Last night, W’rkncacnter pointed out to me (that is to say, I pointed out to myself) that I had forgotten to mention the #alephone IRC channel in connection with the CLIQUE. #a1 is a very rich and interesting channel from roughly 21:00–2:00 EST, and it happens to be the home base of the CLIQUE. It is here that members discuss how to oppress other Marathoners; it is also where some people try to join the CLIQUE. Here’s a breakdown of the main characters, but note that not even the CLIQUE knows who its members are at all times.

Ray: There is some debate on Ray’s CLIQUE status. Some say he’s in the CLIQUE, some say he is the CLIQUE, and some likely make these claims just so he’ll come back from his dark slumber at the sound of his name being highlighted. Also the owner of Pfhorchan.

Slave: JUST KIDDING

Jun/Hentai Sama/Bridget: Jun likes girls, but he enjoys them best if they have a little surprise in their skirts. Well, OK, a big surprise. At least half of all he says is a link to some obscene cartoon porn. His most likely action to this description: posting another link. He is an administrator on Pfhorchan.

screamingfool: He mainly talks about wood these days. :C

RyokoTK: What else can I say? He works hard to ruin the community, and he takes great pride in it. Is this really the guy you want as a channel operator and Pfhorums administrator? (Yes.)

Wrkncacnter (AKA me): Through an unknown series of events, he wrested control from the former “owner” of #a1 (BenUrban). Some believe that Urban once gave SolraBizna status as channel contact, and that Solra betrayed Urban’s trust by giving Wrk the key to power. Will we ever know the tru7h?

ahuxley: Our #1 supplier of loch. No BS.

jon_irons: When he’s not being a relatively productive member of the CLIQUE, he’s probably loching. For this reason, his channel operator status has long since been revoked, and he is not allowed to be a Pfhorums administrator for periods exceeding 5 minutes.

Thermoplyae (sic): Do you like math? No? Good. Well, thermo does. He runs the Traxus wiki, thus controlling a good deal of the Marathon lore that goes through the minds of people who still care. He is on Macsforever’s hit list.

treellama: He has begun to model his behavior after RyokoTK, adapting it to his own tastes: he is single-handedly ruining the Aleph One engine.

So, as you can see, from within the CLIQUE, there is total control of quite a few things:

• The Pfhorums
• #alephone
• The Aleph One engine
• Traxus Wiki
• Pfhorchan
• loch

Or we have this marvelous diagram of the “CLIQUEgarchy”:

The Eternal Story Board is essentially the only place not under direct control of the CLIQUE, but Pfhorrest is slowly turning into yet another CLIQUE puppet.

They key to #alephone and the CLIQUE is timing. If you arrive there during non-peak hours (which is statistically probable if you’re a noob), you will find nothing but repeated join/leave messages. However, when all CLIQUE and non-CLIQUE members are talking, there is much fun to be had. Won’t you join us?

Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #alephone