How to access IRC channels (#tcod specifically)

Remake of the thread I made pre-database crash. Now with English software and convenient steps!

1. The people in #tcod are not going to eat you, I promise. Some of us might snap at you if you're trying too hard to fit in and/or being overly obnoxious. If this happens, stop trying to fit in and/or being overly obnoxious and they will stop, to the benefit of everyone.
1b. #tcod is not connected to the forums officially, so if you get kicked/banned for reasons you find unsatisfactory, complaining on the forums won't help. That said, you will have to be impressively obnoxious to get permanently banned.

2. Download X-Chat 2. Feel free to use some other client, but I am writing this for X-Chat.

3. Upon running the program, you will be met with the network list:



At the top, input your preferred nicknames (the secondary and tertiary ones are used in case the preceding nickname is already taken; "username" and "real name" don't really matter, although people will be able to see whatever you enter for the latter).

Click Add and name the network whatever, then select it and click Edit...:



Under "Servers for [network name here]", click Add, type in "irc.veekun.com" and hit enter. Under that you have your options: if you're going to be only on this network, enable "Auto connect to this network at startup" and add #tcod to the "Channels to join" box for convenience. Remember the "Nickserv password" box for later. Hit Close, then optionally check "Skip network list on startup". Hit Connect.

4. You should now be in the channel. Ignore for a moment the scary people talking and type the following (/msg NickServ can be substituted with ns in any of the following):


obviously substituting your password/e-mail in. Not sure if the latter is required, try without it if you like. This will register your nickname (the one you are currently using) so that no one else can use it; it will require you identify at the beginning of each session, though:


To skip this requirement, go back to the server edit window and input your NickServ password in the relevant box.

If someone has taken your nickname and refuses to change it, you can get rid of them like this:


5. Talk. Seriously, it is boring when new people join the channel only to leave an hour later without saying anything.

6. Unlike Yahoo chats with LOL RANDOM XD people talking all the time about nothing, IRC etiquette does not expect that everyone talks at all times. A lot of people sit around idle when asleep or working or watching a movie or playing a game or otherwise away. Sometimes they're just reading; sometimes they just want to be able to come back and see what they missed and jump into the conversation without worrying about context.

Upshot: Don't wait five minutes and then leave because nobody's talking. That is so goddamn annoying. Leave your client running and check it a bit later. This is not multi-user IM.


Amending to add: NO MONKEY CHEESE. If you would describe what you are about to say as "random", DON'T SAY IT. I will be angry and unleash my fury upon you in a flurry of big words strung together in some vaguely coherent manner.

Also, note that if you're being obnoxious, you will probably be told what you're doing off.

I'm not going to bother. I was banned from the channel with no warning, no request to tone down my humour, and no real explanation, until I asked another member of the chat channel what was going on. Apparently, someone doesn't like certain types of humour, especially, it seems, referential humour when they don't get the reference.

I'm not going to mention names. Needless to say, I'm not that impressed with my treatment and certainly won't be going back.

Yes, dear, I've put you on ignore. Hopefully, it'll work both ways, and we'll never have to speak to each other again. Won't that be nice?

EDIT: Next bunch of posts condensed:

• Gigamelon was kickbanned from #tcod for monkeycheese ("~lulz random~" internet preteen style humor). You have to be pretty damn obnoxious to get kickbanned from #tcod for more than a few minutes; we figured spouting nonsense was "pretty damn obnoxious". (This is what half of the content in the next bunch of posts is: Gigamelon acts indignant while we try to explain why we didn't want him there. A lot of things are repeated.)
• Our bans clear every so often when the server goes down, and we tend to let people back in when that happens, though we're quicker to re-kickban if it turns out the person hasn't changed.
• Don't strain yourself to fit in; just sit back and watch a while and try to join in the discussion. Don't try to pull attention to yourself. Don't try to be the center of anything.
• #tcod is not the forums. The goal is not to please absolutely every individual person; the idea is to make the channel as an entity an enjoyable place to chat.
• On that note, coming to the forums to complain if you end up being removed isn't likely to solve anything unless there has been a misunderstanding. If you have to defend yourself, we're not likely to decide that you're right after all; if you're saying "oh wait no I didn't mean THAT", we're fairly likely to go "oh whoops sorry our bad".
• Don't be scared by the fact that people seem to think we're scary. We're not. We don't spend a lot of time being angry. We don't kick very many people out.
• There is little to no bureaucracy in #tcod. A kickban (just as a relevant example) is not an event of any kind; it's just something that goes by. It is not a symbolic act. There is nothing attached to it. We're not making a big deal out of anything.

