IRC Tips and Tricks

Confused?

Sometimes the terminology changes because the metaphors are mixed. In some places you'll see the term 'room' and in some places you'll see the term 'channel'. They are synonymous, much like 'directory' and 'folder' on your computer's disk drive are synonymous terms.

What does @ mean beside someone's name?

In #wor-room you will find a number of people who are designated as IRC Operators, also known as IRC Ops or IRCops. Typically you can see who is an IRC Op by the @ symbol appearing beside their names in the user list (this may vary depending on your IRC client).

In #wor-room the @ badge means the person is either one of World of Roleplayers Radio's board of directors (The Big Kahuna! The Head Cheese!) or a member of the IRCops Team, the staff members who are responsible for enforcing the rules and keeping the peace in #wor-room. (Please be sure to follow the rules. Don't cause trouble, and there won't be any trouble.)

The remainder of the World of Roleplayers Radio staff who are not Ops are designated as 'Voiced', typically with a plus sign appearing beside their names in the user list.

Tab Auto-Complete

With some IRC clients (including mIRC), you can quickly type someone's nickname by typing the first few letters and then pressing the Tab key to Auto-Complete it. If more than one person has a nickname that matches the letters you typed, you can press Tab again to go to the next one, and repeat until it shows the person you wanted to address.

Emotes

To create an emote, type /me then the action you want to emote.

For example:
/me dances around like an idiot

Private Messages

To send a private message (commonly known as a 'PM') to someone, you can double-click on the person's name. This will open a window or a tab (depending on which IRC client you are using) for a private conversation with the person.

With most IRC clients (including mIRC) you can initiate a private conversation by typing:
/msg nickname <message-text>

If you see a button or tab appear with someone's name along the top or bottom of your IRC client (again, depending on which IRC client you are using), then that person has sent you a private message! Click on the button or tab to read it and respond.

Trout!

Some IRC clients (including mIRC) include a built-in 'slap' emote. To use it in mIRC, right-click on your victim's name and choose 'Slap!' from the context menu.

Rooms List

Joining a Room

The primary room for general chat is #wor-room but if there is another room you wish to join, you can type: /join #room-name

For example, political, religious, and certain other heated topics not allowed in #wor-room can be discussed (but still in a civil manner!) in the room #hottopic. (Please note that #hottopic is not an argument clinic.)

Changing your Nickname

Many people change their nicknames to indicate their status, such as AFK, asleep, or playing a particular game. There are various ways to change your nickname depending on your IRC client. In mIRC you just type /nick nickname. In the Java IRC client you type a new name in the Change Nick box and press Enter.

Note: spaces and most punctuation characters are not allowed in a nickname. Allowed characters include:
| vertical bar aka pipe
- hyphen aka dash
` grave accent aka backwards apostrophe

Registering your Nickname

It is optional but recommended that you register your nickname into the nickserv service so that others may not use it.

1. To register your nickname, think up a password and then type:
   /msg nickserv register password email
   

   For example:
   /msg nickserv register foo42 myemail@somewhere.com

2. Then, each time you join chat thereafter, you must immediately type /msg nickserv identify password (giving the same password you chose when you registered the nickname) so that nickserv knows you are the owner of that nickname.

   For example:
   /msg nickserv identify foo42

3. You'll have 60 seconds from the time you connect to identify yourself to nickserv or else nickserv will force your nickname to change to a ghost nickname. You will then have to wait another 60 seconds (during which we're all going to laugh at you) before you can change back to the registered nickname and try to identify again.
4. For more help, type /msg nickserv help.