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Special IRC Guide Edition. Part 3


SFP Press is pleased to present a multi-part guide to using the IRC (Internet Relay Chat). This guide is written by the SFP's great proletarian Mario Brother, Captain Zhao Ji, eternal sentinel of #socialistfreedomparty and one handsome devil.


Zhao Ji, supreme master of the art of disappearance


To speak to Zhao Ji in person, head on over to Rizon IRC at #socialistfreedomparty.



IRC 103, An Aficionado's Guide, or: De Re Operatica

by Zhao Ji

So you've been around for a while now. You've gotten to know people. To trust them. So they put you in charge of a channel. Congratulations on passing life's Persuasion check. I bet you're glad you put all those extra points in charisma now, aren't you? Or maybe you just decided to strike out on your own and make your own channel. Well whatever the reason, today's lesson is going to be about channel modes, user modes, and general channel operations.



Setting up an IRC channel is nothing like building an autonomous insectoid robot.

Lets start with making a channel. Sounds easy enough, right? The truth is, it might be depending on when you sacrificed that goat. So to create a channel, just type "/j #{channelname}"

"Now wait, isn't that how I join channels?" Yes, but IRC is wonky like that. They're created automatically if they're not already registered or somebody isn't already in them. Yes, more registering. Type "/cs register #{channelname} {password} {General description}" Where channel is the channel you want to register and password is the password for the channel. It's very much suggested you use a different one than the one you use to identify yourself with. Once that happens, you'll either get an email to confirm it or it will just tell you the channel was created. Congratulations! You've created a channel.


Once it happens, you should notice that you've been set to +o or something like that. This makes you a channel operator (IRC talk for Moderator) You'll also be Owner of the channel. There are several levels which IRC uses to give privileges to the users of a channel. There's Owner, Superoperators, Operators, Half Operators, and Voice.

Owner is full access. Superoperators are like Global Moderators. They have just about as much priv as Owner, minus one or two critical ones. Operators are the general guys. They can append banlists, set topic, and whole homeless woman's shopping cart full of other neat tricks. Half Operators can only set topic, ban people, and voice others, really. They're kind of useless. Users with Voice have only one power: to be able to talk when the channel is muted.

Their respective modes are +q +a +o +h +v

To give people these privs, type "/cs {op type} #{channel} add {nick}" where "op type" corresponds to the following kind privs you want to give them: SOP for +a, AOP for +o, and so on for HOP and VOP. Get the picture? This is what's known as the XOP system.

There's also the system known as Access Levels which I'm not going to discuss because it's Counter-Revolutionary. This will add them to a permanent list that can be appended or viewed. "/cs {op type} #{channel} list" for the list for the corresponding operator's flavor. If you want to remove, just change "add" to "del" from the aforementioned command.



Teach the IRC to sit, roll over and fetch.

Now that you have that set, there are basic commands every operator should know: How to set the topic, how to set channel modes, and how to ban people from your channel. Topic setting is easy. Just type "/topic #{channelname} {Channel topic}" You're old enough now to know what should go in between those brackets and to know that those quotes aren't part of the command.

Now then, channel modes. There's at least 25 of them, but you really only need to know two or three: mute, secret/private, and key.

Mute is the channel mode that disallows anyone with privs to talk in the channel. It's very useful for when you're having meetings and you don't want somebody to talk out of turn or just to stop the random asshole from jumping in and spamming you with expletives. To do that type "/mode #{channel} +m" That should mute the channel. Anyone who doesn't have +v or higher won't be able to say a thing.

For secret/private, replace +m with +s, and for key, replace with +k and after it, the password you want to use. "/mode #{channel} +s {password}" Common sense says the password will be different than any of the passwords you've used thus far.


That's all for this installment. Please ask some questions and give your critique on what else this guide might need. If you want to know something specific that you think I missed, speak up. This guide is also available for free redistribution in SFP Party members' papers. Others must contact Zhao Ji (guess where you can find him) for consent.


You and the Cap'n can make it happ'n!









New to the game? Hungry? Low Wellness? Need to get in out of the rain? Help is available. Contact the SFP's Rainy Day Food Reserve for assistance.


Looking for job at a fair wage? Check out the SFP Commune's collection of profit share Co-ops. Using a variety of methods to work together for a fair shake in the economic module, these companies are run by and for the workers: SFP Communal Grain II, Floating Monkey Grain, Harmonic Iron Works, Workers Weapons, Civil Food, Syndicalist Oil, and Ho Chi Minh Trailways.




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Friends and curiosity-seekers are welcome join us on our forum at socialistfreedom.org and on Rizon IRC at #socialistfreedomparty.



IRC Guide, Part 1
IRC Guide, Part 2