I just started reading Esprix’s scorpion thread and he mentioned IRC chat.
What is it?
Where is it?
How do I get in on this?
Is it part of the boards?
Am I a total loser?
IRC stands for “Internet Relay Chat” – it’s basically a protocol that allows people from all over the world to connect to various servers and chat with each other.
What you need to do is get an IRC client. MIRC is a good one. Go to http://www.tucows.com or another shareware site, search for “IRC clients” (or just search for MIRC) and download it. When you get it loaded up, you are probably going to have a screen somewhere where you can type commands in. You are going to want to join one of the Undernet servers. Depending on the IRC client you wind up with, you may just be able to click the name of an Undernet server in the setup box and then click “Connect”. (You’ll recognize it as an Undernet server because it will have “Undernet” in the name.) Otherwise, type /server irc.undernet.org (is that a server that even works? Anyone? Bueller?) to connect to Undernet.
Once you are connected, you are going to want to choose a nickname. Type /nick Nickname (where Nickname is the name you want). If someone else has already chosen that name, it will tell you so, and you’ll have to pick another one. You’ll probably log on with some default name that your IRC client will assign, like “IRCUser” or something lame, which is why you will want to change it.
Then type /join #straightdope. You’ll join the #straightdope channel, and can begin chatting merrily away with the people who hang out there.
IRC gurus, if I have provided any misleading or incorrect info in the above, please correct me.
Just wanted to point out, for the record, that #straightdope is not affiliated with this website in any way.