Geek Culture IRC FAQ	Site home | Geek Culture
		Home | IRC guide | IRC FAQ | Client walkthroughs

Sometimes, you just have a question you want answering, and don’t want to read through the IRC guide to find it. I won’t pretend that these questions really are asked frequently – these are more like a collection of useful hints I feel people will find it handy to read. However, do feel free to ask questions.

Questions

How do I change my name?
How do I send private messages? How do I chat privately to another user?
How do I have IRC indicate I did something?

Got a question to ask?

You can reach me by e-mail, or in IRC (SlashNET #joyoftech), or post the question to the Geek Culture forums.

How do I change my name?
To change your name during a conversation, type /nick nick into the box where you enter messages, where nick is the the new name (aka nickname) that you wish to use. For example, entering
 /nick bunny

would change your name to ‘bunny’. Note that this change is short-term as IRC clients will generally revert to your preset name next time you connect.

How do I send private messages? How do I chat privately to another user?
To send a message privately to another user, type /msg nick message into the box where you enter messages, where nick is the person who you wish to receive the message, and message is whatever you want to send. You can also use /query nick, which will open a chat window for you to enter the message into. For example, you might use:
 /msg Snaggy Today's JoT was good

to pass a message on privately to Snaggy, or
 /query uilleann

to open a private chat window with me. The single advantage of /query is that it opens a window your end – messages sent via a query window are the same as repeated uses of /msg, and there is no guarantee that a window will open their end with either. Likewise, /msg may also open a window for you.

How do I have IRC indicate I did something?
Often, you will see IRC show that a person has carried out some action, such as:
 * uilleann runs for cover

To do this yourself, use the infamous /me command: /me action. To get the above action, I would have entered:
 /me runs for cover

into the box where you type messages.

Geek Culture® is a registered trademark of GeekCulture.com and is used with permission.