IRC for Dummies

[hello2u]

If you're reading this, you probably noticed the chat link at the top of the page. But what is it? How did it get there? What's its purpose? These and many more questions will be answered in this thread!

What is the Friendcodes chat/IRC?
IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It started around 1988, and is continued to be used today. IRC is unlike most chats, it is not a widget, a chat "box," or a small add-on. IRC is the combination of hundreds of Networks, each with many, many rooms.

What is a network?
A network is a program run from a computer, usually a computer specially built to handle running 24/7 with a few simple programs.

What is a room?
A room (a.k.a. a channel) is network space that ANYONE can own, what makes our chat official is that it was made by the staff, for the purpose of the site's use.

Where is the Friendcodes chat?
Our room is currently located on irc.ext3.net in channel #friendcodes.

What is the history behind the chat?
Back soon after Friendcodes was started, the staff decided to make the chat as a place where people can talk live about wi-fi and connect for games. the first network we used was irc.friendcodes.com, but it was changed after we had a series of netsplits.

Wait, so I can look for games on the chat?!??!
The chat USED to be used for games, it was replaced by the hubs. Now the chat has only the main channel for people who wish to TAKE A BREAK from wi-fi, and just enjoy the lobby. One of the many reasons the chat was removed is because tons of people were coming in to look for a game, disrupting the rest of the lobby. Currently, you can ask for friendcodes in chat as long as you don't flood, but it is highly discouraged. Also once you find a game you MUST move to a private room or hub, or you can be kicked.

What are IRC services?
IRC services are in a sense bots, but never really referred to as such. Services are hosted by the network, and they can change depending on the network. Here are some common ones:

• BotServ - Gives basic bots to a channel, these bots can do a wide range of things.
• ChanServ - Does most of the work with channels, registers, saves modes, and protects the channel.
• NickServ - Handles nicknames, registers and protects your nicknames.
• MemoServ - Handles memos, which registered nicks can send to each other.
• HostServ - Registers, assigns, and keeps track of vHosts.

What are some basic chat commands?
Chat commands are done by prefixing a "/" to the beginning of a line.
After the prefix, type the following for the described effects: (Words in []'s are filled in with the appropriate text)

• me [text] - Does an action. (/me types = * Hello2u types)
• invite [nick] [channel] - Sends a message to [nick] saying you want them in a channel.
• notice [nick] [message] - Sends a special message to [nick]
• ms send [nick] [memo] - Sends the message [memo] to [nick] if [nick] is registered.
• ms help - For help with memos. (MemoServ)
• ns help - For help with nicks. (NickServ)
• cs help - For help with channels. (ChanServ)
• bs help - For help with channel bots. (BotServ)
• hs help - For help with vHosts. (HostServ)

How can Chat Staff enforce the rules?
In order from least to most harmful:

• Kick - A stronger warning, that actually forces you out of the room until you rejoin.
• Kill - An IRCOp forces you to quit all channels.
• Mute - Also known as the +q mode, a mute is a special type of channel mode that prevents the target from talking.
• KickBan - Forces you out of the room, and prevents you from coming back.
• Ban - Mutes you until you leave, then you can't rejoin until the ban is lifted.
• Infraction - Permanent Mark on your record, showing that you had bad behavior in chat.
• Permaban - A ban that is never lifted. Also applies on the site.
• Auto kick - When the bot is told to kickban you whenever you join.
• G-Line - An IRCOp (Perma)bans you from the entire network.

What are the chat positions?
From least to most powerful:

• +v | voice - Allowed to talk when the room, or themselves are muted.
• +h | halfop - Capable of kicking, banning, muting, and changing some channel modes.
• +o | op - Can change almost all channel modes, can make the bot talk, and can change the topic. Receives Chat Op position on the site.
• +a | admin - Capable of changing most channel settings.

(Each position on the list has all powers of the ones before it.)

