Fort McMurray and User:Lexein/AbleNET: Difference between pages

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{{Notability|date=March 2007}}

'''Fort McMurray''' is a [[Hamlet (place)|hamlet]] in the northeastern part of [[Canada]]'s western province of [[Alberta]], in the Regional Municipality of [[Wood Buffalo, Alberta]]. Although it is commonly referred to and thought of as being a city, Fort McMurray is no longer incorporated. Thus, Fort McMurray has the status of being the largest unincorporated "city" in Alberta, and possibly Canada.

'''AbleNET''' is an [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]] network. It was founded, May 2001, by [[AfterNET]] Co-Founder and long-time Admin Anthony Sanchez and several others from that network. The network was set up primarily as a chat network for friends, and as a response to growing disillusionment with the policies of some of the [[AfterNET]] administrators. Several users from AbleNET were involved in the creation of [[AfterNET]]; some even tracing their usage back to [[TheNET]] and [[InnerNET]].

AbleNET is a small network with an average of 150-300 users online at any given time. The [[Undernet]]-compatible [[IRCu]] [[Daemon (computer software)|daemon]] software is used on the servers. [[IRC_Services|Channel services]] are provided using [[srvx]]; the user authentication service is named AuthServ and the channel service is named X.

[[Image:Red_provincial_Buildings.JPG|thumb|Red Provincial buildings in Fort McMurray]]

AbleNET is noted for its distinct lack of [[IRCOp]]s, instead using various services to control the flow of network stability and activity. Additionally, the Network is noted for its high standards of access, regarding the limit of multiple connections and unverifiable "bots".

==Location==

Fort McMurray is located at {{coor dm|56|44|N|111|23|W|}}, 370 m above sea level. It is 435 km northeast of Edmonton on Highway 63, about 60 km west of the [[Saskatchewan]] border, nestled in the [[boreal forest]] at the confluence of the [[Athabasca River]] and the [[Clearwater River, Canada| Clearwater River]]. Fort McMurray is the largest community in the [[Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo]]

The network can be reached using irc.ablenet.org.

==Population==

The population of Wood Buffalo ([[2005]] [[census]]) is 73,176, with the majority of that located within the immediate area of Fort McMurray, which used to have city status until it was incorporated into Wood Buffalo a few years ago. Because Fort McMurray no longer has a municipal government of its own, it is technically a [[hamlet (place)|hamlet]], even though its population is now estimated to be 60,983, according to the 2005 municipal census. Fort McMurray is a multicultural community, attracting people from all corners of Canada and the world. Albertans make up almost half the number of migrants to Fort McMurray followed by 17% of people originating from Newfoundland, Canada [[http://www.woodbuffalo.ab.ca/business/demographics/1999%20Census%20Report.pdf]].

== Historical Timeline ==

==Climate==

* May 2001, AbleNET is born and has served as a meeting place for chatters ever since.

The average temperature at Fort McMurray is -19.8°C in January and +16.6°C in July. Its annual rainfall amounts to 334.5 mm, its snowfall is 172.0 cm.

* May 2003, with the looming threat of the [http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/[e-mail] Fizzer Worm] AbleNET joins with a vast collection of [[IRC]] networks and news communities to form [http://www.irc-unity.org/ IRC-Unity]<ref>http://www.irc-unity.org/</ref>.

* December 2005, AbleNET becomes the first IRC Network to offer "blogging" to their community.

==Economics==

== Founder ==

Fort McMurray is considered the heart of one of Alberta's (and Canada's) major hubs of [[oil]] production, located near the [[Athabasca Oil Sands]]. Besides the [[oil sands]], which dominate, its industries rely on [[natural gas]] and [[pipeline]] sectors, [[forestry]] and [[tourism]]. The two largest oil sand mining companies are [[Syncrude]] and [[Suncor]]. For further information on the petroleum industry in Alberta, see [[oilpatch]].

Anthony Sanchez has been using and administering IRC Networks since 1995, starting as an IRCop with InnerNET subsequently [[NewNET]] during it's founding year. Later he went on to Admin servers for [[TheNET]], [[AfterNET]] and finally AbleNET.

[[Housing]] prices and [[tenancy|rents]] are far higher in Fort McMurray than one would expect in such a remote area with land prices considerably higher than Edmonton, the nearest big city. The municipal government is pressuring the [[Albertan government]] to release more [[Crown land]] for residential construction.

Anthony was, coincidentally, the first to publish the story of the raid on and subsequent shutdown of the popular [[Lineage II]] private server, L2Extreme, on the AbleNET website.<ref>http://anthony.blogs.ablenet.org/l2extreme_fbi_shutdown</ref>

[[Transportation]] to and from Fort McMurray is also problematic. [[Alberta Highway 63|Highway 63]], the main highway between Fort McMurray and Edmonton, is regularly congested, resulting in lengthened and costly travel times, not to mention issues of safety, accelerated road deterioration and reduction in quality of life to residents. One recent survey revealed that 96 per cent of Fort McMurray residents see traffic on Highway 63 as a significant problem. The aging [[railway]] between Fort McMurray and the capital is also in need of improvement, which would allow for the movement of more heavy loads to take place away from the highway, and possibly allow for passenger service as well.

==History==

[[Fort Chipewyan]] is Alberta's oldest settled community. Over 200 years ago, [[Peter Pond]] and the voyageurs of the [[North West Company|Northwest Trading Company]] traveled this area in search of furs.

==Municipality==

In addition to Fort McMurray, The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo consists of ten smaller communities: [[Anzac, Alberta| Anzac]], [[Draper, Alberta| Draper]], [[Fort Chipewyan]], [[Fort Fitzgerald]], [[Fort MacKay]], [[Gregoire Lake Estates]], [[Janvier]], [[Mariana Lakes]] and [[Saprae Creek Estates]].

{{commons|Fort McMurray, Alberta}}

== External links ==

* [http://www.woodbuffaloablenet.ab.caorg/ Municipality'sAbleNET IRC Website]

* [http://wiki.ablenet.org/wiki/SRVX SRVX Help Files & Command List]

*http://www.mymcmurray.com/ A popular community website

* [http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Chat/IRC/Networks/A/ Google Directory]

*http://members.shaw.ca/jannadem/home.htm Jan Nademlejnsky's Ultralight Flying and Aerial Photos from Fort McMurray

* [http://wwwsearchirc.altech.ab.cacom/sarnetwork/home.htm Fort McMurrayAbleNET Search and RescueIrc]

* [http://irc.netsplit.de/networks/details.php?net=AbleNET NetSplit.de]

*http://www.fmmha.com/ Fort McMurray's minor hockey association

* [http://www.srvx.net/ SRVX IRC Services]

*http://www.oilbarons.com/ Fort McMurray's Junior A hockey team's website the Oilbarons

* [http://irc-unity.org/]

*http://www.thecgn.com/ Fort McMurray community portal

*http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/ Fort McMurray's newspaper website

== References ==

[[Category:Communities in Alberta]]

{{Reflist}}

[[deCategory:FortIRC McMurraynetworks]]

{{IRC networks}}

[[pt:Fort McMurray]]