Welcome to the ZAIRC website!

We're a South African chat network, making use of the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol to provide users with a free, safe and secure chat environment.

Please take some time to read through our RULES before making use of our services.

Below is a list (ordered by date, newest first) of our recent news and events.

We've added more content to the channel information page for each channel, in the form of a user concurrency graph for channels that maintain 10 or more users. We've also restyled some of the content, and consolidated the usage data into the page too. See HERE for an example.

Our website is now able to display the current MOTD (Message of the Day) from each server based on code that pulls the MOTD when a server links to our network automatically. You can view each MOTD by clicking on the respective server (under the SERVERS page), and clicking on the second tab to the left.

We've made live our new channel activity page for all channels that have channel statistics enabled (click HERE for an example). The page includes a set of graphs, as well as activity during specific slots over selected periods (today, weekly, monthly and total). Also, the statistics page for users also includes a new set of graphs that work in a similar way.

We've enabled (and now forced) SSL connectivity to our WEBCHAT page. All traffic over this page is now encrypted end-to-end providing users with peace of mind knowing that their communication with other users is encrypted.

We've made further improvements to our Trivia bot found in #trivia. The bot now allows for questions that have multiple answers (commonly referred to as 'KAOS').

We've made further improvements to our DNS, specifically the irc.zairc.net DNS pool. Our DNS servers are now able to determine the geographically closest server from your location, and will now automatically assign you to a DNS pool that is closest to you (where available). Essentially, this means you'll always be connected to the fastest, available server. Combined with our DNS pool automation, you'll also only be assigned to pools that have servers that are online and connected to the rest of our network.

We've added a new Activity Map to our USERS page, that displays a map of where our users are based (grouped by country), as well as their associated totals. We've also added 'tooltips' to each of the tabs on the left of each page to easily identify what they are.

Our network graphs are up and running. They can be found under the graph tab for each respective type. View our SERVERS, CHANNELS, USERS and STAFF pages to see them now.

We've made some extensive changes to our DNS (domain) setup, in order to improve availability to the irc.zairc.net DNS pool. If a server splits from the network, it'll now be automatically removed from the DNS pool, so that stale or non-existant servers will not be used. What this means to you, is that you'll always be able to connect to a valid server, without any intervention on your part.

The (very popular) IdleRPG game bot is now live and functional in #idlerpg for those of you that are keen. The game requires you to simply idle, in order to increase your level and battle other players.

We've created a new bot that'll periodically pull the current song, listener count (with peak) from the #voiceoverradio channel music stream.

We've recoded both the #news and #mybroadband channel bots from scratch. Should be a lot more stable/faster now.

We've added some under the bonnet improvements to both the #trivia and #flinkdink channel bots, including new commands for #trivia (!best !bestday !bestmonth !bestyear !commands) and #flinkdink (!beste !dagbeste !maandbeste !jaarbeste !funksies). These new commands display a player's best ever score over specific periods. The !commands and !funksies commands, display available commands for each game respectively.

We've added some additional code to our #trivia and #flinkdink bots to allow them to update our website with current in-game events in real-time. Take a look at our GAMES page to see it in action.

Our website now makes use of HTTPS by default (with a valid certificate) to make sure your information is secure.

You can now login to our website using your NickServ nickname/account and password. We've created a user dashboard that'll allow you to see what channels you own (including current/max users and expiration date), as well as what memos you've been sent. Click HERE to login now.

Today we sat down, compiled our IRC server software, linked everything together and formed an alternative South African IRC Network. We've made use of all the latest and greatest software to provide our users with a modern IRC/chat experience. We aim to be a friendly, secure IRC network providing our users with a clean, fun and memorable chat experience. Please feel free to give us a try!