[Note: this guide was written back in 2007-2008 and not very professional, but I'm saving it as an artifact for how things have changed since. Check the new guide for a more up to date version.]




Welcome to the guide for the Unofficial Destructoid IRC channel. You may have heard about IRC or seen some banners in the profiles of a couple of community members. IRC is an easy way to communicate with other community members, especially if you are bored at work and can't use a headset for Vent.

This guide will cover a variety of things, from what program to use to how to connect and finally what advanced methods you can use. Go to Part 1 or Part 2 depending on if you use a PC or a Mac. If you are new or if you have been in the channel a couple of times, you might want to check out Part 3 for IRC basics. If you are a regular, you should definitely check out Part 4.

Everyone should read Part 5!

Contents:
Part 1: IRC on Windows: mIRC / X-Chat 2 / Trillian / Pidgin / browser based IRC
Part 2: IRC on Mac: Colloquy / Ircle
Part 3: IRC basics
Part 4: IRC advanced methods
Part 5: Rules and etiquette



Part 1: IRC on Windows
If you don't have an IRC client yet, install mIRC or the open source alternative X-Chat 2.
mIRC is recommended because it offers the many options and is pretty easy to get the hang of. Most people in the channel are using it, which is useful in case you need any help with anything. mIRC is not entirely free, so you need to find a not-serial on the internets if you don't want a "Trial over" popup after a week or so. However, if you just wait a couple of seconds and press OK, you can use it as if it were registered so it's not that big of a deal. Other than that, you won't lose any functionality by not entering a serial/purchasing it, so the mIRC trial is still recommended over X-Chat 2 if you are new to the whole thing.

- Go to Section A for a mIRC guide to connecting or go to Section B for an X-Chat 2 guide.

- If you already have Trillian or Pidgin installed, go to the relevant guide section at Section C and Section D.

- If you don't want to install a program, or can't at work, go to the browser-based IRC section at Section E.



Section A: mIRC
0. Start up mIRC!
1. Go to Options



2. Go to the Servers menu
3. Select Dynastynet: Random server from the dropdown box.
4. If it's not there, select Add and fill in the details, or edit the details of some random server, as follows:



5. When you are done, go to the Connect menu in the same Options menu, just 1 option above the Servers menu. Enter your Dtoid nickname here. Insert a fake Full Name and e-mail address. The "Alternative:" box is just a way to have a second nickname in case you can't use your normal nickname for some reason.



6. Close the Options menu and select the little lightning symbol in the top-left.
7. You are now connected to the server, yay! Type in /join #destructoid to join the channel.



A WINNAR IS YOU! It should look a bit like this, only not in glorious 550p :



Note: I'm not ThuperHardcore, these are just old screenshots :P



Section B: X-Chat 2

0. Once installed, open the X-Chat 2 program. You should see something like this:



Fill in whatever names and nicks you want.
1. Dynastynet is not a standard server in the list, so you'll have to add it first.
2. Rename the network to Dynastynet or just Destructoid or something, whatever will make you remember where you kept it. Your new network will stay on the top of the list regardless of name.
3. Edit your just added network.
4. Now enter irc.dynastynet.net where "newserver/6667" used to stand. If it keeps changing back to "newserver/6667", just press enter after typing it in and it will accept it. Add #destructoid at Channels to Join. Ignore the rest of the options if you don't know what they are. It should look like this:



5. Close the edit window and press Connect in the previous window. You will now join the channel:



6. If you close down the program and you chose to not show the server list on startup, it doesn't automatically join the room again. You can select Server > Reconnect to get back to the server list and press connect to get back in action.



SWEET!


Section C: Trillan
Trillian opens the IRC window in a separate window, so there isn't really any reason to use this program over mIRC. You end up with two windows for IM and IRC in both cases.., But here we go anyway:

1. Go to the far-right icon in Trillian and select Manage Connections like this:



2. Alternatively, or if this button isn't there, go to the Manage Connections menu in the usual way:



If IRC is not among the connections to manage, add it under plugins first: Go to Trillian preferences, then select Plugins:



3. Now that you are in the Manage Connections menu, select Add new connection > IRC



4. Enter some name, irc.dynastynet.net:6667 for server, a nickname and some other crap. In this case, the box with ProfPew will be your nickname:



5. Now that you've entered all the info, click on Connect, close the window and go back to the Trillian main window. Click on the IRC button again. Now select Join a channel



6. Enter "#destructoid" in the Join Channel box. If all went well, you should have a new window like this:



AMAZING!



