A very articulate and timely post, Arvedui. I have one more suggestion to add, as well. A lot of the people who chat regularly in #barrowdowns, the provided chat room, use the java applet exclusively. If you only use the link provided under the chat option and you chat regularly a good way to help would be to download an alternative IRC program such as mIRC, which can be found at
www.mirc.com.
Once you have downloaded the program all you have to do is connect to a sorcery server (ex. /server cookie.sorcery.net) and join the chat room (/join #barrowdowns). In addition to helping save costs, the program offers many advantages over the java applet, too numerous to list here.