Join the new world

So a couple articles ago I gave you the basics of using IRC. If you haven’t read that yet or don’t know anything about the IRC, I suggest you go read that first, Here’s the link to my article. That article gives you enough to get started on the IRC but there are other commands that are helpful to know, and I’ll go over a couple of those in this article.

Advanced Commands

Changing your Nickname: Oftentimes you will see people in an IRC room who have names like “emdoublegee|brb” or something like that. They did not log out then log back in with a different nickname, they simply changed their nickname in server. To do this, type /nick newnickname and it will change your name for you. This is helpful if you are stepping away from your computer for a few minutes, or as you will see next, you have to deal with a ghost of yourself.

Getting rid of a ‘ghost you’: If you happen to get timed out or your internet connection does something funky and you sign right back in, you will oftentimes join under a different nickname because your original nickname is still “in” the room. To fix this problem, type in /ns ghost ghostnickname yourpassword. After the system logs out your “ghost”, you can change your nickname back to your original.

PM’ing someone in IRC: In my last article I explained about querying someone, but if you just want to stay in the same room and send a message only they can see type /msg theirnickname yourmessage and you’re golden. If for some weird reason you want to leave a PM for someone on IRC instead of like a normal person in the game, you can. Type /ms send theirnickname yourmessage and when they come on they will get the message from you.

Running a Channel

If you ever find yourself in a position where you want to set up a channel for personal use, or if your party/MU/government asks you to set up a channel, it’s pretty simple. First you have to have a registered IRC nickname. If you don’t remember how to do this, you probably shouldn’t be setting up your own channel, but you can see my basic IRC article as a refresher.

Once you’re a registered IRC user, join whatever channel it is you want to run. If you are the only person in that channel, you will automatically be given operator status (@). At this point simply type in /msg chanserv register #desiredChanName desiredCHANpassword channeldescription. The description is just what people looking at your channel’s info will see, it is not the topic or anything like that.

Now that you have a channel you will have to assign access types to people. By default, whenever someone enters your room they will have an access level of 0. They will not have voice in the channel or anything else. Adding a bot to your channel will make this a lot easier, but I will tell you how to do it without a bot, in case you are adverse to an AI.

The different access types/symbols you will see are :
(+) Voice(VOP) -Ability to chat in channel even when moderated
(😵 HalfOp(HOP) -Ability to kick/ban all users below. Can give access type up to ‘halfop’ to other users.
(@) Op(AOP) -Ability to kick/ban all users below. Can give access type up to ‘op’ to other users
(&) Admin(SOP) -Ability to kick/ban all users below. Can give access up to ‘op’ to other users
(~) Owner -God. Can do almost everything in the channel. 2nd only to Founder

There are 2 ways of assigning access in your channel. The default is the XOP system. This is the simplest because you only assign the types I described above. To give someone access you simply type in /msg chanserv AccessInitials #channelname ADD usernickname.

The other method is the Access method, which involves assigning number levels to users and is a little bit messier. For this reason I will not explain it here, but if you want to know about it, comment or PM me and I will get back to you.

Now these are the ways you would assign access and run your channel on your own, but there is a much easier way to do it. That is to add a Bot to your channel!

BOTS

Bots can be quite helpful in running a channel. They serve a variety of functions, depending on the Bot. The default bot that you can get in IRC comes with a variety of different names but basically has the same functions. You can use it as a shortcut for a lot of other commands, like the ones I just told you above. Here are a few commands to get you started.

Getting a bot: To get a bot type in /msg BotServ botlist. This will bring up a list of bots available to add to your channel. Pick a name you like and type in /msg BotServ assign #yourchannel botname. Your bot should show up in your channel.

Assigning Access Levels Remember how I told you earlier this would make your life easier? Now all you have to do to change access levels in your channel is type .voice/halfop/op/protect/owner theirnickname and you’re done! How simple is that!

Kicking/Banning If for some reason you want to kick or ban a nickname from your channel, simply type in .kick/kickban nickname reasonforkick/ban and they’re gone.

Again, this is not by any means a comprehensive list of commands in the IRC. However it does give you some good knowledge for using the IRC to its full potential. Make sure you vote if you found this article helpful so that others can find it easier to!

Emdoublegee (aka Matt Gegner)
My link
IRC Office Channel: #emdoublegee’s
Department of Education Newspaper