CEV (Chat & Entertainment Village) is a made-up social hangout for people who miss the stuff that used to make hanging out online fun: weird local-access TV, chaotic game shows, forums with bad avatars, chatrooms with worse usernames, and the general sense that the internet was a community center, not a mall.
We don't have a mission statement. We have a fax machine and a wheel that may be cursed. If you've ever wanted a place that feels like the lobby of a public access station at 11pm, congratulations, you found it.
The real history, as far as anyone can verify: CEV was founded in Australia back in 1997 as an entertainment-and-chat outfit, mostly running IRC for an audience of teens and young adults who just wanted somewhere to hang out online. Chris Williams and Kerry O'Connor ran it. Nobody remembers who came up with the wheel.
Somewhere around 2000, the original CEV briefly tried to grow up — pivoting toward "internet services and IT," domain registration, free email, a software portal, the whole dot-com checklist. It did not stick the way anyone hoped. What actually stuck, twenty-something years later, is the chaos: the chatroom energy, the in-jokes, the sense that this was always a clubhouse first and a company never. So this version of CEV puts that part back on the marquee, where it belongs.
Est. 1997, Australia · Some details lost to dial-up · 🔍 Type the konami code anywhere for the unedited version
After a long stretch off the air, CEV is back — same chaos, new coat of paint. Events, the Discord, and the guestbook are all live. More updates as the Wheel allows.
The fax machine has been recommissioned. Bring your faxes, your questions, and your patience. It's slow. It's always been slow.
Wheel Night continues every other Saturday. The Wheel's decisions remain final, unexplained, and occasionally suspicious.
Send a fax. Receive a fax. Nobody knows why we still do this. Everybody shows up anyway.
We watch the weirdest commercials and shows the algorithm forgot. Bring snacks, lower your expectations.
The Wheel decides your fate. The Wheel is not always fair. The Wheel is the only true authority here.
A rogue robot hosts. Nobody fully understands the rules. Several people have left changed.
Half the questions are real. Half are made up five minutes before. You will not know which.
This is where the actual hanging out happens. Come argue about retro game shows, post cursed nostalgia, and find out what Wheel Night really means.
Join the DiscordLeave your mark, like it's 1999 and you just figured out frames. Entries stay until you refresh the page (this is a nostalgia bit, not a database).
No entries yet. Be the first to leave a mark on the wall! 🖊️
📟 YOU ARE VISITOR NUMBER
since CEV started counting (badly)
RETRIEVING ARCHIVE... cache hit: c-e-v.com, 2001
CEV Technology Australia was established in 1997 as an entertainment and chat organisation, running IRC mostly for teens and young adults.
By mid-2000, chat wasn't pulling the numbers it used to, so CEV pivoted toward "internet services and IT" — domain registration, a search engine, free email, a banner exchange, a software portal, an ebiz section, and more.
Technical support was run personally by Chris Williams, who would drive to your house in Sydney to fix your computer at low cost.
LOADING STAFF MEMO...
"We're back! Hi, my name is Ben Kingshott (aka. chat_man on irc). I am the General Manager with Chris. I am also the new IRC Manager with Kerry. I have purchased an IRCD shell hosted on a quad T1 connection in Chicago, Ohio, USA, with Chris Williams and Kerry following suit and buying shells as well."
Server fleet at the time: phantom.ch.oh.c-e-v.com, hq.sy.nsw.c-e-v.com, and bullet.gc.qld.au.c-e-v.com. A MUD or an Eggdrop bot was also under discussion at the time.
LOADING SIDEBAR... CEV NETWORK
The original site ran a full network of linked services under the CEV name:
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