We've tried the discussion board thing in the past and it just never got used, which is ok except that it required a level of administration that was not equitable based on its use. So we canned it.

But, an IRC channel on <strong>irc.freenode.com</strong> is free and virtually painless to operate because <a href="http://freenode.net/"><strong>Freenode</strong></a> does all the work. So what the heck we'll give it a go. I started and registered the <strong>#njlinux</strong> channel earlier today. I should have the formal registration approval soon but the channel is up and going now, so come chat anytime.

If you have never used IRC then you should give it a try. If you don't like it you can at least say you have tried it. Your current distro whatever it may be likely has a chat client installed. If not, the most common clients are <a href="http://xchat.org/"><strong>xchat</strong></a> and <strong><a href="http://irssi.org/">irssi</a></strong>. I have used them both and they both work well.

When I first made my full time move to Linux I regularly sought help with problems through IRC. There will undoubtedly be a channel on the topic you require or are interested in, and if Freenode doesn't provide for that particular topic then some other network likely will. It's a great tool to have in your general purpose toolbox. If you're completely green to IRC then you can find many good <span style="color: #000000;"><strong><a href="http://www.linuxchix.org/irc-beginners.html">tutorials</a></strong></span> on-line that will get you going.