Hi DhO
as an experiment, I just set up a Jabber (aka XMPP) multi user chat for DhO users to hang out:
dharmaoverground on the server conference.draugr.de (edit: new, faster server)For those unfamiliar with the Jabber protocol, it's an open standard for which many clients have been written. Most can be used free of charge.
A
Wikipedia article on Jabber, pretty technical, for those interested in the details.
In short: you need a client and an account; both can be obtained for free.
Good free clients are
Psi and
Pidgin.
Once your client is installed, you can simply create a new account on a jabber server - the client software will guide you. Or just ask in this thead.
Jabber is slightly more complicated to use than, say, Skype, but it is not owned by a single company, has a large and geeky community, and several large companies also support it, most notably Google and Facebook. Unfortunately, Google talk, while a Jabber implementation, seems to be unsuitable for connecting to multi user chat rooms like the one I set up, though you can use your Google talk account from a Jabber client, and then it's possible to connect to the chat. Similarly, Facebook chat, while again a Jabber implementation, is locked in to Facebook's walled garden.
So - for those interested, feel free to drop in.
Cheers,
Florian
