I am by no means a chat pro and that's exactly why I am posting this - I just learned a few tricks how to get the most out of our
chat and wanted to share with other non-pro's.
Why Chat?
- Meet many of the GMAT Club stars and legends in a live "face-to-face" environment
- Instant interaction and often help with questions you may have
- A place to hang out, relax, and blow off steam. And you probably thought you were the only one unhappy with your job?
- The place to be when schools release their decisions (be the first to know when someone gets in or when interview invites are out). We usually post announcement in the forum inviting users into the chat, so you don't have to keep visiting every few mins.
Chat Options for GMAT Club
1.
The web client we have built into the website here. You just need a browser and a computer... well, and internet connection..... and well, electricity...
2. You can install a
Pidgin Messenger and can set it up to be an IRC messenger -
this is probably the most convenient way since you can set it up to co-exist with your other accounts on Skype, Yahoo, and Gogole.
3. Another way is to
install an IRC client. That sounds cool but there are quite a few of them (some are paid) and most of them are pretty unfriendly. Of all of them, I found Hydra to be the best combination of unfriendliness, functionality, and price. It is free by the way.
The benefits of Hydra IRC:
- Saves your chat history, including collection of all URL's that were used in the chat - that's neat!
- Notification upon reply (if you are working in another window, it will ding at ya)
- standalone application that does not quit if you close the browser
- A lot of cool windows/control panels/etc of which half I really do not understand. See a screenshot below
- You get to type command line commands which makes me feel like a hacker!
Attachment:
chat-main-window.png [ 158.27 KiB | Viewed 10425 times ]
Here is how to use it:
Step 1: Download the client
https://www.hydrairc.com/Step 2: Add your identity
It is pretty easy - you don't even need to register anywhere, just user your username (you could however, register an account on
https://www.mibbit.com for more benefits but that's not required)
Attachment:
create-identity.png [ 42.36 KiB | Viewed 10403 times ]
Step 3: Add the Server
And that's irc.mibbit.net (this is our chat server provider)
Attachment:
server.png [ 42.77 KiB | Viewed 10422 times ]
Step 4: Join the GMAT Club Channel
Our channel is #gmatclub. You can type this into the command line (that's the chat text line and yes, you can type commands in there). So, the command to join the GMAT Club channel is:
/join #gmatclubIf you do not want to remember/do this every time you logon, do what I did - save this link/channel it to your favorites.
Step 5: Configure Sound Notifications
They are disabled by default so you will have to enable them
Attachment:
sound-notifications.png [ 69.79 KiB | Viewed 10367 times ]
P.S. If you guys end up downloading the HydraIRC and liking it, please post here/let me know - I will make a donation to the developer for each user/member.