#IMC2

It's an IRC channel which is linked to a channel on IMC2 through a bot which I made.
IRC is short for Internet Relay Chat, and IMC is short for InterMUD Communications.
The IMC2 protocol is used for multiple separate networks as opposed to something
like I3 which is primarily one network.  The two main public IMC2 networks are
OpenIMC and Mud Domain.  Mud Domain has a channel linked with this channel, while
OpenIMC doesn't at the moment 'cause of lack of interest.
There are also 2 publically-known private IMC2 networks which obviously aren't involved.

How do I connect?!?

To connect to DALnet IRC, if your web browser and an IRC client have been
configured right, then you might be able to click on irc://DALnet/imc2 or
irc://irc.dal.net/imc2.
If not, just start up your IRC client and connect to irc.dal.net port 6667.
The MUDIRC network is also connected, you can connect to irc://irc.mudirc.com/imc2.
To connect to IMC2, you need to have a MUD running an IMC2 client.



Gimme MUD and IRC files!

Okay!  Those came from here or a few other places.
MUDIRC has a forum which should have helpful stuff too.



What's the point of #imc2 to Tim?

I made a bridge-type connecting program that connects between IRC and the IMC2
intermud protocol, and figured I'd set it up for use somewhere.  For myself, this
was just a technical thing that would be fun to do.  If people want to talk
through it, then cool.



What's the point of the bridge, for people on IMC2?

As a user of IMC2, you can enable people to talk to you through IMC2 without
having them need to set up IMC2 on their own computer.  So far, I think it
seems like most people just use it to talk in real-time with people on IMC2
without yourself going on IMC2.  Usually people just use it to ask for help
setting up IMC2... it's quicker than e-mail, and quicker than logging into
random MUDs in hopes of finding a coder somewhere.
From a MUD on IMC2, IRC is just another MUD.
Example: Timbo@DALnet [irc]: bleh



What's the point of the bridge, for people not on IMC2?

You can join the channel and start talking to people through IMC2 immediately,
without having to log on random MUDs looking for a coder.  You can get setup
help from people already on IMC2, just chat with IMC2 people, chat with whoever
else happens to join the channel, whatever you want.  To people on IRC, IMC2
looks like 1 user who says the name of whoever's talking in front of all the
messages.
Example:  <MudDomain> (Tim@TimMUD) blargle



Are there security concerns with this bridge?

The bridge only forwards channel messages, and only the channel(s) that I set
it up to use.  I may some day let it do private messages, but not now.  From
the IMC2 side, they can't see your IP on IRC because they can't do a /whois
to you.  From the IRC side, they can't look at 'who' screens or send tells,
etc.  On the IMC2 side, if you send a who request, it will reply with a list
of channels and the topic and users in the channel.



Can I do a tell or /msg to a specific person through the IRC-IMC2 bridge?

I turned that capability off.  I might turn it on later after I've written
something to prevent spamming and such.



What's the history of the bridge thing?

I originally wrote the bot in early July 2004 and connected it to multiple
(public) channels, but then changed my mind about it.  Basically, I wrote
the entire bridge alone, and then when it was done started talking with it.
After the people on IMC2 noticed Timbo@DALnet talking on the public
channels, one of the network admin created a channel for the IRC thing to go on,
so I've since limited it to just the 1 channel.  Since it's only 1 channel, and
people on the IMC2 side know that the channel is primarily for chatting with IRC
people, I've dropped the +m flag on the IRC side, so anyone can talk without
needing to be voiced.  Don't take advantage of this :)  Back in 2001-2002 I wrote
an IRC client that acts as an item that can be carried around in a MUD.  This was
useful to me because I could basically use the MUD to stay connected to IRC
despite my own internet connection being unreliable.  I can write much better
LPC code than I could back then, but I haven't had the incentive to update the
client.  The bridge was written from scratch and is not based on the client,
however, the knowledge I retained from writing it helped me quite a bit, as I
didn't have to read the entire RFC.  If you're interested in using it yourself,
there's a link to it at the bottom of this page.  You're on your own with it
though, as I myself don't even remember how to use it mostly.  It's also based
on the telnet object which was packaged with TMI-2, so you'll have to agree to
the licensing of TMI-2.



Can other networks or MUDs use the IRC bridge thing or the channel?

I haven't released the bridge, but I don't mind running an extra copy for you.
I am the sole author of it, and may release it whenever I like, but have chosen
not to, so far.  You are free to use the channel though, as the IMC2 people
haven't told me any restrictions on how I'm allowed to connect to it.  If you'd
like to connect your MUD directly to the channel, you're free to do that... one
MUD has already done that even, as I understand it.  Other people have used IRC
on a MUSH (look at the files page).  If you don't want to use my bridge thing,
you are also free to connect your own networks yourself if you have some way
of doing so.  You can even do non-IMC2 ones if you like.



What kind of stuff is on-topic?

In the samples I mentioned asking for help on setting up IMC2, but you actually
can talk about whatever you like.  There's TimMUD's channel listing thing if
you're curious what people are talking about lately.



The bot seems buggy!

I need to edit it some and make it aware of disconnects, I currently just
watch it and restart it when I notice it's down.  Also it's unaware of color
codes, so IRC sees IMC2 codes and vice-versa.  Otherwise it works pretty good.
Be aware that it intentionally does pretty much nothing beyond channel messages.



Why DALnet?

DALnet has their chanserv and nickserv services, and users can register their
own channels without going through an application stage like on Undernet.
Undernet has it's own services comparable to NickServ, but they require
channels to be 'established'.  EFnet has a minimal thing which restores ops,
but not enough for me to leave it unattended and all that.



Why MUDIRC?
MUDIRC is an IRC network that got set up recently for talking about MUD stuff.
There are also other channels on it (#MUD and #MND as of this update), as well as
the MUDIRC forums.  Since MUDIRC is related to MUDs, I figured it might as well
be on there.  MUDIRC also has the same type of chanserv and nickserv services
as DALnet has.



What rules are there?

* Don't spam on either side of the bridge(s).
* Treat this channel as a public place and don't whine if people quote your or something.
* Don't try to do anything that would cause the bot to break DALnet or IMC2 or MUDIRC rules.
  (none are especially restrictive, you'd have to go out of the way to break them)



How can I contact the author of the IRC-IMC2 bridge program or its host, or
the webmaster of this web site?

I do all of the above myself.  It's easiest to contact me through intermud.
That would be Tim@TimMUD...
TimMUD is on I3, as well as each of the three major IMC2 networks.
From the web you can send me a tell on TimMUD here if you wanted to for some reason.

Eventually this page'll have instructions on how to set up the various
programs and scripts and all that (as far as the MUD-related ones).
If you wanna write a tutorial and have me link to it or host the
page on here, then that'd be cool, and you should let me know.