Our Services

We’re a Reformed network, serving a community of long-time users.

Network Info

In this, the second edition of this network, it is our intent to provide a safe, family-friendly IRC network with a variety of features and services to ensure a pleasant community experience.

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Net Topology

RefChat currently consists of 2 Servers – Gill and Owen, running UnrealIRCd with Anope services. We also run a federated Matrix server, which bridges to IRC, and provides access to Discord users, as well.

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Hosted Channels

Currently, #prosapologian, #apologetics and #choosinghats are our anchor channels.

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Federated Social MediaFederated Social Media

Currently in production: The VanTil Pleroma instance.

Decentralized social media with no ads, no algorithmic feature creep, and no creepy BigTech tracking. Contact RK on the chat server(s) or the #pros Facebook group for an invite!

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Beta: WattsBeta: Watts

Currently in Beta testing on our Funkwhale pod: Watts (in honor of the famous hymnwriter) offers music & podcast hosting, discoverability for a wide variety of other artists, and music library functionality.  Contact RK for an invite!

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Alpha: BiblionAlpha: Biblion

Currently in Alpha testing on our PeerTube instance: Biblion is our federated video library. Currently utilized by Perkinston Baptist Church for their service videos. Contact RK for an invite!

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Alpha: EikonAlpha: Eikon

Currently in Alpha testing on our Pixelfed instance: Eikon is a federated image sharing platform with no ads, chronological timelines, and photo filters. Contact RK for an invite!

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Blog

Business Models and the Distributed Internet

I’m old enough to remember the text-only internet, as well as some of the initial forays into media. Advertising... read more →
February 9, 2021

Social Media Should Be Social

I probably don’t need to tell you all of the things that are wrong with corporate social media. I... read more →
February 4, 2021

Let’s Talk About Social Media

Let's talk about Social Media. Currently, most people primarily use a big corporate "portal" for that. These portals, like Twitter,... read more →
February 1, 2021

RefChat Turns 1 – State of the Network

This has been quite a tumultuous year! We're happy to have been here for you as we all navigated it.... read more →
August 4, 2020

Reformed Chat

RefChat is Reformed chat – and we try to make it a place where Reformed folks will want to be. Whether it’s theology and fellowship in #prosapologian, presup in #choosinghats, or any other interest you might have – from video games to guns – and even politics – feel free to pull up a chair and talk about it.

 

 

 

 

Community Coded In

We have Presbyterians, Baptists, Anglicans, oh my! If you don’t see a channel that fits your interests – make one, and invite your friends!

Privacy: Why it matters

Tracking
What would you call it if someone followed you everywhere you went, took notes on everything you did, and sold all that information to other people? Creepy. In all seriousness, though, we’d call that stalking. Amazon, Google and Facebook stalk us every single day. They call it “enhancing your user experience.” We should call it invasive.  We don’t track your internet usage, don’t have ads, and don’t charge for any feature we provide. We’re a community service.
Commoditization
To Facebook and Twitter, you are a commodity, to be sold to advertisers. Your behavior as well as your content belongs to them, and is sold to advertisers who want you to buy their stuff. Is that really what personal interaction is supposed to be? They can talk about “your data belonging to you” – but does it? Does it really? Not as long as you are on their service. Sure, use of their services is “free” – you pay with your identity, your data – and the data and identity of everyone you interact with. They are what are called “walled gardens” – and strive to keep you in their gardens. You don’t have to be, if you make another choice.
Friends and Family
A lot of us stay on Big Tech social media because that’s what our friends and families use. What if there was an alternative for us, and them? What if we build just such a community resource that is also interoperable with other communities like it?
But I don't have anything to hide
Oh? So, you don’t mind if random corporations have all of your identity information, CC #s, email addresses, location info on all your photos, on you at all times – all your children’s names, all your behavior, all your internet traffic through outbound links…

Because that is what you’re giving them. Do you trust them? If so, why?

Freedom of Expression & Religion
Let’s face it – Facebook and Twitter don’t care about either of these. They care about whether they can keep advertisers buying from them. This will only continue as long as they can make the vast majority of their userbase happy, to provide data to crunch for their advertisers. If your behavior doesn’t serve to keep the majority of their userbase happy, or if certain advertisers lobby to get people like you kicked off their site because the data suggests that that’ll result in better advertising revenues – guess who’s out? Don’t get canceled. Opt-out and go with people who actually care about you, and your rights as creatures in the image of God.
Services

We use Anope to provide services, including Nickserv, Chanserv, Memoserv, Hostserv, and Operserv.

We also bridge in both Matrix and Discord to our #prosapologian and #choosinghats channels, for those who use these programs regularly.

Core IRCd implementation100%
Phase 2 Implementations50%
Website & Social Media90%
1024
Cups of Coffee
2
Coders
150+
Users
423
Ways to get kicked in #prosapologian

Need Help Connecting?

Instructions for connecting to the network.

Register

Reserve and manage your username with Nickserv.

Register & Operate a Channel

Registered users can create and operate their own channels – for fun, for groups, or for ministries – find out more here.

IRC Commands & Documentation

Find instructions for getting the most out of the network, and your client.

Future Stats Block

Because – STATS

Users

Who chats here?

The Institutes of RefChat

The rules of this network are simple. Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, discuss these things and there won’t be anything to worry about. IRCops are committed to plural polity. However, we reserve the right to disband any channel we please. If you are new to our network and setup a channel an IRCop may get in touch with you or stop by your channel from time to time. We ask that channel owners be of the same mind and rule their channels accordingly.

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About Us

RefChat is administered by brigand and RazorsKiss as a labor of love. IRCops are by appointment only. Channel ops are appointed by each individual channel, in accordance with their own rules. RefChat is a successor network to GenevaIRC, the creation of randy and Shamgar – and formed to support the original #prosapologian channel. RefChat is a Christian chat network.

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Channel Spotlight: #Prosapologian

#prosapologian has been in constant operation for over 23 years – starting on Undernet, as an outgrowth of the #Charis and #apologetics channels, and becoming, in essence, the ministry channel of Alpha and Omega Ministries. It moved to Starlink-IRC for quite some time, before moving to their purpose-built home network of GenevaIRC, where it resided for the better part of a decade. Now that community has moved to a new home at RefChat, but is no longer affiliated with Alpha and Omega – but #pros “channel rats” still have affection for “DrOakley” and his ministry partner, “AOMin”.

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Pros Unique

What our users say

It isn't totally terrible, I hear.- John Doe
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?- Jonny Dozer
Put that thing back where it came from, or so help me- Jane Doe
Roadmap

Phase 2.0 implementations:

Fully puppeted bridge(s)

Stats Service

Federated Social Media: Active Pleroma instance – currently accepting Alpha testers

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Computery Stuff

We recommend HexChat as an IRC client for Windows or Linux desktop environments.

This site is mobile optimized. We recommend Element as a fast Matrix client, for our mobile chat users. It is full featured, lightweight, and very fast.

We do not recommend Discord, though we do support Discord bridging to various rooms, and operate a server for our users’ convenience.

Connectivity

Connect and communicate via IRC, Discord, or Matrix – they all work together here.

 

 

 

 

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Our Values

Family-friendly, federated, free of charge.

Our Philosophy

We’re committed to private server-based communication. Centralized, corporate platforms are not your friend; when using their services, you don’t own your content – they do. Decentralized nodes – composed of friendly communities – are the way the internet should be.

Our Mission

To provide a safe, secure, and sophisticated communications network for our users.

RefChat: Reformed Chat in a sacerdotal world.

This is the website for an IRC network. Join the conversation!

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