[FAQ] IRC for TR

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Stalker
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[FAQ] IRC for TR

Post by Stalker »

Channel Name: #tamriel

Server: ChatSpike, see [url]http://www.chatspike.net[/url]

Join us by clicking [url=irc://irc.chatspike.net/tamriel]HERE[/url] and then selecting your favorite installed IRC client.

Tamriel Rebuilt IRC Tutorial

IRC is a worldwide chat network formed of many server networks, servers and on a lower level, channels and users. Different server networks are not connected to each other at the same time, but people on same network are. The server network chosen for #tamriel is ChatSpike.

Don't be confused if the conversation is not about TR exclusively, it's more of a hangout place for some people than a place to chat about TR. Still, there are frequently discussions about TR as well and as anyone can affect the subject, it's actually a good media to discuss things due to its speed.

1. IRC Etiquette

On IRC and especially #tamriel, conversation is not usually limited to by-the-book language but can vary from that to l33t5p33|<. Let's avoid the latter extreme though, and stick to what has so far been the level of discussion. Smilies and acronyms are common too. A perhaps too comprehensive list can be found in [url]http://www.gaarde.org/acronyms/.[/url] Luckily, the site has a search function.

A common mistake in IRC is thinking that all the people listed on the channel are actively following the discussion or that they are even people.

IRC is not just channels. You can send private messages to other people if you don't want to have the whole channel know about it, much like in the forums. The command for this is /query <nickname> without the <> brackets. This command will open a new private chat window in your client, directly between you and the person with whom you are talking.

All other commands for standard clients also begin with a slash, so if your nick is Haplo, and you type /me is human, it would print *Haplo is human. This is called an action, which are always denoted by an prefixed asterisk (*), as well as being in a different color than normal chat text. A default action on mIRC is /slap nick, which triggers something like this: *Haplo slaps TF| with a large trout. Don't slap people too much, though. Another popular command is /whois, which gives some info about users. Some clients support the /wii command too, which is similar to /whois but gives the user's idle time as well.

2. Rules

TR has a few rules while on our IRC channel. They are as follows:

- No porn. Linking to porn will result in a kick. Doing it again will result in a ban.
- No direct linking to illegal content(warez). If you toe this line we will turn you into our kicking bag.
- No spamming or flooding(posting several lines in the space of one or two seconds). If you toe this line, you will probably be kicked.
- No trolling. If you troll we will call your mother names. And kick you. Civil arguments for the sake of education, however, are allowed and encouraged.
- No unauthorized bots/scripts. If you don't know how to authorize a bot or script, then you don't need it on #tamriel.
- No hating on TR. It's our hangout zone, after all. If you hate on TR we will kick you after we insult your poor judgment, at which point we will continue to insult your poor judgment.
- Lewd or inappropriate conversations between two people should be held in queries, not on the public channel.
- If colorful language makes you uncomfortable, just leave instead of asking an Op to do something about it. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words should never be able to hurt you.
- We keep logs, and there is always an Op in the channel. Don't lie about suspected activities.

Accidental rule-breaking is still rule-breaking and, as such, will usually result in a kick. If it was an accident, simply say so when you rejoin, and make a conscious effort not to do it again. IRC isn't the best place to post paragraph-long(or longer) messages. Please keep those conversations to queries. If you must type long messages instead of one-liners, please do it manually, as copy-pasting will result in you accidentally spamming a ton of one-liners all at once.

3. Clients

This is just a list of most popular clients, and does not include all of them.

The most popular client for IRC is mIRC for Windows. It's easy to use, and as long as you don't do anything stupid, you won't be having problems.
[url]http://www.mirc.com[/url]

XChat2
XChat2 is a multi-platform graphical client that has no security problems and some claim it has better interface than mIRC.

[url]http://www.xchat.org[/url]

For Unix/Linux, there are many fully text-based clients. Here's a screenshot of irssi, the client I use. Because IRC is fully text-based media anyway, there's not much point in using a graphical one anyway. Text-based clients on unix are also capable of being constantly run on a shell account server. That's why I'm always on #tamriel, assuming the servers haven't crashed. Other popular text-based clients are BitchX and ircii.

[url]http://www.irssi.org[/url]

Webchat is probably the worst alternative because of its lack of features, but works well enough for casual IRCing. Sometimes it's the only way to chat anyway, because of restrictions on computers that don't allow you to install new programs.

4. DCC

A feature of IRC clients is DCC, which is most often used to transfer files. It can be used to chat with people, too, but usually that's not required. In mIRC, DCC is disabled by default for some files, so you need to turn it on if you want to receive something. DCC is dangerous, though, because worms utilize its security holes. In Irssi, "/dcc get nickname" accepts a file transfer and "/dcc send nickname filename" sends a file. For other clients and commands, refer to help files.

5. Away nicks

For some reason, most people decide to change their nicks when they're away. However, this is very annoying, especially if you're not participating to the conversation at all - most people won't care if you're going to play NWN, or if you haven't talked on the channel for the last hour or so. IRC protocol has a built-in away feature, which works by wittily writing /away reason to the client. The client will most likely, if it's any good, collect the away logs to all references of you it recognizes. Thus, using the away command makes it easier to get back on track with people. The other person trying to chat with an /awayed user will receive a message indicating unavailability.

The only variation of away nicks commonly used on any sensible channels are full lowercase nicks. For example, when 'Zephyr' is away, his nick is changed to 'zephyr'. This way the query references don't change - when someone changes the nick to away nick, some clients might not understand that change and you'll have to open another window in order to write to the user while he's away. Lowercase away nicks are never too long, either (there's a length limit to nicknames, depending on the server). Another thing to point out is that no one will be stealing your nick if you keep it the same all time and thus reduced your own frustration as well.

6. Registering your nickname
If you want to register your nickname so nobody else will be able to use it use /ns REGISTER password e-mail command where password is your desired password and e-mail is your valid e-mail. Then, every time you join the network, you should log in using /ns IDENTIFY password for NickServ to recognize you.
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