IRC

About IRC

The abbreviation IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, a form of chat protocol. It is a text based communication method for multiple users at once. IRC networks are usually free to use by anyone and do not require any form of registration, only a nickname has to be set prior to connecting. The actual chatting takes place in channels which can usually be created or joined by any user.

The common way to connect to the networks is to use special IRC-Clients such as mIRC (shareware, waiting time at startup) or XChat (freeware), but also many multiprotocol messengers like Miranda IM or Trillian or web browsers such as Opera support the IRC protocol. Another quick way to join the networks are using Java-based clients that can be used from any internet browser. For more information on how to use these programs to connect to an IRC network a quick internet-search usually results in many helpful tutorials. For more general information on IRC visit [1].

How to use IRC

The currently most used IRC channels for Dwarf Fortress as of March 2010 are #bay12games on irc.newnet.net with around 90-110 users at any time (webchat), #dwarffortress on irc.quakenet.org with 40-50 users (webchat) and #df on irc.synirc.net with 40-50 users (webchat).

Users with an @ in front of their name and staying at the top of the nick list are operators, they have to power to kick or ban misbehaving users. Any chat input that begins with a / is considere a special commands that is not sent to other users.

The most commonly used commands are:

/nick <newnick>

to change your current nickname to the specified new nickname, provided that it is not used by another user.

/join #channelname

to join a new channel on the current network. If there are no users on the specified channel it will be created.

/query <nickname>
OR
/msg <nickname> <message>

to open a private communication window with the specified user or directly send a message without opening the window.

Some helpful hints about using IRC

• A double-click on a nickname will open the query window with the user on most client programs.
• Typing the beginning characters of a nickname and pressing Tab will autocomplete the nickname on most client programs. If there are multiple possible nicks cycle them with Tab.
• It is possible to connect to multiple networks at the same time. For mIRC the command to use is /server -m <server address>.
• Activating message timestamps in the options helps a lot for following the conversation.
• There are many good IRC tutorials available on the internet, just search for them.