I will look into the irc client sans frills for now.

It's important that for this to be successful, it would need to be incredibly simple, with as few options as possible, and be as firewall-friendly as possible (I know IRC isn't very firewall friendly to begin with, but you know what I mean).

I mean, if you're going to make a Toaster Kettle, it's best for it to be easy to operate.

A decision will have to be made as to which IRC server and which channel will be used for this purpose. Any empeg fans hosting an IRC server and want to devote the resources to this cause?