So you'd like to participate in the NG Sweet Sixteen Comic Contest and--further--be able to chat live with other participants, get important notifications on your phone, and otherwise plugin to the coolest people on the Internet? You're in the right place! First, if you just want to jump in and out of the chat, we have a web chat option:
https://montrose.is/chatting/#sweetsixteencomic
If you want something a little more permanent and fully featured, this guide will walk you through setting up a free IRCCloud account and connecting to the contest server. For those who already know about IRC, here's the relevant details:
server: irc.montrose.is
ports: 6667 (standard), 6697 (TLS)
channel: #sweetsixteencomic
services supported: nickserv, chanserv, klyton (read on for more about klyton)
Okay! Now that all the poopsack wearing Linux nerds have left to fire up Emacs, here's how non-virgins can get connected:
1) Go to https://www.irccloud.com/ and sign up for a free account
2) Verify your email address (it's very important you do this before step 3
3) Fill out the "Join a new Network" form:
Hostname: irc.montrose.is
Port: 6667
Nickname: your handle or username (needs to be one word and short if possible)
Full name: Your name or the longer version of your handle
Channels to join: #sweetsixteencomic
4) Once again, remember to verify your email address (IRCCloud should have sent you a verification link by now).
5) Click "Join network"
6) Ignore a bunch of scary cyber-nonsense and concentrate on the right side of the screen.
7) Click "#sweetsixteencomic" on that right-hand sidebar.
8) You're good to go. IRCCloud will now act much like Discord, keeping track of chat history for you.
If you'd like to put an IRC client on your phone (with the bonus that up to two hours after you last spoke, IRCCloud will send you notifications of chat activity), you can download a client for:
Bonus: How to Use klyton
klyton is montrose's humble freebot. He handles the posting of media and just as important can be used to pass messages to users that aren't online. All you have to do is type:
klyton: tell username: You stink!
Now the next time username signs on (or speaks if they're idle) klyton will relay your message. Remember that both the command and the response appear in the public chat.
Bonus: The IRC Rabbit Hole
If you'd like to learn more about using IRC properly, here are a few resources to get you started:
Anonymous-Frog
It's 2023, why not just set up a Discord server?
alsoknownas1
Why thank you for asking! I love evangelising tech choices.
Privacy:
Discord requires an account. IRC can be accessed anonymously.
All Discord messages including "private" ones are centrally stored in perpetuity. Our IRC server doesn't store private messages at all and limits its logs of public channels.
Stability/longevity:
At less than a decade old, in the process of becoming a public company, and having recently experienced valuation markdowns, Discord simply cannot be trusted to continue to operate "as is" even on a short timescale. Just two years ago it blocked access to its newest clients for what was estimated at the time to be 40% of its communities. Discord has often removed whole categories of TOS compliant communities, even communities with millions of users, solely at investor pleasure.
IRC is a 35 year old open standard that can be self hosted practically until the end of time with no third party control.
Customisation:
IRC supports hundreds if not thousands of clients, everything from command line utilities to beautiful macOS software.
Discord actively fights third party clients. Its official clients consist of a bloated web page, that same bloated web client in an even more bloated Electron app, and two proprietary phone clients.
Integration:
As a proprietary SaaS platform, integration with Discord is limited and a moving target.
Montrose makes chat a part of streaming and other services and needs a stable codebase.
Simplicity:
I have written an IRC client. If it came down to it, I could write a basic IRC server. Discord is so horrendously complicated I'd have no chance to implement it myself if I needed to.