tormie,
i dunno if you've spent time on my site, but digital hippies has it's own irc server, we run it out of our apartment actually, it's up 24/7 with the occasional 1-2 hours of downtime each month with we do maintaince and upgrades. we currently run 6-7 different rooms, so its never bogged down or laggy. if you're interested i could ask hash about setting something up for you, maybe he could plug a couple of bots in there for you too.
we're both on IRC and in the DH room nearly 24/7, heh, so i think it would be cool as hell to get to chat with you guys.