Basic IRC commands

IRC is mostly based around sending messages back and forth, but there are additional features available through special commands. In almost every client, commands take the form of a line starting with a slash — note that spaces before or after the slash will prevent commands from being interpreted — immediately followed by a command name and arguments. A few basic commands include:

• /me, which performs an action in the channel. Actions are much like regular messages, except that most clients will format them differently to make the message look more like a nick-verb sentence. For instance, /me does stuff will yield something like “* ExampleGuy does stuff”, instead of “<ExampleGuy> does stuff”.
• /msg, which sends a private message to a given nick; for example, /msg somenick Hi there. Messages sent this way will not be seen by anyone else, as long as you don’t forget the slash. Many clients will open a new window or tab for the private conversation; those that don’t can be forced to by using /query instead of /msg. Graphical clients will usually let you double-click on a user’s nick to start a private conversation.
• /join and /part, which join and leave a given channel, respectively. If you try to join a channel that doesn’t exist, it will be created for you; if all users leave a channel, it will be deleted (unless it is registered with the server). This means that it’s easy to create ad-hoc channels for short conversations by picking a unique name.
• /nick, which changes your nick. Note that nicks apply across an entire server, not just a single channel, so you may be unable to use a name even if you don’t see anyone with it. Changing nicks frequently usually annoys people, but this can be useful for indicating that you’re away from your computer by adding something like “|away” to your nick.
• /whois, which gives you information about the user with a given nick. Usually, this information includes the user@hostname mask, a list of joined channels, idle time, and custom data provided by the user.
• /quit, which leaves all channels and disconnects you from the server. Some clients will actually quit entirely when this command is run (in which case the command to disconnect from a single server is usually /disconnect), but most will leave other server connections open.

Using channel bots

Among #yackfest’s users are a few bots, or programs that respond automatically to specially-formatted messages. The channel’s primary bot is Omnipresence, which is developed and operated by our very own IllFlower. You can get Omni’s attention in one of three ways:

• Send a message to the channel prefixed with @. This method is the easiest to type and remember.
• Send a message to the channel prefixed with Omnipresence, followed by a colon or a comma. This works with tab completion on most clients.
• Send a private message to Omnipresence itself, using /msg Omnipresence. Responses to commands invoked this way will also be sent privately.

You can get a list of available commands by using the help command, or more information on a specific command with help KEYWORD. Sometimes, Omnipresence will break up long replies into several messages, each followed by a notice of the form “(+1234 more characters)”; you can use more to get succeeding messages.

Other bots available in channel are listed below. To get a full list of commands for each bot, use its respective prefix followed by help.

If you’d like to bring your own bot into the channel, please read the guidelines first.