IWTL What exactly IRC is and how to use it effectively

coachesballsack · 3 months

It's a text based chat protocol. Like a chatroom on MSN used to be, but even more stripped down. Networks like Freenode are full of programmers and developers of open and closed software and operating systems. In terms of guides they're not really necessary. For windows grab mIRC or Xchat, on Linux you can grab irssi or again Xchat. I don't know for Mac.

Ask one of your friends what server/network they're on and the channels they frequent, no harm in giving it a go for a week or so.

rz2000 · 3 months

Enter here to try out Reddit's channel.

That is the web portal for Freenode, one popular provider of IRC services, while IRC is a protocol. You can also host your own, and another popular provider is efnet.org.

Popular programs for accessing IRC services directly include X-Chat (or a free alternative that can be found searching for X-Chat2 or Y-chat), Colloquy, and IRSSI.

With those programs you access irc://irc.efnet.org/ or irc://chat.freenode.net/, choose a handle and then a channel, usually prefixed with a #.

refreshingapathy · 3 months

Essentially, it's multiplayer notepad.

Think of it like AIM chatrooms, except that there are no "central" servers - you connect to a server where your friends are. Each server has a set of administrators (IRC operators, or ircops), chatrooms (channels), and chatroom moderators (ops).

freenode is a massive network that has many good discussion channels on all things programmer and techie. Topic channels there start with ## (so ##linux is chat about linux, for example).

TomatoSlayer · 3 months

Here's a guide for mIRC: http://www.bluehellproductions.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=20956

You can just ignore those servers and choose your own that you're interested in. Like others have mentioned, you could connect to freenode (list of their servers available here). It doesn't really matter which server you choose for a network, all the servers are linked up to distribute the activity.

mcdeaglesandwich · 3 months

also this

NTesla · 3 months

Here you go: http://www.irchelp.org/

mcdeaglesandwich · 3 months

Think of it as a cli chat. there are commands you can issue(usually preceeded by a /) you can transfer files as I recall, and even browse file listings kind of like ftp(forgive the generalistic nature its been about 15 years). you can join multiple chats, send private msgs. you can also start your own chats channel by joining a non existent chat. you can op a channel in which i guess you are allowed to kick/ban/permaban users among other things, you can also be a lesser privilidged op i think its called a mod but i cant recall. long story short irc kicks ass and i dont know why i dont use it anymore.

inubert · 3 months

Pretty good explanation of it in this YouTube video.

RoryWalker · 3 months

IRC is a chat program. Either download Chatzilla for Firefox, or go to Mibbit.com and use it. Rizon is a good network, but all the names are taken. It's really only useful if you already know channels and have people to talk to.

Also, take it from someone who's constantly on IRC, there is no way to use it effectively.

pressthebutton · 3 months

I wasn't going to answer because I figured everyone else had already said everything but I have more to add. I've been chatting on IRC for many years. A brief history lesson:

Once upon a time before the internet there were local bulletin board systems (BBS) that you could dial into with a dumb terminal. They were servers with a bank of modems and everyone could chat in "teleconference". Teleconference had channels in it so you could form one or more private chats with multiple users. Then the internet started becoming accessible so the first IRC server was written. It was the teleconference of the internet. Later, MSN, AIM, and others adopted IRC as the starting point for their chat networks while putting all sorts of unnecessary things on top like emoticons and obnoxious colors. (In the early days you could in fact connect to some of these networks with an IRC client.)

So, here is the 5 minute guide to get onto IRC quickly and painlessly.

Pick a client. I suggest you start with the simplest, most accessible clients until you understand the elements involved on IRC. The FreeNode web chat does not require installation and will get you onto many channels, especially programming related one. Later you can graduate to Xchat or Chatzilla. People who are online 24/7 usually use irssi or another command line client running on a server somewhere both because it is always on and because it makes it easy to keep track of large numbers of conversations at once.
Pick a channel (or two). This is a non-obvious part about IRC for noobs. I'll skip the history lesson here, but the best place to find channels is on http://irc.netsplit.de/ and http://www.searchirc.com. I suggest you find an IRC channel on FreeNode with people in it about something you are interested in. Channel names start with "#".
Learn the basic commands. Join a channel: /join #channel Leave a channel: /part #channel Send a private message to a user: /msg bob hi there!

PM me if you want to find me on FreeNode and I'll give you my nick. (nick is shorthand for "nickname" and is also a command, as in "/nick jordaninternets")

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