MRC

Multi-Relay Chat — a BBS-scene chat protocol that connects sysops
and users across many BBSes through a central hub.

How it differs from IRC

• One central hub (no server federation)
• Authentication is BBS-name-based (no nickserv)
• Messages carry the user's BBS-name as part of the identity
• Mostly text-only; not many bots; a calmer, more BBS-y feel

Connecting

Built in. The mrc-bridge systemd service runs alongside the BBS
and keeps a persistent connection to the configured MRC hub.

/admin/mrc/ configures:

• Hub host (default mrc.bottomlesszoo.com)
• Hub port (default 5000)
• Local channel mapping — which MRC channels get bridged into which
  local chat channels

Default channels

• general — everyone
• sysops — sysop-only (gated by the hub)
• coding, linux, games — topical
• channel-of-the-day rotates on Sundays

Bridged into web/terminal

Once MRC is wired up, Chat users on the local BBS see MRC
traffic as if it were native. Your own messages get a <sysop@anet>
or <user@anet> prefix on the MRC side.

Reference: uMRC

The uMRC reference client is bundled in vendor/uMRC/ — useful
as a sanity check if the bridge is misbehaving.