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.H1
Get in Contact
.2C
.PP
For a long time our unlikely community has relied on
.I Discord
for communication. Times are always changing however and thus we
started to move away from Discord some time in 2025. Our preferred
platform is now a small Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server, 
augmented by the trusty bot
.I Norn
and supplemented by slow, thoughtful discussions on a handful of
netnews groups.
.PP
These are old techniques for sure, but they do have their 
advantages. Also we're quite safe from enshittification and
other modern day hazards.
.PP
So if you'd like to join us, but don't know how, here are some 
reciepes to follow and some addresses to take note of.
.H2
Fediverse
.PP
You'll find most of us on Mastodon. If you don't know whether that's
a band or what, checkout: \fChttps://joinmastodon.org\fP. We are, 
among others:
.BU
@alex@tabletop.social
.BU
@kyonshi@dice.camp
.BU
@phf@tabletop.social
.BU
@wandererbill@tabletop.social
.H2
Internet Relay Chat
.PP
Out main server is
.I campaignwiki.org .
To join the chat point your IRC client to campaignwiki.org, 
port 6697. Alternatively you can ask @alex for an account on
\fChttps://chat.campaignwiki.org\fP.
.PP
However you manage to connect to our IRC, here are some channels
you might want to join:
.BU
#welcome - chit chat and hanging out, start here!
.BU
#next-games - here is where games are advertised
.BU
#sabbel-kanal - another, older general purpose channel, still bridged to the Grenzland Discord
.BU
#traveller - talk about that famous family of 2d6 sci-fi games. This channel is bridged to the #traveller channel on irc.undernet.org
.PP
Specific games may well have their own channels. It's probably best to ask around on #welcome if you're looking for a particular channel.
.PP
Also, with IRC being what it is, it's easy to set up a new channel in an ad-hoc fashion. Just join the new channel by typing 
\fC/join #my-new-channel\fP. It will be created if it didn't exist already. You may set the /topic and /invite others to your new channel.
.H2
Netnews
.PP
While IRC is fast but also volatile and usually non-persistent,
there is also netnews for lengthy, thoughtful discussions. Netnews
messages persist as long as any one server on the network keeps a 
copy of it. This can be quite long, in deed. Decades in case 
.I Usenet ,
the most famously known network of netnews servers.
.PP
Our network is small however. You can have a look via the web
interface on \fChttps://campaignwiki.org/news\fP. 
You'll find that there
are a couple of groups from the larger usenet, but the important
ones are \fCcampaignwiki.games\fP and \fCcampaignwiki.talk\fP.
.PP
You'll find that netnews is much like group email. In fact you
can use
.I Thunderbird
to connect to our newsserver, and read and write to the groups 
just as you would read and write email. Do get in touch with one
of us if you need help setting it up.
.H2
Voice and Video Chat
.PP
Apart from
.I Discord
we've used
.I Jitsi
many times. The instances we use are:
.BU
\fChttps://meet.ffmuc.net/zurichmondays\fP and
.BU
\fChttps://meet.zrh.init7.net/MontagInZürich\fP
.PP
Recently we've been having good success with a software called
Galène: \fChttps://galene.org/\fP - whoever is hosting a game
will send you the URL and credentials to join.
.PP
So there you have it. There are many options to scratch that 
gaming itch online, without relying on big money services. 
We hope to see you join soon!
.AU 
lkh