The Access Grid Venues MOO at Argonne National Laboratory serves as the official virtual hangout of the AG community, as well as the primary backchannel for communication among AG node operators during AG-based events. MOO stands for "MUD, Object Oriented", and is a specific implementation of a MUD system. (In practice, the difference between a MUD and a MOO is not apparent to the casual user.) To borrow (and slightly modify) from Internet.com's Webpoedia, a MUD is:
"Short for Multi-User Dungeon (or Multi-User Dimension) a text-based virtual space where users can take on an identity in the form of an avatar and interact with one another. Originally, MUDs tended to be adventure games played within enormous old castles with hidden rooms, trap-doors, exotic beasts, and magical items."
Our hangout room tends to be a bit light on the exotic beasts and magical items, but it's full of sociable, AG-knowledgable people who'd like to help you. There's almost always somebody hanging around on the MUD during US business hours -- and frequently at other times as well. As international AG usage increases, we'll probably see more round-the-clock conversations. And many of us find it useful to leave a MUD connection open all the time, so we can catch up on current events by reading the discussions which take place while we're away.