(everything past here is the original post)

He can't see me now, apparently, but for anyone who's curious, I kickbanned him for spreading Internet preteen "lulz ~*random*~ xD" humor about; most of the channel was expressing irritation and I'd've let him back in if he hadn't got all huffy.

I almost always do explain my kickbans, which are rare. The last incident (past Ghorroj) where I both kicked and banned that I remember went:
EDIT: the point of this isn't to compare Ghorroj to Mokoko in terms of creepiness; it's to copmare Ghorroj to Mokoko in terms of obnoxiousness.

#tcod 2008/11/9 said:

<Mokoko-toy> Is having sex with stuffed animals illegal?
<Zhorken> Mokoko-toy: no...?
<Mokoko-toy> Or forcing stuffed animals to have sex with eachother?
<Zhorken> no ?_?
<H-land> Not, because they're inanimate.
<Mokoko-toy> What about the ones that talk?
<H-land> They're stuffed.
<H-land> They're /inanimate/.
» Mokoko-toy was kicked from #tcod by Zhorken [consistently somewhere between dumb and creepy]
» mode/#tcod [+b *!*@rox-70823149.mem.bellsouth.net] by Zhorken
<H-land> \o/
<NWT> 8O

Click to expand...

This was like the fourth time he'd asked a series of questions like that and he'd been met with things along the lines of "it's cool that you have fetishes but talking about them out of the blue in a channel in which you're not terribly well-known is a bit creepy"; they got creepier each time. I'm detailing this even though it isn't related because it works well as an example.

Ghorroj's incident was a bit more abrupt, but we'd been noticing that he'd been posting like this too ("++OUT OF CHEESE++MELONMELONMELON++" or something comes to mind), and he spoke a lot more than Mokoko, so it took less time for him to reach a threshold. It was more spread out over his messages (whereas Mokoko was more consistently, concentratedly annoying even though he didn't speak as much) and isn't as easily condensible, so I'm not going to bother trying to stuff it in this post.

tl;dr: We don't bite unless you're pretty obnoxious, and we'll likely let you back in if you seem like you'll make an effort to be likeable. (This has happened; see Faltzer.)

Of course, Zhorken, everybody needs to impress you to be a success.

First: Did I get a request to tone it down? Hell no. No-one said a damn word! Did I get told I'd be let back in after a while? Hell no!

What the hell do you expect? Someone to remain where they're obviously not wanted? What, do you think kickbans are the most friendly way of letting people know they should tone it down?

Second thing: Why the hell are you showing some random conversation from a creepy guy who probably isn't even a member of the forum? Why not show the actual conversation in question? I said nothing near that level of creepiness, and frankly I didn't think you'd miss the misspelling joke. Even that is nowhere near.

Last thing: just because someone's put you on ignore doesn't mean they can't reverse it to respond to something you've posted.

Incidentally, 'That's enough of that' in the ban message isn't an explanation.

Mr. Game and Watch said:

Of course, Zhorken, everybody needs to impress you to be a success.

Click to expand...

No, actually, you have to impress me, since I own the channel and server and machine it's running on.

Zhorken is the trusted lieutenant to my evil overlord and tends to have about the same level of patience as I do. I was annoyed with Gigamelon before he showed up and having him around did not do much to impress me. He is obnoxious and full of himself, and he produces nothing but a steady stream of monkey cheese or bland commentary disguised as high-brow by light use of a thesaurus.