Section D: Pidgin
1. When you first start pidgin, you should see the following window. Click Add.



2. Select IRC as protocol.
3. Enter the nickname you want to chat with and the server info as follows (no that is not a drawing of a boob next to 3!):



4. Save your info. Close the buddy list and the other windows, so you only have the IRC window in front of you. Type /join #destructoid in the bottom box. Press enter.



5. Now you are in the channel, just ignore all the crap tabs that pidgin throws at you and go to the #destructoid tab. You can now talk! But you are still using Pidgin to do it! Booooo...






Section E: Using your browser / Firefox plugin
Java chat
If you don't want a standalone client, you can use the browser-based Java chat at the Dynastynet website. Just enter a name and "destructoid" as the room name. Without the quotes of course..

Mibbit
Another option is to go to mibbit.com and select Dynastynet.net as server. This will take you to a new page where you enter your nick and #destructoid as room:



Mibbit looks a bit better than the Java chat too:



Chatzilla
You can also install the Chatzilla plugin here. After installing it and restarting Firefox (boo!), open the plugin from the Tools menu.



1. Change your nick to your Dtoid nick. If you don't have one, please go back to joystiq.com?
2. Type /server irc.dynastynet.net, press enter

Now type /join #destructoid where you just typed /server and....



SUCCESS!!

If you want to change other things in Chatzilla, look on the official Chatzilla FAQ for more info. After you are done reading this guide of course!





Part 2: IRC on Mac (by Necros)
Unfortunately, the best IRC client, mIRC, is Windows-only. If you're a Mac user, you should be used to dealing with disappointment in exchange for your fancy visual interfaces, so get over it and try out some alternative programs. If you're looking for a mIRC-like experience, your best bet is probably Ircle. The one drawback is that you need to pay for it after 30 days or else you can't do much of anything, so either pony up the cash for a program that's never updated or find a not-crack.

Otherwise, you've got a few options from some lesser-known clients, such as Colloquy and X-Chat Aqua, which operates in a similar manner to its Windows-based cousin. There are probably a few more, but the ones I cover here should be fine. You can also use the same Java-based chat options that are covered in Windows Section E, both the actual website of DynastyNet and mibbit.com; just follow the earlier directions. Also, as far as I know, Chatzilla works fine for the OS X flavor of Firefox, so go to Windows Section E and do the same thing, but with a shiny white mouse.

Section A: Ircle
0. Start up Ircle and you'll see four windows pop up.



For a full sized image of what it looks like, click here

This is the configuration I use, at least. The Console is in the upper left and is where you see all your server messages show up. The Inputline for typing is in the bottom left. The window in the upper right is the Userlist for a channel once you're connected.

1. Below that is the Connections window, which is where you're going to want to start, so select the first connection and click Edit.


2. It will bring up the above window, specifically Identity. Under Server, click on Select. DynastyNet is usually not there, so click Add and make it look like the following screen:



3. Back on your Connections preferences window, fill in your Nickname and Username (just put in the same thing).
4. Enter a Password. This won't do anything right now, but if you decide to register your nickname on the DynastyNet server, this will save you the trouble of adding a password later.
5. Check Auto connect to server. This means you will connect to DynastyNet every time you start up Ircle.
6. At the top of the Connection preferences window, switch to Autoexec:



7. Type in "/join #destructoid" without the quotes, then hit OK.
8. All options should be closed and you should once again only have the first four windows visible. (Keep in mind that anything other than the console and channel windows will only appear if Ircle is on top of your other windows, so as to reduce clutter.) Your nickname should now be listed as the first connection in the Connections window, so click Connect.


For a full sized image of what it looks like, click here

9. See that new window full of green automated text pop up in the upper left corner? That's the Channel window. You're in!


Section B: Colloquy
0. Start up Colloquy and you'll see this start-up window:



1. Enter your Nickname.
2. Under Chat Server, enter "irc.dynastynet.net" without the quotes.
3. Click Details. This will open the rest of the settings.