How do I know if someone is channel staff?
Most clients will show a symbol (+,%,@,!) next to the name of the user when they send a message. Different clients may have different indicators, however.

Mibbit uses different symbols to show power, the symbols are: House(+q), Key(+a), Star(+o), half-star(+h), and speaker(+v). If you're not sure whether a person is staff or not, find their profile on the site, check to see if they have a colored name, and then contact them via a pm. Chat Staff will NEVER ask you for your password.

What is bot abuse?
Abusing the bot is using the same command, or even multiple commands, many times in a short time period. Trying to get a bot to say something specific may also count as abuse, depending on what it is. Any trying to take advantage of the Bot = Abuse.

How do I use bots without abusing them?
First off, use the commands sparingly, don't ask for the weather in a place you know it, and go into #fc-trivia to play trivia. Most importantly, don't use bots for a while after an Op has warned you, or other people abuse the bot.

What is Mibbit?
Mibbit is the chat "client" we use on Friendcodes. There are tons of other clients, each one slightly different.

What does a client do?
A client connects you to the chat, enables you to have easy access to options like pm's, identifying, etc. And it even can be used to make bots.

What are some other clients I can use?
mIRC-Most popular client, payment is optional
xchat-20$, popular client
xchat2 (free version)
irssi-Simplest irc client, command prompt-like layout.
HydraIRC-Great for minimalists, free.
IceChat-Free, client that is growing in popularity, has the coding style of mIRC, the built-in options of XChat (minus the bugs), and the simplicity of HydraIRC.
kvIRC-My personal favorite. Free, no bugs as far as I know, has addons, themes. Very customizable. It's on the more complex side to configure and set up, however.

A bot? What's that?
Bot is short for... robot. A bot sits in a chat room, and Preforms various tasks, such as opping, googling, and hosting games.

What is a botnet/zombie network?
Before we moved to GeekShed, we had problems with frequent botnet attacks. Over the years, friendcodes has attracted hundreds of thousands of people, and a select few have proven to be advanced hackers. Some of those hackers used a method to disguise their IP (will not be discussed here for security reasons) and launch bots to spam the channel and try to do as much damage as possible. One such attack used a different method involving a zombie network; i.e. a lot of computers that had been infected with a virus, controlled remotely to launch a botnet attack. In order to dissuade the attacks, the chat was moved to a more secure network with much-needed security settings. (See my comic about this.)

How do I report problems with Ops?
You can go into #fc-help and talk to people there, you can PM the op in question, or you can pm the chat admin; currently Southpaw.

Where can I find the rules?
Chat Rules

Remember that commands and structure can change from network to network!

UPDATE(8/4/11): Updated for our move to Ext3

[Papa Razzi]

Sticky, right?

I think we should point out how to NOT abuse Wild Bill Bot.
And how to.

[AnaBanana]

Stickied.
Very useful thread.

[Jag]

Some punishment confusions:

Kline is a local ban and gline is a global ban. SLR only has one server though so it's redundant.

Kill makes the user leave the server.

/two cents

[hello2u]

Some punishment confusions:

Kline is a local ban and gline is a global ban. SLR only has one server though so it's redundant.

Kill makes the user leave the server.

/two cents

I barely understood that, so I doubt IRC beginners would. lol

[Celestius]

Thanks for posting this

[hello2u]

Updated taking into account the server move. Also added a section about botnets.

[JonathanTyler]

How do I report problems with Ops?
You can go into #fc-staff and talk to people there, you can PM the op in question, or you can pm the chat admin; currently Cheeze.

#fc-help, not #fc-staff. +1 to this.

[hello2u]

Not sure how that got there! XD
All fixed.
UPDATE: Uh-oh. I wanted to add a section explaining the symbols next to the usernames, but I exceeded the post-length limit!

[DWing]

This is really helpful.
I read this long before I joined here, when I was trying to get my own IRC chat going. I hope more people decide to read this ._.