Well, well, well. Here we are again. Chances are many of you have noticed that this column recently has been just a conglomeration of my thoughts, either political or strictly personal, and really has lost a bit of the edge the early ones have had.

Well, none of that today. Today, you get to lay witness to the wrath that is ...me. Why, you may ask? Well, even if you didn't, it's rather simple. I'm pissed off. And when I get pissed off, I've a tendency to share. Or at least rant, and give this blasted thing the anger fix it's been needing.

Okay, first of all, some necessary background. Some of you that read this are fellow fanfic writers, (No, I'm not going to explain what fanfic is. Deal.), and chances are that if you've found me and have looked around at all, you'll see a lot of CFAN stuff. CFAN is the Comic Fan-Fiction Authors' Network, and it's here. If you've never been there, and are a fanfic writer, I recommend it, it's a good place.

Anyway. Enough with the plugs. A good portion of the CFAN community hangs out on IRC in DALNet #subcafe, a nice, relaxed channel with a coffeehouse feel to it. There're some writing-only channels, but one of them is invite-only (#plotting), and the other, #spam!, is deader than a 120-year-old Spanish whore, to use a phrase that I've been using for a bit.

I started on IRC because I wanted to get some help with my fic writing from someone other than merely Spade, who heard more about my writing ideas than anyone should've had to. I joined up on #subcafe and became relatively well-liked, but I did notice one thing.

You can't get much in the way of writing help on #subcafe.

Sure, you might be able to spam a bit of your story on there and get a bit of suggestion and feedback on it. But the people that join that channel join it to socialize, and any of you who are on there cannot tell me that and go kiss a baby afterwards. You'd be a hypocrite. And we all know how much I like those.

So, what are the writing channels set up by the CFAN community? We've got essentially three. #plotting and #spam!, with the exclamation point. One of them is the invite-only channel set up by a few people a long time ago, and the other was set up as the alternative. #spam! is the latter, and was neglected horrendously. Neglected to the point that if two people were in there, it was active. #subreality is the new one, and it's more or less followed the path of #spam! in the fact that there's about four or five of us there.

Or, as the IRC page on CFAN will tell you, there are some official descriptions of these. These are only a few of the channels, as there are, seemingly, a hundred.
 

• #subcafe: THE room -- think of it as the main lobby. A must-visit. Anything goes, within the bounds of comic fanficdom. Currently Founder = Foenix. Also available on NewNet. 
• #subreality: Established for Subrealizens of all stripes -- it doesn't matter when genre you're into as long as you're willing to talk Subreality. Currently Founder = Kielle. 
• #spam!: For talking about stories in progress -- some goofing off allowed. Also available on NewNet.
• #plotting: For working out story ideas. Invite only, best behavior required. Ask for details in #subcafe. 
• #plottingchat: For residents of #plotting who want to talk rather than plot. See #plotting for details about how to join. 

So I did something thinking. I said to myself, "Matt, surely you're not the only person online who came on to get advice and help on your writing. Surely there are others like you, others who want help. And not all of these people will be allowed into #plotting, the Valhalla of writing channels. Some, like you, will be passed over. But if you build it, they will come..."

Anyway.

I journeyed to #spam!, and noticed no one was there for a long, long while. So, I went back to #subcafe and asked a simple little question, and sparked a long, long, long, LONG debate.

Since I'd rather not have to spell everything out on here, I've enclosed some IRC logs of those nights. Read.

Phase 1: The Beginning Steps of the Dance, in #subcafe
Phase 2: Smoot & Mitai, Round 1
Phase 3: Closedown in #spam!
Phase 4: The Birth of #not-plotting
Phase 5: Smoot vs. Alicia Mackenzie
Phase 6: Smoot & Mital, Round 2
Phase 7: Smoot vs. Lynxie
Phase 8: #not-plotting during the madness.

But there is good news.

Due to the need of a writing-only channel, I've decided to restart #not-plotting, but I didn't go through everything there for nothing. I realized that a lot of people didn't like the name, and I did receive a lot of bad press for it, so we decided to change the name.

So from here on, the writing only channel on DALNet, for any type of writing at all, is #notplotting. Without the hyphen.

We're back.

Choke on that, slapnuts.
 

This is Matt.
 
 

Edition 1: Fanficcers' Depression and ways to get over it.
Edition 2: "May You Live in Interesting Times"
Edition 3: OTL, Chicken Debacle, and much ranting and raving.
Edition 4: Image is Everything
Edition 5: Web page wars, and safety in the school.
Edition 6: Reality or the illusion therein.
Edition 7: Hypocrisy.
Edition 8: "War and Peace", or "War for Peace"?