Hi I have been working on creating a chat room for the OpenCanvas users on the LTS server. I have not mostly completed and the chat is now live.
I have also included 2 other chat channels. #ltsoc is the Opencanvas channel. Please make known your intension to join the current session so other users can be redy, also can be handy to talk through drawings in progress and to ask questions if you are just spectating a live session.

The 2 other channels are:

#ltsmain - General chat - Like the old LTS Chat room which is currently offline
#ltsps - An artist chat channel. For chat about Photoshop, Flash, Illustrator, Opencanvas and other art tools and programs (#ltsoc being for users to chat while in OC)

http://www.ejnmedia.co.uk/ltschat

Me and Marco have been testing the site and it now works ok. Then loading you will connect to all 3 channels, click on the channel you want to chat in, you can switch between them at will by clicking on the buttons. You will remain connected to all 3 at all times whhile the applet is loaded.



Key:

The Public buttons along the bottom are the 3 channels. The darker blue button (in this example #ltsoc) is the active channel you will type your chat messages to. Clicking on the other button makes the other channels active. A red button indicates that someone has typed something in that room if it is currently not active.

The Private button bar is for PMs and IRC Server messages. Private messages from other chatters will appear usually to the right of the server messages. Again a red button means someone has typed something.

The right hand menu lists connected users. Those with @ indicators are the channel operators. Currently will be me and Marco and Serge if he wants to (though will add suitable people on request). + indicators may also be seen. More on that later!

The top menu bar lists all the irc commands and tools availiable. To rejoin a channel to to the - Channels - Menu and select from the list. You can also type the /join #channel command

You can create your own chat rooms here too by typing:
/join #yourchannelname (where #yourchannelname is what you want it to be called, you must place a # before the name.)

Smileys down the left hand site can be clicked to send to the chat window. The Connect/Disconnect command allows you to turn off and turn on the connection without closing the window. Closing the window will disconnect you from all chat rooms.

To manually connect via your own IRC client, such as mIRC (Win), Colloquy (Mac), BitchX (Linux) ect you need to set to collect to the following:

Server: irc.newnet.net
Port: 6667
Channels #ltsoc #ltsmain #ltsps

Please note the applet is still being worked on. Most of the changes will be costmetic and the applet will continue to be online throughout so you may use it whenever needed. So hope you enjoy!

Great job, Empe!
Marco asked me to "redirect" the Chat link in LTS' navigation to the address you posted. I'm not sure if I should place the direct link to another server; but I quickly changed the "internal chatroom" settings. Now it also leads to you server, so people, feel free to use any of the links:

www.ejnmedia.co.uk/ltschat/ (Empe's page)
www.lisa-simpson.net/chat (available in the navigation bar too)

The second one is not so "fancy" and there are no smilies, but maybe I'll adjust it too.
Chatting with Empe right now

Empethree
True... but you can always type /join #ltsoc or /join #ltsps to open these additional channels.
By the way, if you use LTS link, you don't have to type in your name

We'll better declare a couple of evenings-days to be "official chat days" for LTS

im always there, well the computer is. I also log the chats too so handy to see who has dropped by ect.

I think it is a limitation of some IRC servers

I use Colloquy on my Mac and it is a easy to use and elegant client. I still use (an albeit highly customised) mIRC on my main pc and Icechat on the PC upstairs.

Malefix I saw you jump on the chat, sorry I missed you. Lol i had both PCs online but wasnt at either

Saturday's good for me, in fact I'll be testing the chat's compatibility with my friend's laptop here soon. Any particular timeframe to shoot for tommorow?

Saturday evening sounds like a good time for me as well. I'm not the type of person who likes to spend this time in bars or whatever, and neither in front of a TV (yes, I am a nerd ).

Fu**ing keyboard doesn't even switch back from russian :/
I wanted to say, I'd love to be in the chatroom tonight, it seems to be about time, but my mood is so down so I'll just spoil it to the others and nothing else. Sorry, I better skip today's meeting but I hope you have good time there. Sunday evening, or maybe next weekend would be better choice for me.

Chatting right now. My nick works without the ?.

Oops...

Lol was on last night chatting to andreas... next thing i know my alarm is going off this morning lol. Yup i fell asleep.

Sorry... Saturdays are always tiring at work for me and yesterday was busier than usual.

Gah!

Misses some chat again last night..... sorry for not being in chat last night.... very stressful wek at work, especially yesterday and today.

I feel really bad atm stres levels are at the point that i am acually shaking. Think its time to give up

Carl, it's not worth to ruin your life over a crappy job :\ I think it's time for you to let that go and search for something different.. not necessarily better, but you should leave that place.