This website is currently under going a major overhaul. You can still use the chat system however using one of the interfaces listed below.
Since modern computers don't come with telnet any more, a good free replace is PuTTY.
For Windows users, you can get that telnet link to open up putty by using regedit to edit the registry, specifically "Computer\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\telnet\shell\open\command" and changing it to "C:\Program Files\putty\putty.exe" "%l". Obviously changing that path to putty to where ever you have it installed.
For more information, email webmaster@gathering.org.uk