If you like, I can try installing an IRC server for the forum. It would be on my home server, which is reasonably well-connected, but obviously I couldn't guarantee the reliability of a professionally-hosted one. And equally obviously, if it got so busy that it impacted my own Internet usage, it would have to be limited at the least - but I expect the bandwidth used would actually be quite modest. However, I doubt that Jeph would want to pay for having one on his host, as it would be additional bandwidth to pay for not directly related to the comic...