This is a tutorial on the WrongPlanet Chat room. First, we must have the disclaimers, then, some chat room lingo, then, howto go to the chat room.
<disclaimers>
The WrongPlanet chat room is not at all like the forums. The forums are very structured, and, is heavily moderated. The WrongPlanet chat room, on the is quite different. In the chat room, you may have 5 different topics going at once, and, there may be a troll and a moderator is not available. So, if you can't handle that, your best not to connect.
</disclaimers>
Now, I should most likely show you some lingo you don't see on Yahoo or MSN IM.
IRC, Internet Relay Chat: Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, is the protocol that the chat rooms run on. If you have a client, I will post the direct connect info later.
Freenode, FreeNode, FN: Freenode is a non-profit ran by the Peer-Directed Projects Center (PDPC). They host and manage the IRC servers, or, the IRCd's, that the WrongPlanet chat room runs on. They are best known for hosting Linux support chat rooms, such as Ubuntu's and the Fedora Project's.
#WrongPlanet, #WP: #WrongPlanet is the "channel", or, chat room that WrongPlanet runs in.
Ops, Operator, OPs: They are kinda like the forum moderators. They can ban you from connecting for a while, they can mute you, or they can disconnect you from the channel (kick).
IRCops, Freenode Staff, Staff: These are the people who run Freenode (mentioned above). They are like the UN peacekeepers. They keep a calm atmosphere, while, defending the server network from spammers and trolls. They can also (in a worst-case situation) ban people from all of the servers they run, though, they won't do that on request.
NickServ: This is a robot that protects your nickname from being used by someone else. I will explain it more later.
ChanServ: This is also a robot, on, this protects your chat room if you ever decide to create one. I won't explain that here.
Okay, I think that covers most of it. Now, onto connecting.
*I said I would give the direct connect info to users with a clients, so, here it is:
irc.freenode.net:6667 #wrongplanet
or if that doesn't work try
chat.freenode.net:6667 #wrongplanet
(those where hyperlinked in a fashion that your client can connect using those links.
For those without a client, let me explain how to use the web client. First, open a new tab (or window if your a IE6-tard) and goto wrongplanet.net. Then, up top, you should see a button that says "Chat". Click it. You will come to a new page. Find the link that says Chat Now. Note: It's a Java applet. So, as we all know, Java loves to b***h about security errors. If any come up, please accept them. If Windows Firewall comes up, please do the same as well.
You will see a new part of the screen come up. It will say "Connecting to irc.freenode.net" for a few seconds, then a bunch of text will fly across the screen and you will be connected to the WrongPlanet chat room. To start out with, you want to change your nickname. Think of a unique less-than-20-characters nickname. You could try your forum nickname, or, maybe your first inital last name (jdoe for John Doe). Then, you need to change to it. Type in the text bar at the bottom /nick null, replacing null with whatever your nickname is that you picked. For example, my nickname on there is weatherkid. So, I type /nick weatherkid (Don't use that though. It is protected).
Now, you need to talk, right? Remember that text bar that you changed your nickname with at the bottom? Well, that is how you talk as well! Just type anything you want to say, and it will post it in the chat room. A question we get a lot is, how do you make the actions? It's very simple. Just type /me action. For example, if I typed /me is using /me, it would say on your screen "weatherkid is using /me", and so forth.
To leave the chat, type /quit, or, just close the tab (or window) you opened it in. Please follow the channel rules at http://www.wrongplanet.net/chatrules.txt.
That's all I can think of for now. If a mod can sticky this, that would be nice. Have any question? Just post a reply, and I will get back to it ASAP.
23 Aug 2010, 1:00 pm
