IRC channel. That's it really.