OxIRC is an Internet Relay Chat server intended for use by current and former Oxford University students, and their friends. First founded in 1998, the server features channels such as #keble. Like any clique, it is a haven for injokes and acronyms.
The date of foundation, and what is actually thought of as the start of OxIRC is shrouded in confusion. Hoggy (David Woolger) had an IRC server on canna, but nobody used it, they used ytalk until there were so many people that you only got 2 lines each. They moved onto IRC running on Oakley. Both of these were running in Keble, and populated by Maths and Maths/Comp people from Keble, oh, and Angharad. Both of these were running in Keble, and populated by Maths and Maths/Comp people from Keble, oh, and Angharad. Before long Oakley was connected to a network of other servers including canna, and later marvin, that together carried OxIRC. Anyone that was involved at the time will know why total dependance on Oakley was to be avoided.
It was mainly used to collaborate on tute sheets and to organise trips to the bar to prepare for more work on the tute sheets.
There were various days where for some reason of messing about people changed their nick to match a pattern, some of these themes still leave their mark on nicks left in the channel and include Discworld characters, and the 7 dwarves.
#keble Members
'kim' and 'andy' both left Oxford in July 2005. They now live in tabland, where andy is doing a PhD in Chemistry. They will hopefully be married on 29th July 2006. (3/2006)
'Crispin' is a finalist at Trinity. He is expected to be the last undergraduate to read Mathematics and Computation there. He hopes to pass his exams, if only to spite those who said he wouldn't. (3/2006)
'Emily' is a withered crone; having entered OxIRC around 1999, and having gradjitated from New College in 1998, he now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the US and works on in-car entertainment systems. (3/2006)
'Art', formerly known as 'penfold', graduated in Biochemistry from Lincoln College, many moons ago. He then realised that he should have some formal proof that he spends too much time with computers, so got a Computing MSc from Oxford Brookes. He now works at the Oxford Internet Institute doing IT Support and Meeja stuff, and seems to have turned into the official OxIRC wedding photographer. (3/2006)
'Zaphod' is still in Oxford, though now not as a resident member of the University. Although not one of the original founders he started running a server (marvin/kebl1088) fairly early in OxIRC's history, and continues to do so in the form of trillian (not to be confused with a client of the same name). (3/2006)