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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. IRC</A> </H2>

<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 What is XChat?</A>
 </H2>

<P>XChat is a graphical IRC client that runs on UNIX like systems. It uses
the GTK+ toolkit for graphical abstraction. It if GPL'ed software (free software).
It is known to run on these systems:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>Linux (primary development platform)</LI>
<LI>FreeBSD</LI>
<LI>OpenBSD</LI>
<LI>NetBSD</LI>
<LI>Solaris</LI>
<LI>AIX</LI>
<LI>IRIX</LI>
<LI>SunOS</LI>
<LI>OS/2</LI>
</UL>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 Introduction to IRC</A>
 </H2>

<P>IRC stands for &quot;Internet Relay Chat&quot;. It was originally written
by Jarkko Oikarinen (jto@tolsun.oulu.fi) in 1988. Since starting in Finland,
it has been used in over 60 countries around the world. It was designed as
a replacement for the &quot;talk&quot; program but has become much much more
than that. IRC is a multi-user chat system, where people convene on &quot;channels&quot;
(a virtual place, usually with a topic of conversation) to talk in groups,
or privately. IRC is constantly evolving, so the way things to work one week
may not be the way they work the next. Read the MOTD (message of the day) every
time you use IRC to keep up on any new happenings or server updates.
<P>IRC gained international fame during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, where updates
from around the world came across the wire, and most irc users who were online
at the time gathered on a single channel to hear these reports. IRC had similar
uses during the coup against Boris Yeltsin in September 1993, where IRC users
from Moscow were giving live reports about the unstable situation there.
<P>The user runs a &quot;client&quot; program which connects to the IRC
network via another program called a &quot;server&quot;, which runs on another
computer. Servers exist to pass messages from user to user over the IRC network.
<P>XChat is a graphical client that runs using GTK(
<A HREF="http://www.gtk.org">GTK Homepage</A>), it is mainly designed
to run under UNIX (By this I mean all the UNIX's, like Linux, *BSD etc), but
also runs under Win32 systems without some features.
<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 IRC Basics</A>
 </H2>

<P>As mentioned above the channel is the basic unit of collective IRC chatting.
Everyone who is &quot;in&quot; a channel can see all messages written to
the channel and can (usually) write to the channel themselves.
<P>All IRC commands start with a &quot;/&quot;, and most are one word. Typing
/help will get you help information etc
<P>Once on a server a /join #channel command will join you to the channel
#channel in the current window, any further joins while still joined (e.g.
before a /part) will open a new window. Once in a channel just type
<P>Channel operators are kings/queens of their channel. This means they can
kick you out of their channel for no reason. If you don't like this, you can
start your own channel and become a channel operator there. 
<P>An IRC operator is someone who maintains the IRC network. They cannot fix
channel problems. They cannot kick someone out of a channel for you. They cannot
/kill (kick someone out of IRC temporarily) someone just because you gave the
offender channel operator privileges and said offender kicked you off.
<P>#hottub and #initgame are almost always teeming with people. #hottub
is meant to simulate a hot tub, and #initgame is a non-stop game of &quot;inits&quot;
(initials). Just join and find out! 
<P>To get a list of channels with their names and topics, do /list -min 20
(on ircII) which will show you channels with 20 or more members. You can also
do this for smaller numbers.
<P>Many IRC operators are in #Twilight_Zone ... so if you join that channel
be prepared for a lot of senseless dribble, more like what you find on the
other channels listed above (#hottub). What was once a place of people
who could help you has turned into just another place for those who have nothing
better to do with themselves than just be there. If you find other documents
saying go there to ask questions, ignore them. They should be considered to
be out of date. 
<P>There are not enough nicknames to have nickname ownership. If someone takes
your nickname while you are not on IRC, you can ask for them to give it back,
but you can not *demand* it, nor will IRC operators /kill for nickname ownership.
If you goto #Twilight_zone, you will find a bunch of people who will refuse
to do this for you, yet they will do it for themselves or their friends or
use /kill for even less reasonable uses. There are, literally, millions of
possible channel names, so if someone is on your usual channel, just go to
another. You can /msg them and ask for them to leave, but you can't force them
to leave.
<P>Channel operators are the owner(s) of their respective channels. Keep this
in mind when giving out channel operator powers (make sure to give them to
enough people so that all of the channel operators don't unexpectedly leave
and the channel is stuck without a channel operator).
<P>On the other hand, do not give out channel operator to everyone. This causes
the possibility of mass-kicking, where the channel would be stuck without any
channel operators.
<P>You have one option. You can ask everyone to leave and rejoin the channel.
This is a good way to get channel operator back. It doesn't work on large channels
or ones with bots, for obvious reasons.
<P>On IRC, you cannot be banned from every single server. Server-banning exists
only on a per-server basis (being banned on one server does not mean you are
automatically banned from another). &quot;Ghosts are not allowed on IRC&quot;
means that you are banned from using that server. The banning is in one of
three forms:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>You are banned specifically, you yourself. Only you can be responsible
for this (if you are using a shared account, this obviously does not apply).
Thus the responsibility lies completely with you and you have no-one to complain
to. </LI>
<LI>Your machine is banned. Chances are it wasn't you who committed the wrongdoing.
Try using another machine on campus and seeing if you can use that particular
irc server then.</LI>
<LI>Your whole site is banned (where &quot;site&quot; == &quot;school&quot;,
&quot;company&quot;, &quot;country&quot;). This almost certainly wasn't
your fault. And chances are you won't be able to get the server-ban lifted.
Try using another server.</LI>
</UL>
<P>The most general answer is "use another server&quot;, but if it bothers
you, try writing to the irc administrator of that site -&gt; /admin server.name.here
-- plead your case. It might even get somewhere!
<P>The best, basic, IRC user's manual is the IRC Primer, available in plain
text, Postscript, and LaTeX from cs-pub.bu.edu:/irc/support ... Another good
place to start might be downloading the 
<A HREF="ftp://cs-pub.bu.edu/irc/support/">IRC tutorials</A>.
<P>The IRC protocol is fully documented in 
<A HREF="ftp://cs-pub.bu.edu/irc/support/rfc1459.txt">RFC 1459</A><H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 Etiquette</A>
 </H2>

<P>This subsection is by Lea Viljanen, Ari Husa and Helen Rose for irc2.9.5,
thank you
<H3>Language </H3>

<P>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 other language than English (for example
with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate
that. 
<P>On the other hand, you should check the topic before you move to a channel
to see if there are any restrictions about language. On a channel not restricted
by a topic, please speak a language everybody can understand. If you want to
do otherwise, change channels and set the topic accordingly.
<H3>Hello/Goodbye </H3>

<P>It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually
one &quot;Hello&quot; or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody
to greet you back. On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful
of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude to the rest
of the channel. If you must say hello, do it with a private /msg. The same
applies to goodbyes.
<H3>Discussion </H3>

<P>When you come to a new channel it's advised you to listen for a while to
get an impression of what's discussed. Please feel free to join in, but do
not try to force your topic into the discussion if that doesn't come naturally.
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