4. Check Remember this connection.
5. Under Username, enter the same thing as your Nickname, then hit Connect.



6. Your Connections screen will now have the server entered. In the upper right, click on Info.
7. At the top of this new screen, click on Automatic.



8. Check both Connect on launch and Open console on connect.
9. Under Join Rooms, enter "#destructoid" (no quotes), then close the window.
10. On your Connections screen, hit Connect.



11. As you connect, a bunch of notice screen will pop up on your right. You can just click on them to make them disappear. (If they bother you, there's a way to make notices appear in the console.)


For a full sized image of what it looks like, click here

12. The screen above will appear, and you're in! Click the down arrow in the side bar to see who is in the channel, then consider going to preferences to customize the appearance, which can range from iChat-like bubbles to pure old-school text.





Part 3: IRC basics
Now that you are all set up, you're ready to go. You may want to check out a couple of things if you are planning on staying though. If you are not very tech savvy at all, you can ignore this part and just have fun in chatting :)

Registering your nick
You can register your nickname so others can't steal it. Although that almost never happens *cough*, it also allows you to be added to a list of regulars in the channel. Once you become a regular, that is. Luckily, registering is not that hard:

1. Anywhere in mIRC (or other clients): when you are connected, type: "/ns register password email" without the quotes and starting with a /. As long as you start any line of text with a / , it doesn't go into the chat window. Of course, 'password' means your password of choice, and 'email' means your email.

If you are not sure about typing your personal info in the #destructoid room without fucking up, most clients have a status window or tab where you can play around at your leisure without noticing it.

2. You'll get an email with a confirmation, the nick is now yours.
3. To prove you are indeed the owner of the nick, you need to identify by typing /ns identify password. You need to do this every time you connect or change your nick back to the one you identified (after you took on a different nick for instance)! This can get tiresome after a couple of times, so there is a shortcut to this that will be covered in Part 3: Advanced methods.
4. If you are a regular, ask King Necros to add you to the list of autovoiced people and you will receive "voice' whenever you join the channel after you've identified yourself. It sounds harder than it is, just follow the steps and don't worry about it.
5. If you don't identify yourself within 90 seconds after connecting to the server, Dynastynet will gheyly change your nick to Dyn_User923895 or something. This happens so that other people can't steal your nick. If this happens, type /nick your_nickname and you will change your nickname back to what it was. You still have to identify or it will change your nick back to the Dyn_User923427 crap.

Practical IRC workings
In the channel's user list, you will see that some people have a symbol in front of their name. This shows who are Ops (@name), Half-Ops (%name) and Voiced members (+name). Ops and Half-Ops are the IRC police or gods. They might kick you if you fail, ban you if you fail consistently and they set the topic for the channel. Having "Voice" (+) doesn't really do anything except that in the case of spamming, the channel can be set to +m(oderated). This means that all people except for those with Voice can't say anything.

In practice, it's only used for showing who is a regular and who took the trouble to register his nick.

/me commands
Every line you start with /me will let you do an 'action'. This is basically just a way of doing other stuff than just talking. So let's say you type /me sexually assaults Necros' sister, this will results in the line "YOURNAME sexually assaults Necros' sister" in another color. It never gets old.

/nick command
You can change your nickname at any time using the command:
/nick "newnickname"

Karma and quotes
There is a karmabot in the channel: AlsoCocks, which collects quotes and karma.

Karma is a rating you can give to any word. It's just a way to keep track of what the crowd thinks is cool, over a period of time. There is a 20 second delay between karma changes as a spam protection.

The commands are:
!karma "word" : to see the current karma for any thing
!word++ : to add +1 to any thing
!word-- : to add -1 to any thing

If you down the karma Christian Bale, you automatically fail.

Quotes can be added and viewed like this:
!quote : for a random quote
!quote "word" : for a quote containing "word"
!addquote quote : to add a quote. Note that if you copy paste a number of lines straight from irc, only the top line gets added because of the break between lines. You can add anything with any number of words and numbers, as long as there is no enter/break between them.




