IRC 104, A Connoisseur's Guide

Day 1,205, 04:05 Published in USA USA by Socialist Freedom Org

Special IRC Guide Edition. Part 4


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 a sharp wit.


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 104, A Connoisseur's Guide or: Do IRC Bots Dream of Electric Sheep?

by Zhao Ji

Yes, they do. But only if you configure them correctly.

Now that you have your own channel and you're used to using some of the modes and the commands, and you have the syntax down, you might be thinking that we're coming to the end of this guide, but you'd be wrong.

You might have noticed there are some channels you've been in that have users connected to them that never say anything, or they do but they're automated responses to certain keywords and commands. These are bots. While I'm not going to get into how to program them, they're very useful for channel operators and especially those who play eRepublik because it allows people to pull up information from eRepublik without actually having to access the site proper. Like magic.



Not a picture of an actual bot.


"Great! Let's do it!"

Now, it should come as a bit of a surprise to you that all of the bots are provided for free by the people who run and graciously allow people to use their IRC Network, Rizon. All you have to do is have a registered channel and you too can take part in the advantages. To add a bot to your channel, all you have to do is type "/bs assign #{channel} {bot}" To view the list of bots, you can type "/bs botlist" and it will give you an entire filthy list of something like 85 bots. You only need to know one: TheKey

TheKey is Rizon's premier chanserv bot. This bot will change your life in one very simple and amazing way. You remember all of those commands I just showed you above? To op and deop people? Forget about typing them all. With TheKey in your channel all you have to do is type certain short commands:
.voice {nick}
.devoice {nick}
.halfop {nick}
.dehalfop {nick}
.op {nick}
.deop {nick}
.protect {nick}
.deprotect {nick}
.owner {nick}
.deowner {nick}

I should have mentioned this much earlier, but Owner and Superops can only be given when both their modes are enabled. Do that now by typing "/cs set #{channel} ownermode on" and "/cs set #{channel} protectmode on"

I shouldn't have to spoon feed you at this point, but they'll be typed as shown. The commands work just as if you had executed them yourself, and all of the commands you can execute by interfacing with chanserv directly via the old commands can be executed by TheKey. All you have to do is put the "." in front of the command (The ".", along with the "/" are what's known in technical terminology as a Command Prefix, fyi)



obnoxioustroll has been banned from this channel


Now, you might be asking why I didn't tell you this sooner. It's because you have to know the direct commands for when the service bots go down for maintenance, plus they're just plain good to know because the bots can't do everything. Now that you have a bot or two, it's time to talk about punishment. Every once in a while you're going to get a rowdy mofo who just pushes the wrong way. You might also get a person who downright violates the code of conduct of Rizon. These people can be swiftly removed from the conversation by typing
".k {nick}"

This will kick them from the channel, but they might come back. To remove them and make sure they don't come back, type ".kb {nick}" This will kick and ban. (There's an exception to this rule which I may or may not get into later.) If ye're a olde fashioned bastard, the non-bot commands for both are "/cs kick #{channel} {nick}" and "/cs ban #{channel} {nick}". This (again, not always) will get rid of all but the most determined of foes.









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.


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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
IRC Guide, Part 3