Okay, two simple options for those of you who want to chew some election eve fat. At the bottom we have a Meebo chat room as per the last two evenings (UPDATE – Not any more). Directly below we have the most beginner-friendly IRC interface known to man. Just type in your favoured nickname, hit the button and you’re in (God willing). Wait a few seconds for the initial mess on the screen to clear. If you’re having problems leave a comment on this post and hopefully someone will come along with a response. Huge thanks to Chris for all his assistance here. Click here to enter the chat via a different page.
Reflections on the Miracle of Democracy at Work in the Greatest Nation on Earth
Dress rehearsal 3
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24 Comments
Help William. I followed your instructions only to be told to connect to irc server #pollbludger.
Vote1Maxine, when you did that did the fields say
#pollbludger in Type the Room Name
yourname in Type your Nick
irc.freenode.net in Type your Server URL
???
Mr. Bowe, an extremely minor quibble from one Simpsons fan to another.
I believe Doh! is actually spelt D’oh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D‘oh!
Is it in your power to change this?
I don’t think this is going to work for we baby boomers, it just goes to fast – no lime for cconsidered comments and punctuation. Will the existing blog format still be relevant ?
Where is D’oh spelled thus, TW? I can’t let this stand.
When I tried to connect to the IRC, the IRC wondow came up, but I got this in it:
Connecting…
Unable to connect : java.security.AccessControlException : access denied
(java.net.SocketPermission irc.freenode.net resolve)
wondow = window
D’ow.
When the meebo room is full, the message I see says
Room is full.
Doh! Try joining this room later
You might have a firewall issue or something. I’ll tell the boffins in the room to keep an eye on this thread occasionally to see if they can help with any troubleshooting.
Oh. That’s beyond my powers sorry, TW.
No problemo.
Am able to connect when a spot is available.
Thank you Sir for all your efforts.
9
William Bowe Says:
You might have a firewall issue or something. I’ll tell the boffins in the room to keep an eye on this thread occasionally to see if they can help with any troubleshooting.
Boffins: Which port do I need to open in my firewall, because I keep them all closed unless specifically required.
Theres a lot of uninteresting noise out there – biblical comparisons of Gillard and Bishop – I think there must be a gaggle of pimply faced dweebs taking over – who’s hotter than who – whata bore – go to a porn site and indulge your fantasies – this site should be declared wank free !
@Just Me…
It’s an outgoing connection, so it’s possibly the firewall on your PC blocking Java from making outgoing connections (hardware firewalls usually don’t block outgoing connections).
Try turning off the firewall for a second, then see if it works. Just remember to turn it back on afterwards.
Thanks, AJH. But I have too many sensitive work files on my hard drive to risk switching off the firewall, even just for a minute. Will ask my family’s resident IT expert for an answer, when he comes home.
I get No 1’s problem. Had no problen connecting yesterday (pity, because I was drunk)
IRC chatroom works a treat
.. that is the first option up there
Didn’t try the second one but if the first one works ……
Thanks for reminding me how nice chat rooms are
… now that it is up and funtional, I like it better than the PB list itself 
If you want to try the firewall, Just Me, it should be port 6667.
William,
Quick FYI/Feedback:
I usually read PB via Google Reader and when a post interests me, I open another browser tab to go and read the full story. Has worked without any problems until tonight with the “Out of the Box” post (number 750). It’s giving me a 404 – “Server can not find it!”
Thanks
William – there is a strong social difference between a blog and a chat room and as such I recommend keeping them as separate entities. Blogs deal with a sequence of (generally) qualified opinions (although some of the stuff on pollbludger is a little off the edge from time to time). If you separate the chit-chat out to an IRC channel and focus plog posts to main stream contributors – then you will be offloading some of the bandwidth – otherwise just stay with the blog and deal with the traffic.
Dubious, William. I had a shot at it, and got nowhere. I myself am a user friendly step by step tech writer.
This is a little tricky, I suggest, especially for all on the eve off, when nails are already bitten. Including yours, I imagine.
davididoff at 20 puts it well.
PS I wasn’t shouting at you in caps about the Galaxy poll reporting on Channel 10.
I was aware you would await a qualifier.
It was just that the posters went on and on.
Maybe I should have been clearer myself.. the other poster confirming definitely spelled it out.
Hi william,
didn’t work for me. When i put in my server U was still re-directed. The meebo thing wroks for though. Cheers
trying again at 4:34 am Sydney time and got the following error message
unable to connect : java.lang.NullPointerException
Advice? Cheers
William, we forgot to put up a note informing people that they need to have a Java Runtime Environment installed.
Available here.
Also, that they need to have Java enabled in their browser.
Instructions here.