#Genderqueer Help

New to our chatroom? New to IRC?
Here's a few quick tips to get you started.

1. As soon as you join, you'll notice that many of us have + symbols next to our name. This is voice, and it's given to all users who speak in #genderqueer. We've shifted away from giving it to just registered users, it's just easier to give it to everyone who is active/bothers to participate.

2. If you don't have a + symbol, don't panic. Speak up.

3. ***Please register your nickname!*** This is a very important step that ensures we can add you later, should you become awesome enough to make our Regular users list, who will get autovoiced by services (Helper) and get the power to !voice other users in case they speak and are missed.

You can register with this command: /ns register youremail@goes.here yourpasswordgoeshere
Please for security sake click your "Snoonet" tab in your client and type it there, in case you mistype the command. DO NOT USE A FAKE EMAIL, OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CONFIRM YOUR REGISTRATION. Use a disposable email address if you're that paranoid, but keep in mind you won't be able to recover your password if you forget it if you do that.

4. After typing the register command you should get a notice back from NickServ mentioning email confirmation. Go check your email. You will receive a command to issue to nickserv that looks like this: /msg Nickserv CONFIRM SoMeRaAnDoMcOdeHere. Paste that command into the window and hit enter.

5. If your nick gets changed to Guest##### then you've been kicked off that nickname. You need to type: /ns release nick yourpasswordgoeshere
Then you should be able to change to that nick. Just to be safe though, type '/ns identify nick yourpasswordgoeshere' before changing to that nick so you don't get booted off again.

6. If you log-in and find that you're still "there" and forced to use a different nick, type /ns ghost nick yourpasswordgoeshere
This will kill off the "Ghost" that is holding your nick up.

7. **Keep in mind that it may look quiet and dead in here. It is in fact, not dead.** The Server will not send JOIN events for users who do not speak in this channel. This cuts down on the clutter generated by users who may be experiencing bad connection problems, and gives lurkers their privacy. Please do feel free to idle though. If you want your presence to be known though, just speak up, and you'll be voiced and therefore not hidden from view.

You can get a list of ALL users by typing '/who #genderqueer'. Some simpler clients may require the use of '/raw who #genderqueer' or '/quote who #genderqueer' depending on their settings and default configuration. Remember to check your Status and/or Network Window (depending on your client) if nothing appears in your window after using this command.

8. Please do not simply join, decide it's too dead and quit! Give it some time, we can't maintain activity if people don't stick around more often. *This is more of a guideline really, but please bear it in mind before leaving.* IRC is often full of idle users, and to expect immediate responses from anyone is simply unrealistic. So don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. :p