This is not the forums. The point is not to have everyone come in and have a super good time. The point is to make the channel an enjoyable place to be. I don't much appreciate when people work against that. So no, I don't really mind when my ops ban people who are blurting out nonsense, and if Zhorken hadn't done it then I would have shortly thereafter.

I'm not going to keep around people who make the place worse because it might be mean to do otherwise.

STEPS TO IRC SUCCESS
1. shut up
2. lurk
3. say something cool

Gigamelon said:

What the hell do you expect? Someone to remain where they're obviously not wanted?

Click to expand...

no get out

Gigamelon said:

Last thing: just because someone's put you on ignore doesn't mean they can't reverse it to respond to something you've posted.

Click to expand...

last word lololol

Meh, point taken.

small question: Do you give a "heads-up" before a banishment?

And there we have it. The exact flavour of the .irc channel. If I'd known beforehand what sort of reception was waiting, I wouldn't have bothered. The place has changed a great deal since last I was there; it seems it's no longer a place for me to let my hair down and indulge the commentary portion of my sense of humour.

Hell, if someone had asked me I'd have even toned it down for you.

And what makes you think I was using a thesaurus? I'm a writer; words come naturally. Or have you forgotten what I was once known throughout the forum for?

Generally an abrupt ban is a warning shot and is reversed within a few minutes. Unless you PM the person who banned you and berate em.

Gigamelon said:

The place has changed a great deal since last I was there; it seems it's no longer a place for me to let my hair down and indulge the commentary portion of my sense of humour.

Click to expand...

I didn't see anything I quite would've called a sense of humor.

Gigamelon said:

Hell, if someone had asked me I'd have even toned it down for you.

Click to expand...

I don't know. I'm not a fan of babysitting people into being interesting.

But nobody wants you back and you don't want to return, so where's the problem?

Gigamelon said:

Or have you forgotten what I was once known throughout the forum for?

Click to expand...

I have no idea who you are. Your name rings a faint bell. That's all.

Was a warning given to Gigamelon?

okay first of all potential #tcoders: I'm not nearly as scary or irritable as I think I sometimes come off on the forums or as I come off in this post; don't let me scare you away from #tcod. I'm friendly! honestly!

Gigamelon said:

First: Did I get a request to tone it down? Hell no. No-one said a damn word!

Click to expand...

<Buikitty> 12:13 < Ghorroj> Most people don't know me. I allow only a facet to each person.
<Buikitty> oh lordy you're going to be entertaining
* Latikitty ^4 eevee
<Buikitty> ^4

<Ghorroj> Pity. I was expecting him to be conflagrated by his own blatent stupidity by now.
<Zhorken> well
<Ghorroj> Or at least singed.
<Verne> Hahaha...
(okay this one was subtle enough and I didn't really expect anyone to intuit anything from it)

<Ghorroj> Talking of Ducks, has anyone here ever been duckrolled?
<NWT> duckrolling is dumb, so is discussing it.
<Xikaze> I was duckrolled years and years ago back when it wasn't stupid

<Ghorroj> RANDOM LINK TIME
<NWT> no. not random link time.
<Zhorken> ~random~
<Ghorroj> It was for me. My egg timer went off and everything.
<Zhorken> what
<Zhorken> Ghorroj: do you quite know what "random" means :(
<Ghorroj> Of course I do. I simply choose not to abide by the definition.
<Verne> ~link~
» Ghorroj was kicked from #tcod by Zhorken [okay that's enough]

These are the four things I remember and found skimming through #tcod.log; I don't care enough to look for the rest

Gigamelon said:

Did I get told I'd be let back in after a while? Hell no!

Click to expand...

No, we don't tell people "we'll let you back in if you behave"; it's patronizing and we shouldn't have to. We let people back in if time has passed and they look okay (or the bans have all cleared) or if they care enough about being in to calm down and apologize.

