Late in 2000, after a number of abortive attempts to get the www.forchrist.net domain name properly transferred to a server whose owner had offered us a free hosting with multiple subdomains (like we introduced again in November-December 2009), we finally took out the new domain name of chatministries.org when it was obvious that communication with the automated domain registration authority had broken down.
One can compare that with a recorded message system on a telephone answering service - if you want to do something different from the menu choices, you can't <grin>
Once the registration of the new name had been made, we were able to offer a range of members services and monitoring of website "hits" previously denied.
While that was going on, and in the first few days of January 2001, a stepped up series of vicious attacks on the commercial servers which provide Undernet facilites resulted in almost a shut-down of that network. The history of this can be read elsewhere on this website.
A handful of senior channel people were led by the Lord to establish a safe haven on another, much smaller, and much more reliable network within two days, initially with the offshoot #Christian-Chat, and within a week #Christian and #Christian-debate were also there. This was starlink-irc.org All three channels were registered there on 17th January 2001, and a biblebot provided in advance of that date.
Once it was established that Undernet was going to continue, a decision was made to run the channel ministry in all three channels in both these places simultaneously, using the same policies, and to expand the work to embrace new folk on the other network as well.
Regular guests in each channel helped us maintain our presence there, and we have now started to build up a local regular clientelle too.
Over the period June 2000 to February 2001 several attempts were made by ætheists to register the associated debate channel #Christian-debate away from its established usage. These attempts were denied by undernet.org on the basis of their being seen as attempted take-overs because of the length of time it had been established as an (unregistered but) associated channel. The sad part is the three people involved had been welcomed into the Christian community as friends, but as is so often the case, when the opportunity arose for them to promote their godless agenda, they turned nasty. In 2009 something similar happened with the Apologetics channel which actually lost its registration due to the owner dying, and the regulars being unaware that they had to do anything about it..
An application was previously made in December 2000 by one of the #Christian channel staff which fell into the abyss due to the attacks on undernet on 4th January 2001 and later. It was subsequently reclaimed and registered after the re-establishment of undernet's Channel Service (after 4th March 2001).
You may read about the attacks on undernet in our historical section. Mention of the #Christian-Debate saga is included purely to refute claims still made that we pirated the channel from the ætheists.
Due to an expanded and challenging calling, there was need for a further reshuffling of key channel staff, and there are likely to be more Christian channels coming as things return to normal.
Consolidation of the revamped channels includes the making available of email addresses associated with this website, and also limited web space. This has been available since about 2002 on an every-day basis. If you would like to participate, then please ask :)
From there we saw the introduction of a message board where posts on a wide range of topics could be made and discussed, and the ability for guests to leave each other private messages. This was abandoned due to not being patronised sufficiently; you might say we "have been there and done that" :)
It was during this time that "Social Netowrking" websites - starting with MSN and MySpace - started to attract custom, and we watched while security problems for individual people blossomed and magnified (unfortunately). It was decided that the "bells and whistles" offered by some sites were not for us.
Another development was the establishment of an in-channel bible trivia bot, which was available in several channels; interest eventually waned, and the bot was removed as a result.
Effective January 2003, we established a seperate place where two or three could gather together in Jesus' name for prayer, in another unregistered channel called #Christian-Prayer. Several bots occupy the space, to maintain it for channel guests' use, one of which has scripture posting ability. This became necessary when it was discovered that the previously Christian-run #Prayer had been taken over by unbelievers. The room gets little regular use, but it is somewhere that a person on their own can go and ask the bot for scriptures while in a thoughtful mode.
Sadly, our friend who was providing a hosting fell on hard times and had to discontinue his arrangement with us. We switched to a reasonably-priced commercial host as a temporary job from 2004 though to 2009, without developing further the portal concept we started, and have now started working on again.
The management of these channels praises God mightily for the move He has placed on the hearts of those who established these new outreaches of MrOwl's original ministry and vision of 1994.
If you are interested in the history of chatting via the internet, we can point you towards an excellent page by a Swedish IRCer, Daniel Stenberg. This link will open in a new window.
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- Undernet attacklast updated on 15th February 2010