mIRC [IRC1] Course Notes:
What is IRC?
A Chat program that allows you to talk to your peers online. It stands for Internet Relay Chat. This is almost essential for your career in the OSF and is great fun.
How do I talk to other people from the OSF in IRC?
First, Download mIRC from mIRC.com or something similar. Then, install, fill in a name reflecting your OSF rank and name, then, in the status box, type /join #osf. This puts you in #OSF. #OSF is the OSF IRC channel, and is where you will find many OSF pilots. Talk away, my (wo)man.
What exactly is a channel?
A channel is a 'place' on IRC where group conversations occur. People can join the same channel and see each other. Depending on its topic and time of the day a channel can be VERY crowded. Channels can also be quite chaotic, or calm. Channels can be open to everyone but also closed and private and only open to friends. On the large IRC Networks (EFnet) as many as 2000 channels can exist, on smaller networks (corporate or even one-node-nets) there will be fewer channels. Channels on IRC are dynamic in the sense that anyone can create a new channel, and a channel disappears when the last person on it leaves.
Once connected to an IRC server, type /list to see all existing channels. All channel names start with a # or a &. The # channels are globally available while the & channels are restricted to users on your local IRC server. For this moment you can forget about the & channels. If people speak of 'the IRC' they refer to the use of the globally available channels with names starting with a #. Whenever you want to refer to a channel's name, it should be prefixed with a # or &. You also need to use the name, including the # or &, to join a channel, to leave it, to set its parameters, etc.
Well, you guessed it, if there is a way to invite someone on a channel, there is also the ablility to KICK someone out of it. For example ,if a person is behaving in an offensive manner by annoying people or flooding the channel with unwanted information, they can be forced out of the channel. Only 'channel operators' are privileged to use this command.
Channels have topics, that indicate the current topic of conversation. You can change this topic on a channel with the TOPIC command.
At times, you may want to send a description of what you are doing or how you are feeling or just anything concerning you on the current channel or in a query.
Besides chatting on IRC Channels you can also have private conversations or queries with other people on IRC. On most clients these conversations will be handled by separate window. You can use the /MSG command to send someone a message that only that person can read. If somebody else sends you a message or that person replies to your message a query window icon will pop up informing you somebody wants to talk to you personally.
In Kreet's screen an icon will pop up with the message you typed; "This message can be read by you only.". If you cannot wait for a reply for someone to message you to open a private window you can use the query command to force your client to open a private conversation window.
This command differs from the MSG command only by the fact that it is used to start a private conversation. All text you type that would normally be sent to your chat partner if you used MSG now displays in an immediately opened private Window 'to your chat partner' on your screen and is sent to the other person as well.
The NOTICE command is just another way to send messages to other people. But, unlike MSG's, NOTICEs will never open a separate window 'to' the other person. It should be seen as a sort of whispering. It is recommended that robots or other automatons on IRC use notices (contrary to messages) to send information to people. You should never automatically (as by remote events or commands) send a message or notice in response to a notice sent to you.
As you start to meet people on IRC, you will want to add certain nicknames to your notify list such that you will be warned when they sign on or off IRC.
The day will come when you decide not (never?) to see or hear a specific person on your screen. This can be achieved using the ignore command. If people are flooding channels with useless text or they are otherwise harassing you, a wise response is to ignore those person. Ignore can be set to a nickname or by specifying a user@host format. You can use all kind of wildcards.
How do I speak on IRC?
The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. However, as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no means the only language. If you want to speak some language other than English, (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate that. Similarly, you should check the topic when you join a channel to see if there are any restrictions about language. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise, change channels and set the topic accordingly.
How do I behave on IRC?
It is not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. Also, don't expect everybody to greet you back. On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful of hellos. It makes sense not to greet everyone, in order not to be rude to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know, do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes. Also note that using your client's facilities to automatically say hello or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive autogreets.
They are not only obviously automatic, but while you may think you are being polite, you are actually conveying yourself as insincere. If somebody wants to be autogreeted when they join a channel, they will autogreet themselves. Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your actions, writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" (send large amounts of unwanted information) to a channel or user. This is likely to get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes network "burps", causing connections to go down because servers cannot handle the large amount of traffic.
What is an OP?
A channel operator (ChanOp or Op) is someone with a "@" by their nickname in a channel's names list, or a "@" before the channel name in a /whois or /uwho output. Channel operators are the 'rulers' of a particluar channel. This means they can kick you out of their channel for any reason. If you don't like this, you complain to them or start your own channel and become a channel operator there yourself.
An IRC operator (IRCop) is someone who maintains a server or part of the IRC network. They cannot fix channel problems. They cannot kick someone out of a channel for you. They also cannot /kill (disconnect a user from their IRC server temporarily) someone just because you gave the offender channel operator privileges and said offender kicked -you- off. IRCops have better things to do than interfere in channel affairs.
What is a bot?
A bot is a thing that runs a channel and normally has ops. Normally, it will have a topten list for the number of times you said a word normally many other functions are found, the #OSF has one although its temporary, the name of the bot is Wildkat. Wildkat does not have any other functions, but to provide for logging the #OSF channel at the moment.
Course created by Lieutenant Colonel Brad Tack. All inquiries should be sent to him or Grand Admiral Venom.