This is an informational post concerning MAMEdev's increasing community and social media presence.

== FORUMS ==

For a decade now (since June of 2007), MAME has not had an official forum dedicated to the project and its community. There are some boards moderated by MAME developers at bannister.org covering focusing on the former sister project MESS, and the former derivative build SDLMAME (both of which have since been integrated into MAME). Both boards are still active, as they have been for a very long time, but they were never really MAME's "project home". Of course, we cannot forget the MAMEWorld forums where the frequent MAMEdev presence has given some users the impression that it was MAMEdev's official forum, while in truth it never was.

Long story short, we have been quietly running a forum which has been open to the public for a few months now. You can now visit and sign up for an account at MAMEDEV Forums. Please note that all new accounts must be approved and activated by an administrator, which currently takes hours or days, so don't panic when you find you can't post immediately after registering. Secure your handle now!

== IRC ==

In case you missed the the announcement we made alongside the release of MAME 0.173, MAMEdev now has official presence now on IRC. In the past, many MAME developers could be found on the EFnet channel inherited from the former sister project MESS. As we've switched to a completely Free and Open Source license, freenode is a natural home for the MAME community. The freenode network has been supporting Free and Open Source communities since the late 1990s, so we're in good company there. Freenode provides features like IPv6, SSL transport, nickname registration and SASL login, cloaking and channel services. Unlike EFnet, freenode isn't arbitrarily blocking large ranges of European IP addresses, and isn't as prone to netsplits.

Most IRC clients come pre-configured for the freenode network. If you're manually configuring your IRC client, the server is chat.freenode.net on port 6667, or port 6697 with SSL. Freenode also provides a web-based interface to their IRC network if you want to chat without installing a dedicated IRC client application.

We have two public IRC channels: #mame for general discussion with the MAME developers and community, and #mame-dev which focuses on discussion related directly to MAME development. Both channels are open to anyone interested, but #mame-dev requires you to register on freenode and authenticate with SASL or NickServ, help at this LINK. MAME developers frequent both channels, and with our global reach, you'll likely find at least one of us online at any time of day or night.

== SOCIAL MEDIA ==

MAMEdev also has a few other official communication channels including:

* Twitter

* Facebook

* Imgur

* Instagram

We encourage anyone who follows the project or would like to get more information to subscribe or follow us on one or more of these channels.