How to Get Into a Rockfic Chat Room

Rules
Use common courtesy and common sense when in either chat room. As with anywhere else related to the site, chatspeak is not allowed. If you wish to try out role-playing chat, please read the Role-Playing (RP) Chat rules

Choose an IRC client (or none):
Chatzilla | mIRC | Ircle | An IRC what!?! (connect via your web browser)

An IRC what?!?!?! (Connect via your web browser)
Easy, peasy! Visit rockfic.com/chat.php.

Chatzilla
Users of the Firefox browser may install the Chatzilla extension. Once you have that installed on your browser (and "restarted" your browser by closing all open browser windows and then opening your browser again), connecting to chat is easy:

1. Open Chatzilla from your Firefox browser from Tools -> Chatzilla
2. In the text entry box at the bottom, type /server irc.afternet.org
3. The first time you connect with chatzilla, you'll prompted to enter a nickname. Do that and hit enter.
4. Once it tells you you're connected, type /j rockfic to enter regular chat or /j rockfic-rp to enter role-playing chat. (Be sure to check out the role playing chat rules before going into role-playing chat for the first time!)

mIRC
mIRC can be used by all Windows users. Download and install mIRC if you don't already have it.

When you start mIRC, the first thing you'll see is the connect options window. Leave full name & email address blank if you like, but you'll need to enter a nickname and an alternative nickname. You will only have to do this once.

On the same screen, you will want to choose AfterNET from the server list on the connection window.

Click "Connect to IRC Server" to connect.

Once connected, type /j #rockfic to enter regular chat or /j #rockfic-rp to enter role-playing chat.

Ircle
Mac users can use Ircle to connect to the IRC chat rooms. Download and install it.

When Ircle launches, four windows should appear: Console, UserList, InputLine, and Connections. In the Connections window, click on the first connection in that list and click Edit (near the bottom of that window).

When the Connection Preferences window appears, you will want to edit the fields to your personal information. Your nick can be anything. Your username should usually be the first part of your email address (john@aol.com would mean your username is john). You do not need to put anything in the password field. In the Real Name field, you may choose to put your real name, or just a phrase or whatever you want visible to others.

In the previous window, Connection Preferences, you need to click "Select," the button near the top beside Server. When the new window pops up, click "Add..." and type in irc.afternet.org and select "AfterNET" in the Network menu. Once you have added the server, click OK and then click the "Select" button. When you get back to the Connection Preferences window, click on OK again. Then, when you get back to the very first window, Connections, click "Connect."

Once you have connected, type /j #rockfic to enter regular chat or /j #rockfic-rp to enter role-playing chat.