Part 4: IRC advanced methods
If you are a regular or you want to set everything up straight away, here are some extra tips for when you are using mIRC. There are probably ways to do it in the other programs, but you can probably figure them out yourselves. If you use Chatzilla, go here for a guide.

Auto joining on startup
Go to mIRC Options > Options. Here you can check the boxes for connect on startup and reconnect on disconnection. They do exactly what the words mean. Psh, semantics!




Auto joining the channel on connecting
1. In the same Options window, click on Perform
2. Under "Perform commands:", type "/ns identify password" so that the moment you connect, you will identify yourself
3. Also add "/join #destructoid" here, under the identify line.
4. Check the "Enable perform on connect" box. This will automatically execute whatever commands you entered in the Perform box. Now you'll automatically get into the channel as a registered member in the future!




Aliases (or shortcuts)
An alias is basically a shortcut for a command that can be configured in any way you like. They work as follows: you start by giving a command that you want to use as a shortcut, say /emo. You can tell mIRC to do something whenever you type /emo, for instance you can have it do /msg #destructoid Snaileb makes all emo's cry. This way, whenever you type /emo it will make you say "Snaileb makes all emo's cry" in the channel. Easy no?

First, click on the green /a icon in the 1st row of icons:



Now fill in some crap you want as shortcuts, here are some example ones of the kind that I could use:



This way, you can always reconnect if you get disconnected or something. You can also identify yourself without having to type in all that stuff again. And you can easily change your nick back without typing /nick Nickname.

Play around with this if you want, but try not to disrupt any communication in the channel. If you want, you can always /join #dtoidtest and play around there if you are not sure what something does.


Auto-rejoin and Highlighting:
You can make your nickname show up with a different color in mIRC, to make it easier to notice when someone is asking you something or whatever. It's also a good idea to enable auto-rejoin in case you get kicked for some reason. To enable this:

1. Go to mIRC options (View > Options, or the hammer+folder button near the top-left)
2. Go to the IRC section in the list on the left.
3. Check "Auto-rejoin channel on invite" and "Rejoin channel when kicked" to make things easier
4. Go to the Highlight section under IRC
5. Check "Enable highlighting"
6. Click on "Add" to add your nickname and assign a color and/or sound, whatever you like.
7. You can add as many things as you want with various reasons. If you want to play a sound of a groaning Chad whenever someone says "rape", go right ahead!




Part 5: Rules and etiquette
Ok, this part should be pretty easy. There shouldn't really be a need for any rules for most of the community here at Dtoid, but from now on we will have some anyway. Obey these rules, which are subject to interpretation by the ops (Necros, ProfPew, Coonskin, RiserGlen) and half-ops (Hitogoroshi, itemforty):

1. Don't suck!
2. Don't be a negative nancy "ALL" of the time. Sure everyone get pissed at one thing or another at times, and discussions are encouraged. People are gonna disagree with you. Just don't get pissy and turn into a broken record ;)
This is not just for any person, it's just a general rule to fall back on without the need for endless bitching back and forth.
3. Don't ask for ops, Necros gets enough rape from hot otaku girls so NO, you don't have anything to offer him!
4. Don't abuse karma by upping or downing something. We can just reset it anyway so it's useless to try
5. Don't add lame quotes. Please...
6. This IRC channel is not a safe haven for failed community members. You can set up your own little room and go cry in a corner there.
7. People will rape you many times!
8. Lost is the best show on TV after The Wire, The Prisoner and Twin Peaks. There is no debate about this.
9. No stalking of members!

Kicks are for the lulz, for you fucking up while toying around and/or for failing. Usually it's just lulz or a mix between the three. Don't whine about it or you'll break Rule 1.

Finally, let it be known that the IRC channel is unofficial. This means that you don't go and run to CTZ to whine if you failed and got kicked/banned. It also means that no topic is taboo, unless you are just there to hate on Dtoid. Finally, please don't come to bitch about community members you don't like. If you have a problem with someone, deal with that person directly or don't deal with it at all; just don't complain about it everyday.



This concludes the guide on most of the things you will need for IRCing on the Unofficial Destructoid Channel. Feel free to join at any time and have fun!

Thanks Necros for the Mac sections, Coonskin for final feedback and everybody who has been active from the beginning of post-Bluewolf IRC and stuck around to this day!!