SPQR Clan IRC - A guide.

Here at SPQR we have a multitude of contact mediums, and the one used most commonly, and my personal favourite, is the IRC, or Internet Relay Chat. In this thread I'll teach you the basics of IRC use, such as connecting to webchat, joining channels, explanation of channel user levels and the way to change your IRC name. Video supplementation will eventually be supplied for those who simply "don't get it" once I've explained through text imagery, and that's totally fine. Let's get started, shall we?

The first thing you want to do is connect to the website http://webchat.quakenet.org
Once you've done that by either copying into your address bar or clicking that link, something like this should appear on screen. [IMG]http://puu.sh/12Mli[/IMG]

Once you've completed this crucial step, in the "Nickname" text bar type what you wish your display name to be, and in the Channels text bar type "#SPQR". This is the official SPQR clan channel. All IRC channels have a hash before them when joining them. What you should see is something like this, before clicking "Join chat". [img]http://puu.sh/12MY2[/img]

Once you have joined chat, there may be slight delay and several messages appearing on screen, before something like this appears [img]http://puu.sh/12NfV[/img]

On the left is a time indicator of when messages are/were sent. In the central left are the names, or "Nicks" of the people currently talking in the channel. The chat bar which you type your message in is located at the bottom.

On the right is the list of users in the channel, those with a "+" next to their name, eg. <+Kodiak>, are Operators, or Ops, of the channel who are generally either bots or clan members in a position of power on the IRC, eg. Tin, Scipion and (occasionally) myself.

Note one of the users on the right is someone named Q, who is not a "someone" at all but a Quakenet service bot, which allows several key channel operation commands to be used and used effectively. Basically, if your channel is worth anything, it has a Q bot.

The other bots you'll see are ^Gandalf^ and ^Caesar^. ^Gandalf^ is a "Nordic Bot", a Quakenet service that allows your channel to have many commands at your disposal, some important, some less so.

^Caesar^ is a little more complex, and is my own personal bot, coded in the IRC client mIRC using mIRCscript. He's quite simple in that he uses only "on text" based commands, in that you type the command using the ! prefix and then the trigger word, and he'll respond with what he's set to respond to.
Current ^Caesar^ commands are:
!list: Lists all commands currently functional on ^Caesar^
!rules: Links you directly to the #SPQR channel rules
!thread: Links you to the SPQR AoS thread. Upon subsection, this will change to our subsection index.
!sigs: Links you to forum signatures made by Souleris
!AoS: Links you to the AoS play page.
!server: Brings up an aos:// link to the SPQR server, which you can paste into your browser.
!serverchan: Creates a clickable link to the SPQR server IRC channel, #spqr.server
!minit: Brings up and aos:// link to the Minit US Assault server, which you can paste into your browser.
!mumble: Directs you to our favourite VoIP program, mumble.
!leaderboard: Directs you to the Ace of Spades leaderboard operated by mat^2 and available on select servers

Once you've joined you may be wanting to change your nickname or join other channels. This is very, very simple and I will type the commands for you.

When changing your nick (username) type in the text bar: /nick newname (newname becomes whatever you wish your new nick to be.

When joining a new channel, type in the text bar: /join #Channelname (Channelname being whichever chan you wish to join.

This has covered the overall basics of IRC connection and operation. In the future I'll be writing a small tut for the IRC client (a more advanced IRC program) kvIRC, should I see sufficient reason and interest to do so. Thankyou for taking the time to read this and becoming a better IRC user. :)