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- IRC HOWTO
- Wyzewun <wyze1@xtc.za.org>
- v0.1, 2nd April 1999
-
- HOWTO look cool on IRC, Idle for Long Periods of Time, And be hip in general
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- Table of Contents
-
- 1. Getting Started
-
- 1.1 Choosing a Cool Handle
- 1.2 Installing Screen
-
- 2. Tips for Successful IRC'ing
-
- 2.1 Hints on Setting yourself Away
- 2.2 What to do once you have Ops
-
- 3. Conclusion
-
- 3.1 Greets and Shout-Outs
- 3.2 Parting Words
-
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
-
- 1. Getting Started
-
-
- 1.1 Choosing a Cool Handle
-
- It is common knowledge that people hardly, if ever, actually talk on IRC.
- For this Reason It is vital that your handle be reason enough for you to
- be considered interesting and intelligent, regardless of the fact that
- you have not said a word, and are probably too dumb to figure out which
- keys to press to say something anyway.
-
- Our amazing intellectual ability can be expressed by giving ourselves a
- handle which contains a combination of Latin and Computer Terminology.
- For Example, we choose Magus, because it sounds Latin, and then combine
- it with Cyber, forming CyberMagus, something which would without the
- shadow of a doubt cause you to be considered cool.
-
- Other possibilities are any combinations involving Acid, Dark, Night,
- Hex or Root. You will instantly be accepted on any Network.
-
-
- 1.2 Installing Screen
-
- Many newcomers to IRC think that it is a good idea to install screen so
- that they can recover IRC sessions from the background and detach them
- again when they are finished. This is in fact not at all worthwhile.
-
- Assuming that we want to recover our past IRC sessions would imply that
- we want to say something, or communicate in some way, which would make us
- instantly un-cool. What we should do is run our client as a background
- process, and specify that it must automatically join a channel on the
- command-line.
-
- This way we do not have to worry about learning how to use screen, or
- having to run the risk of having the urge to actually SAY something in
- our IRC Window, which may actually reveal the fact that we are a babbling
- five year old of no substantial knowledge what-so-ever. All in all, a much
- less risky option.
-
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
-
- 2. Tips for Successful IRC'ing
-
-
- 2.1 Setting yourself as Away
-
- Many people think that they can achieve the state of supreme eliteness by
- simply setting themselves as away. This is one of the great misconceptions
- amongst those still new to the IRC Scene.
-
- We can only be cool if we have a client that loudly announces that we are
- away, as well as the name of the client we are using. However, another
- potential problem comes to mind here, in that we must be sure to be using a
- cool client. So What defines a cool client?
-
- Well, in the opinion of most of the Linux gurus out there, the Name of the
- Client must contain at least one swearword, and have a cool abbreviation.
- Thus BitchX is the perfect client, and having 5000 backdoors in it, you
- will become even cooler and be admired by thousands around the globe. Be
- Sure to set yourself away as often as possible, and if at all possible,
- make it look like you're actually DOING something constructive. An
- example follows...
-
- * Ascii_Kewil is Away (Checking Something [BX MsgLog ON])
- <Ascii_Kewil> hmmmm
- * Ascii_Kewil is Back from the Dead - Gone 0 Minutes, 15 Seconds
- <Ascii_Kewil> Stupid Kernel doesnt support vfat
- * Ascii_Kewil is Away (Recompiling [BX MsgLog ON])
-
- After which you can continue your usual schedule of downloading vast
- amounts of pornography, and doing all that stuff that people really use
- the Internet for, such as finding out the time in Mexico having netsex
- with five-year-old boys who claim to be Neve Campbell.
-
-
- 2.2 What to do Once you Have Ops
-
- Once you have Idled for a few weeks, you will be given Operator Status,
- and after idling for another two weeks or so, you may begin to use this
- privalege. Contrary to popular belief, the point of Operator Status is
- not to help run a channel, but to kick and ban anyone you can, for any
- reason you can think of. Use of it for any other purpose will instantly
- show your lack of coolness and you will be exposed as a Cluesless Gimp, or
- some-one who hasn't read the IRC-HOWTO now included with all major Linux
- Distributions. (Or at least the Cool Ones)
-
- Because you are breaking your idling by kicking somebody, you must make
- sure that you sound as intelligent as possible, while still maintaining
- your big-bad image and not letting anyone know that you are a loser
- twelve-year old who hangs in #linux all day for lack of anything better
- to do with himself. This can be achieved by making your kick message as
- pointless as possible, you see, by not attempting to make our reasoning
- sound at all logical, it will not be questioned, and we will remain
- the coolest person on IRC.
-
- Fortunately, BitchX already has random kick messages, making it easier for
- anyone to greatly decrease their risks of looking un-cool, or commiting
- spelling errors in their kick messages. The Linux community really think
- of everything, Don't they? Thankyou Panasync!
-
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
-
- 3. Conclusion
-
-
- 3.1 Greets and Shout-Outs
-
- Thanks to Carolyn Meinel for her Amazingly intelligent textfiles, really,
- she must have spent A LOT of time idling on IRC to get THAT smart. I
- respect her greatly. Honest.
-
- Thanks to Linus Torvalds for making Linux, and for drinking every six-pack
- of beer that LUG's around the world give him, regardless of what it does to
- his ever -erm- improving figure. I wonder if the beer relates in any way to
- the Kernel problems I've been having... Hmmmm.
-
-
- 3.2 Parting Words
-
- I will be continuing maintenance of this HOWTO, and hopefully we will see
- it in some Major Linux Distributions in the near future. Any ideas for
- future development are welcome to be mailed to me at wyze1@xtc.za.org