Announcement: games.on.net retires IRC channel, moves support requests to Steam
By Tim Colwill on November 8, 2012 at 4:31 pm
Good news, everyone! games.on.net has officially retired its IRC channel as our method of contacting game administrators. From now on, the games.on.net Steam Group is now the official method for reach out pool of tireless volunteer admins.
Why the change? The IRC has performed admirably, but has always been an unofficial method of admin contact that many players don’t even know how to use. As the vast majority of the games for which we host servers are on Steam, and nearly everybody has Steam open all the time, we decided that using the games.on.net Steam channel for contacting admins would be faster, easier, and simpler.
If you need admin help with any game — even non-Steam games, such as Battlefield 3 — you can pop into our chat channel and ask for an admin. There’s usually somebody idling in there at most hours of the day and night, and you should be able to get the help you need.
We’ll be using the Steam group to promote community games nights, prizes and competitions as well, so there’s every reason to join and stay on top of the latest games.on.net news. Please also feel free to use the channel for general chat, discussions of funny internet pictures, and the usual sort of banter that we enjoy. If you have any questions, please let us know — but for now, join the games.on.net Steam Group and jump in!
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Shoot your mates in the head on our servers, for SCIENCE.
We’ve relaunched our Minecraft PVP server: get all the details here
Let the bloodletting begin.
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Well…all that said, I think a few of us will still use IRC :D
IRC is pretty old school, I think moving the support to Steam is a good move since most people use It.
Will the !admin calls still do anything, or were they completely tied into the IRC system ? Guess it doesn’t really matter if a Shift-Tab followed by a few clicks will be enough :P.
IRC is pretty cool but way out of date for your day to day player. So good move really.
I don’t really understand the move, if it’s that difficult for people, why not just add a java-irc client onto the website for admin requests etc. ? IRC may be old and dated a bit, but I think people underestimate it.
!admin call probably wont work in the Steam chat, it worked in IRC because you’re able to run scripts in IRC to search for text that people type (ie. !admin) it can then notify admins etc.
But anyways, Guess i’m just old school like that. ;)
I’m not convinced that moving to Steam is the best thing for GoN admins but I trust they know a lot more about the subject than I do, so if that’s what they think is best, I welcome the move.
However, I fully intend to keep hanging around in the IRC channel for the sake of general chat and so forth.
no offence but fuck you, i refuse to use steam over irc, it has been and will always be the best way to get the admins needed, if the “younger ” generation has no idea on how to use it then that is their own fault for not being bothered
“always”? “unofficial”? Really?
For many years here at GON, it was the recommended way of getting hold of an admin, and the Valve games (CS, TF, etc) even had an in-game script pushing the !admin calls through to IRC. Both of the previous forum layouts had a direct link to the GON IRC channel in the site menu.
Don’t get me wrong, Steam probably is easier for players in this day and age… but there seems to be some revisionist history going on. :)
Coming soon: twitter #admincalls to a server near you!
W-W-Why? Just why?
If they bring that in, I’ll personally hold you responsible. :<
Sure was unofficial, but it was certainly the recommended and most convenient method in the past :) Word for word from the old FAQ:
Do you have an IRC server?
No, however, we do have excellent forums , and many of our players and admins hang out in our unofficial channel, #gamesonnet, located on irc.gamesurge.net. More information on this can be found on the IRC page here.
unofficial hey, so the fact that uggs etc had set it up as the “official” way to contact an admin, had links directly to it with in browser apps, and it was stated on the website suddenly makes it unofficial, what about those of us that do not use steam and or have abandoned it, are we to be left in the dark
Really mature reply Shadow :/ …. Whilst it may have been the best way to get an Admin, with only those in our clan channel idling, it certainly will not be the way to get one moving forward.
Seems a little strange that we’re being asked to join the group, but it’s set to invite-only…
Anyway I support this move. IRC is a nice system for standalone channels, but for channels that integrate into websites it can get really fiddly and confusing for newbies. Once people get into this I think it’ll prove to be a more reliable and widely-used system than IRC was.
Errm, you do realise Steam chat has 0 ability to tie into websites? Outside of visiting the group page for links to stuff?
IRC You can setup scripts for when people can type !help etc. to privately send them a message about links to the MOTD etc.
So, if you don’t use Steam (e.g. me), I have to create a Steam account and join a group, just to get admin assistance? Whereas previously you could just run Xchat/Hexchat and join the necessary server without much fuss anyway.
I know there’s an assumption that all PC games use Steam, but it’s kinda like the assumption that everyone uses Facebook (which too is incorrect), and so competitions for various things are only access through Facebook even though a web site would be much more accessible and open.
