The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. However, as IRC is used in many different countries, English is by no means the only language. If you want to speak some other language than English, (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel and set the topic to indicate that. On the other hand, you should check the topic before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions about anguage. On a non-restricted channel, please speak a language everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise,change channels and set the topic accordingly.
It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally. Usually one "Hello!" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody to greet you back... On a channel with 20 people that would mean one screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know, do it with a private message. The same applies to goodbyes.
Also note that using the event response feature, (the "ON" command for instance), to automatically say hello or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive autogreets. They are not only obviously automatic, but even if you think you are polite you are actually sounding insincere and also interfering with the personal environment of the recipient when using autogreets. If somebody wants to be autogreeted on joining a channel, he will autogreet himself.
Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by your actions, writings and comments, so think before you type. If you use offensive words, you'll be frowned upon. Do not "dump" to a channel or user, (send large amounts of unwanted information). This is likely to get you kicked off the channel or killed off from IRC. Dumping causes network "burps" and connections going down because servers cannot handle the large amount of traffic anymore.
Other prohibited and discouraged actions include:
* Any behavior reducing the functionality of IRC.
* Harassing another user. Harassment is defined as behavior towards another user with the purpose of annoying them.
* Annoying a channel with constant beeping, face getting and version or gestalt requests. Odds are that behavior like that will get you kicked.
* Many channels frown on excessive use of color, or use of color at all. Colorized messages often cause problems for people that have a background color set up. Black is very popular for example.
* If you have a question to ask the channel, do not ask if you can ask the question! Just ask it, and if someone feels like answering you'll get an answer. If not, then please do not keep repeating the question. They heard you the first time.
