Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet Part 36

/away When you're called away to put out a grease fire in the kitchen, issue this command to let others know you're still connected but just away from your terminal or computer for awhile.

/help Brings up a list of commands for which there is a help file. You will get a "topic:" prompt. Type in the subject for which you want information and hit enter.

Hit enter by itself to exit help.

/invite Asks another IRC to join you in a conversation.

/invite fleepo #hottub

would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on the #hottub channel. The channel name is optional.

/join Use this to switch to or create a particular channel, like this:

/join #hottub

If one of these channels exists and is not a private one, you will enter it. Otherwise, you have just created it. Note you have to use a # as the first character.

/list This will give you a list of all available public channels, their topics (if any) and the number of users currently on them. Hidden and private channels are not shown.

/m name Send a private message to that user.

/mode This lets you determine who can join a channel you've created.

/mode #channel +s

creates a secret channel.

/mode #channel +p

makes the channel private

/nick This lets you change the name by which others see you.

/nick fleepo

would change your name for the present session to fleepo. People can still use /whois to find your e-mail address. If you try to enter a channel where somebody else is already using that nickname, IRC will ask you to select another name.

/query This sets up a private conversation between you and another IRC user. To do this, type

/query nickname

Every message you type after that will go only to that person. If she then types

/query nickname

where nickname is yours, then you have established a private conversation. To exit this mode, type

/query

by itself. While in query mode, you and the other person can continue to "listen" to the discussion on whatever public channels you were on, although neither of you will be able to respond to any of the messages there.

/quit Exit IRC.

/signoff Exit IRC.

/summon Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to join you on IRC. You must use the person's entire e-mail address.

/summon [email protected]

would send a message to fleepo asking him to start IRC.

Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you know they're already amenable to the idea; otherwise you may wind up annoying them no end. This command does not work on all sites.

/topic When you've started a new channel, use this command to let others know what it's about.

/topic #Amiga

would tell people who use /list that your channel is meant for discussing Amiga computers.

/who Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular channel.

/who #foo

would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo.

/who

by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person on IRC at the time, although be careful: on a busy night you might get a list of 500 names!

/whois Use this to get some information about a specific IRC user or to see who is online.

/whois nickname

will give you the e-mail address for the person using that nickname.

/whois *

will list everybody on every channel.

/whowas Similar to /whois; gives information for people who recently signed off IRC.

11.4 IRC IN TIMES OF CRISIS

IRC has become a new medium for staying on top of really big breaking news. In 1993, when Russian lawmakers barricaded themselves inside the parliament building, some enterprising Muscovites and a couple of Americans set up a "news channel" on IRC to relay first-person accounts direct from Moscow. The channel was set up to provide a continuous loop of information, much like all-news radio stations that cycle through the day's news every 20 minutes. In 1994, Los Angeles residents set up a similar channel to relay information related to the Northridge earthquake. In both cases, logs of the channels were archived somewhere on the Net, for those unable to "tune in" live.