Oh well. I’m sure the majority will appreciate the change.
@Electro, nope, you can’t join it, you have to have a purchased game on steam to join Group Chats. (Free games DO NOT work.)
Try logging in first..
subw00fer,
Well that’s not good. What if you’re a light multiplayer gamer who only uses Steam for, say, TF2 (which is free)? If you need the help of an admin you basically have to buy support via a cheap game or something. Doesn’t seem right.
Honestly, the number of people who would need an admin and don’t have Steam would be less than 5%.
James Pinnell,
What about my scenario though? Free TF2 players who only use Steam for that purpose? Apparently they can’t join the group anyway. Do we just forget about them because they’re in the minority, even though you’d be able to get 100% of people to use IRC?
I’m one of those people who had absolutely no idea that there was an IRC channel.
If I did know, I’d never have used it, because I honestly can’t be bothered running an IRC client simply to access a GON channel.
I have been a member of the GON group on steam for quite some time however and Steam is always running on my PC.
So here’s at least one person who likes this news.
They can still submit a trouble maker report.
Miss Murder is correct; if you don’t have Steam you can always use the Contact Us page to submit a TRM. Many people do this every day!
GON has IRC? I like the move. Good job, go home early, close up shop, promotions all round!
A gamer that doesn’t know how to use irc is not a real gamer
The true thoughts of a potato.
subw00fer,
Yes but with IRC you have to download a separate program, set-up your servers, register your nick, possibly find a name that isn’t taken, set-up an auto identifier. Most of that can’t be integrated into a website.
Steam you just join the group, then go to your friends list -> join group chat.
missmurder,
lol that might help! :)
I daresay the same applies if you don’t have Steam :D
As an admin I thought setting up IRC was a pain in the ass…trying to play a game whilst keeping an eye on the admin irc channel was annoyin; it was either alt-tabbing constantly (which made TF2 crash) or playing TF2 in windowed mode which sucked. Using Steam is sooooo much easier imo.
You don’t need to do any of those things for IRC, they’re all entirely optional. Even the separate program bit – web embeddable java IRC clients have been around a long time.
goingsouth,
You clearly don’t know how IRC works.
You don’t need to register anything to join the channel.
Web based applets for IRC have been around forever. And are able to give you random guest names on joining the network and automatically join the channel (just by opening the page, it’ll automatically load, connect to the server, assign you a name then join the channel without you doing anything.)
You don’t register nicknames on GameSurge, you register accounts which you can then use whatever name you want. But again, you don’t have to.
there used to be one embedded in the original forums but someone in their infinite wisdom deemed it either a hassle or an annoyance to do this with subsequent forum overhauls. The IRC channel was and is much more than an easy way to get the attention of an admin it is also an extension of the community. personally i pretty much refuse to run steam these days as most of the games i play are on other platforms and steam is also a system hog imho irc barely uses 6meg and is the only thing i have in my 2nd monitor so now if in BF3 or any other NON steam game i play i have to alt tab out, start steam, log into it, find the GON channel, log into that , put in a call to an admin pray that one of them is actually going to answer it and get on it. Where as all the scripts in the current steam games settings are there and page through to a tried and tested system in irc and page one of the admins via that, it used to be that ALL admins were in irc at some time or another but alas as you have slowly removed the old admins or they quit, and replaced them with newer admins that only a few have any idea how to use irc (iirc it was a mandatory thing for the admins to use and they were taught by the older ones on how to use irc and what to look for)
Knowing how to use it and wanting to use it are two different things, i havent used irc in more than half a decade for anything but finding a GoN admin.
It’s not 1998 any more, time to let irc die.
Honestly this place is turning into a carbon copy of gamespot with a little more green on it instead of the orange.
lol
I like the idea as most people contact me on steam now anyway whenever they want an Admin, and now it is officially supported.
As for those that don’t have steam, as mentioned you can submit a TMR, which is what you would need to do anyway if an Admin wasn’t available within the irc channel.
I like the idea of moving to Steam group chat, but please don’t start spamming all your group members frequently about specials and other announcements. It’s not like there is an ‘opt-out’ option for those announcements on a per-group basis.
needs more oldschool orange..
irc has been around a long time and it works well. heading towards the future there is bound to be new software and technology to bring everything together and obviously valve is doing just that to help create gamming communities.. even if it does involve macs and chewing on long cylinder type objects..
invite only?
As said on the previous page, log in first. It’s only invite only if you’re not logged in.
Ah, well yes i opened it in a new tab, not steam.
It also appears I’m already a member from ages ago, forgot about that.