Zdoom (IRC channel)

#zdoom is a Doom community general discussion channel, not officially related to any project, nor specifically related to ZDoom. It is likely the most populated Doom-related channel, averaging around 50 users at any given time.

Origins

 * 1) zdoom was originally created on the Freenode network by Kurt Kesler as a private editing-related channel for him and a few other people. Tensions in the #doom channel involving James "Quasar" Haley and the other channel operators caused him and many others to become dissuaded to the way the channel was run. #zdoom was advertised as an alternative to #doom, and gained much of the latter channel's regular members. The #doom operators involved in the disagreement soon moved to their own private network.

Freenode controversy
All through the channel's existence on the Freenode network, Kesler was sometimes unable to gracefully handle the channel's more rambunctious members. His frustration resulted in ownership of the channel passed between him and Quasar a number of times. Throughout 2002 and the first half of 2003, some users complained that channel operators were abusing their privileges.

Likely as an indirect result of these complaints, or perhaps due to some other incidents involving the Freenode network, network operators made #zdoom a network staff-run channel on June 25, 2003. dmwaters, the network administrator assigned responsibility for overseeing the channel, stated that in order for the off-topic channel to remain on the network, it would have to follow Freenode's channel guidelines, remove auto-opped users, and tone down the language and sexual references.

Exactly one month later, dmwaters closed the channel, stating she had several requests for it to be closed. Other mitigating factors were a lack of respect for Freenode's channel guidelines, particular users driving away her channel staff, and that the channel was making her, as the founder, "misserable" (sic).

In anticipation of something like this happening, Bill "Bloodshedder" Koch registered the channel #zdoom on the OFTC IRC network back in April of 2003. After the channel on Freenode was closed, nearly all of its former regulars eventually relocated to OFTC.

Current status
Today, #zdoom remains a lively discussion center where community members can freely chat about almost any sort of topics they please. Like #legacy, discussion rarely centers around Doom or ZDoom. Common topics are too numerous to list, and the center of discussion often changes quite rapidly.

Although many regulars are also members of the Doomworld forums, the two entities have no official connections.

External link

 * #zdoom