User:Leo Fox/Leo's Guide to the IRC

Foreword
Four score and seven years ago, I embarked upon a great crusade…wait a second, that would be the wrong introduction.

When I first joined the #Halopedia and #Halo-Fanon IRC channels more than a year and a half ago, I was the typical (almost stereotypical) newbie: completely unaware of customs and courtesies, lacking knowledge of who to cross and who to not cross, and simply being a pain to the entire channel. There was no guide on the basics of IRC conduct, and I had to learn my lessons the hard way. Hopefully, this guide will help with that; giving some insight into the community for somewhat newer users, and hopefully teaching the basics to exist on the IRC, and allowing for a more seamless integration into the IRC community.

For all intents and purposes, this will address the #halo-fanon channel only, although the basic principles and sometimes commands addressed within this guide are fairly universal.

Halo Fanon and the IRC
The Halo Fan Fiction wikia is a collection of fan fiction writers overly zealous at maintaining canon friendliness in fan fiction. Given this, it somewhat stands to reason that this very same (somewhat zealous) conduct carried over on the Internet Relay chat. Users on the #Halo-Fanon IRC channel are not the most forgiving – rarely forgiving and never forgetting.

Accessing the IRC
’’’Halo Fanon Internet Relay Chat page’’’

I would suggest waiting to join the IRC until you have read this guide in its entirety. In fact, I suggest this very highly.

Halo IRC channels

 * Halo Fanon IRC Channel - #halo-fanon
 * Halopedia IRC Channel- #halopedia
 * Halo Nation IRC Channel- #Halo-Nation
 * Halo Legends IRC Channel- #Halo-Legends (unpatrolled by moderators, rarely occupied)

The do’s and do nots
Before you join an IRC channel, read the Rules. It would actually be wise to leave a tab open with the rules on it – it might make life a bit easier. When you are done reviewing the rules, choose an appropriate nickname on the IRC join page; using either your wikia nickname or a shortened variant that still identifies you. Next, you will want to enter the desired channel to be #Halo-Fanon (capitals do not matter), and then enter your captcha code. Once you get on, it might be wise (not might; it is wise) to register your nickname. To do this, see the above section, entitled “Registering your nickname on the IRC”. Upon joining an IRC channel, a new user might want to greet the other occupants of the channel. To do this, a user might want to simply greet everyone with a simple “hello”, “greetings”, or the traditional Halo Fanon greeting of “rawr” (the exact origins of “rawr” on Halo Fanon are disputed, although Ajax claims that he bought it here). Refrain from pinging random users to see if they are there, pinging being the use of another user’s nickname in a typed message, which sends an audible ‘ping’ to that user, alerting them that they have been messaged. If no one responds in a reasonable amount of time to something you say on the channel, do not worry! The channel is not ignoring you (hopefully, anyway) – simply, everyone is either away from their keyboards (AFK) or simply otherwise occupied with something else. Most people have IRC open in a tab, allowing them to multitask…I know I do this when I am writing papers, posts, or simply multitasking

Being the newbie, you are probably going to be asked questions, and possibly get somewhat of a hard time from some of the older and more experienced users. However, as they get to know you a bit better, they should become a bit friendlier. Key word being should. If a user is being impolite to you, or simply breaking the rules of the IRC, tell the user to please stop. Should the issue continue, I would advise you to simply stop replying, and contact a moderator and additionally provide logs when requested (logs being a copy and paste of the conversation for proof) in which the issue occurs. This holds true in most circumstances – if you take the moral high ground and simply cease to reply while you wait for a moderator to get back to you to deal with the situation, you will find that you will have less problems with users.

A common mistake for new users on a new IRC channel is to simply talk and talk. And talk. And talk some more. If the channel is quiet, there is a reason for it; the reason being no one has anything to say. Do not take it upon yourself to get the channel to talk, as it will result in people telling you to cease talking. Also, do not post excessive links to outside pages (YouTube, anywhere else really) as this is frowned upon, both by the veteran users and the moderators.

If a senior user tells you to stop something, make sure you know who the user is before contesting the issue. Depending on whom it is and what threats the user makes, that user might have operator power and be capable of making good with his/her threats. If you do decide to contest an issue, ensure you remain civil. In fact, as long as you are civil on the #halo-fanon IRC, there is a good chance you will fit in fine.

Under no circumstances should you ever attempt to impersonate another wikia user or an admin – most users will notice, and you will be banned from the IRC and possibly the wikia. You should also never give your password out to anyone, ever. Regardless of circumstances, no one can use that information for good.

Trolling is the act of attempting to get an emotional or otherwise “funny” reaction out of people. Do not misuse the term, nor call the user out for doing so. You can expect some people on the IRC channel to attempt to troll you; ignore them and report them to one of the moderators in PM.

The Moderators
The Moderators on #Halo-Fanon are the Administrators and Bureaucrats on the wikia, who provide operator support on the IRC channel. Their job is to keep the channel in check, and to be the middlemen (or middlewomen) in disputes. One other thing regarding moderators you might wish to remember – whatever the moderator says goes. Provided below are the moderators, and their nickname(s) on IRC:


 * ’’’Subtank’’’ – Sub7ank, Subway, Commonwealth
 * ’’’SPARTAN-091 – SPARTAN-091
 * ’’’CommanderTony’’’ – Tiger_Blood, CommanderTony
 * ’’’LOMI’’’ – LOMI
 * ’’’Maslab’’’ – Maslab
 * ’’’AR’’’ - |AR|
 * ’’’SPARTAN-118 – [Leo], EyeInTheSky, S-118

IRC commands
The IRC has a multitude of commands which make your stay on the IRC more fun/interesting – these will be covered in the “IRC client commands” subsection. Also to be addressed will be specific modes set on the channel, under the “channel modes” subsection. The previously mentioned section might address modes set on users as well.

There are also two important bots on freenode you need to know about: NickServ and Chanserv.

NickServ is the bot in charge of identification of users, authenticating them to be who they say they are (thus the importance of keeping your password to yourself). Upon joining the IRC, you will want to register your nickname. To do this, see an above section entitled “Registering your nickname on the IRC”.

ChanServ is the bot in charge of channels, and being given operator and voice rights. ChanServ is also in charge of who owns the channel.

NickServ commands
/ns register - registers a nickname. You need to do this before doing any commands below. /ns identify - identifies a user using the registered nickname. You need to do this before doing any commands below. /ns help – requests help and gives a large listing of available commands. /ns group – adds the current nickname to your account.

Chanserv commands
/cs help - requests help and gives a large listing of available commands. /cs voice <#channel name> - requests voice privileges from ChanServ on a given channel. You have to receive +v flags first though (don’t worry about flags…you won’t need to know about them until later) /cs op <#channel name> - requests voice privileges from ChanServ on a given channel. You have to receive +o flags first though.

IRC client commands
/msg - sends a Personal Message (PM) to another user; these messages cannot be seen by other users unless posted in the form of logs. /nick - changes your current nickname into another one. /ignore - ignores any inputs from a given user; its recommended you use this extremely sparingly. /ping - sends a ping to a user, to see how their connection is. The longer the ping, the poorer their connection.

Afterward
I suppose I wrote this entire guide in an attempt to teach new people and the older users the basics of IRC conduct on #Halo-Fanon. This is by no means a comprehensive guide: it rather gives a rough idea of IRC conduct. This is by no means complete nor will I seriously expect it to make new users undergo a remarkable transformation into a mature and valued member of the IRC community immediately after joining – but it will certainly not do any harm helping new users to learn.