Gigamelon said:

What the hell do you expect? Someone to remain where they're obviously not wanted?

Click to expand...

There are people who make an effort to fit in (without straining anything). I can give examples if it matters that much.

Gigamelon said:

What, do you think kickbans are the most friendly way of letting people know they should tone it down?

Click to expand...

No, I think kickbans are the most friendly way of letting people know that they already should have toned it down. Yes, maybe someone should have directly said so before; I'm sorry I assumed you could intuit worth anything.

Gigamelon said:

Second thing: Why the hell are you showing some random conversation from a creepy guy?

Click to expand...

"I'm detailing this even though it isn't related because it works well as an example." It shows people that, yes, when I say "obnoxious" I mean it.
Don't jump yet:

Gigamelon said:

Why not show the actual conversation in question?

Click to expand...

"It was more spread out over his messages [...] and isn't as easily condensible, so I'm not going to bother trying to stuff it in this post." I didn't figure it was that important.

Gigamelon said:

I said nothing near that level of creepiness,

Click to expand...

No, you didn't. I never said you were creepy.

Gigamelon said:

and frankly I didn't think you'd miss the misspelling joke.

Click to expand...

I didn't; it just wasn't any good so I made a lame joke back (I stuck the 'l' somewhere completely different and figured you'd get that I meant "yyyeah your joke was this lame :(")

<Xikaze> [15:31] <Zhorken> I ick first
<Xikaze> [15:31] <Zhorken> so that they don't know what's happening
<Xikaze> <Zhorken> ick! /mode +b nick!*@*
<Ghorroj> I suspect a missing letter. Possibly 'L'
<Zhorken> yes
<Zhorken> I make sure that they don't know what's halppening
<Ghorroj> So you -did- mean 'Lick'? >.0
<Zhorken> man
<Zhorken> that joke was super-low and it still flew too high
<Zhorken> though your eyes could see you still were a blind man
<Zhorken> :(

Gigamelon said:

Last thing: just because someone's put you on ignore doesn't mean they can't reverse it to respond to something you've posted.

Click to expand...

Kind of defeats the point!

tl;dr: Get over yourself; grow up; stop spewing monkeycheese.


EDIT:

Mr Game and Watch said:

Was a warning given to Gigamelon?

Click to expand...

#tcod isn't all that formal or heirarchal; we don't officially "give warnings". Gigamelon was warned less than directly and we figured he'd get it.

Certainly, #tcod does not equal the forums, but it should have some ORDER.


hence why i do not visit #tcod

We do have some order. People who are good at judging whom to remove to keep the channel flow are given the power to do so. Ghorroj came in after having been in #tcod for a total of about three hours, and having not been in #tcod in many months, and tried to steer the conversation his way; we didn't like his "randomness of ~doom~" tone and acted irritated. He continued; I removed him.

It has plenty of order. Look, it even has rules:

1. Don't annoy the crap out of the people who were here before you.

Zhorken said:

EDIT:
#tcod isn't all that formal or heirarchal; we don't officially "give warnings". Gigamelon was warned less than directly and we figured he'd get it.

Click to expand...

Right. Because everyone's going to go on IRC when they're fresh and haven't been up for 17 straight hours. They're also going to get any vague hints you happen to throw their way.

so seniority rules?

Mr. Game and Watch said:

so seniority rules?

Click to expand...

no, it has nothing really to do with how long you've been a regular. "People who were here before you" means "people who were already in there talking when you came in."

Gigamelon said:

Right. Because everyone's going to go on IRC when they're fresh and haven't been up for 17 straight hours. They're also going to get any vague hints you happen to throw their way.

Click to expand...

If you're not at your most alert, don't try to steer the conversation. From what I've seen, you post in the same 'random' tone consistently anyway. The hints weren't that vague; "no, the topic you're trying to jump to is dumb" looks pretty blatant to me.

XD

Just another day on IRC. I love you guys.