The IRC FAQ

FAQ about IRC and Doctor Who

1.1 What is IRC?
1.2 How do I get onto IRC?
1.3 What are servers and networks?
1.4 How can I join a channel?

2.1 What channels do I go to if I want to talk Doctor Who?
2.2 What is #drwho?
2.3 What is #drwhochat?
2.4 What is #PMEB?
2.5 What is #RADW?
2.6 What is #drwhorpg?
2.7 What is #drwhoplot?

3.1 What is that @ sign and why don't I have one next to my name?
3.2 What are Ops?
3.3 How can I get Ops?

4.1 I've joined the channel, but no one is talking. Why?
4.2 What is lag and why does it happen to me?
4.3 Everyone disappeared while I was talking to them. Why?
4.4 How do I change servers, and which one should I change to?

5.1 When I come online, someone called Nickserv says that I'm using
someone else's nickname. Who is Nickserv and why is he bothering me?
5.2 How do I register my own nickname?

6.1 What are these SOUNDs that are being played?
6.2 How can I play sounds?
6.3 My client can do colors. Is that allowed?

7.1 Do any of the channels mentioned here have websites?

1.1 What is IRC?

IRC, Internet Relay Chat, is a place for real-time conversations on
the net. It's like a huge house with many rooms that you can gather in
to talk to friends about all kinds of things, including Doctor Who. It
is very similar to but much more international than the chatrooms on
AOL.

1.2 How do I get onto IRC?

First you need an IRC client. This is a software program that allows
you to to access IRC. Several popular programs are mIRC, IRCle, pIRCh,
and macIRC. TUCOWS has several IRC clients available for download.
Once you install a client, you need to get onto a server that will
connect you to a network.

1.3 What are servers and networks?

There are several IRC networks out there. Dalnet is the most popular
one currently, though EfNet, UnderNet, and AustNet are in use by
IRCers too. For the most part, if you are on one network, you cannot
be seen on the other networks. (There are a few networks that can now
share with other networks, but that's more than what will be dealt
with in this FAQ.)

Servers are the pathways onto the various networks. If you are on one
server for DalNet, you should be able to communicate with people on
other servers for DalNet. The current reliable server is
hebron.in.us.dal.net. The most common IRC command for changing servers
is as follows:

/server hebron.in.us.dal.net

irc.dal.net will give you a random server. Other DalNet servers
include viper.mo.us.dal.net and liberty.nj.us.dal.net.

1.4 How do I join a channel?

Each IRC client has its own way to join channels. However, the command
/join should work for most of the clients. To join a channel called
#drwhochat, you would type:

/join #drwhochat

2.1 What channels do I go to if I want to talk Doctor Who?

There are many Doctor Who related channels on IRC. This FAQ will deal
with the most popular channels. Each one has a different purpose, so
choose your channel selection with care so that you won't be bored by
the conversation.

2.2 What is #drwho?

#drwho has been around on IRC for many years. There has been a #drwho
on EfNet and UnderNet long before DalNet was invented. The most
popular #drwho is currently the one on DalNet. Janet Eaton is the
founder of the channel, though Edan Harel originally founded the
Dalnet version of #drwho. If you want to have conversations about
Doctor Who, the show, the books, the phenomenon, this is the channel
to go to.

2.3 What is #drwhochat?

Many people who started out chatting in #drwho became good friends and
decided they needed a place to catch up with each other, gossip, and
generally natter on about all sorts of things that don't necessarily
deal with Doctor Who. So George Solana created #drwhochat for that
very purpose. Don't be surprised if you vist the channel and no one
discusses Doctor Who. This isn't a channel for that, just for Doctor
Who fans to enjoy each others company. Rare as they are, Doctor Who
conversations do occur in the channel, but they aren't the only topics
of the day.

2.4 What is #PMEB?

The Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade has a chat channel too. Elsa Frohman
is the founder of the channel. People who wish to drool over the
various Doctors (McGann may be the namesake, but other Doctors have
their followers) can come to this channel to do so. Nonmembers are
welcome, but we do ask that if you aren't going to contribute to the
conversation, please go to another channel.

2.5 What is #RADW?

This channel is currently not registered. It was originally intended
for posters to rec.arts.drwho to talk about the usenet list. If anyone
wishes to start the channel and discussions pick up, be sure to let me
know and I'll put it back on the FAQ.

2.6 What is #drwhorpg?

There used to be a group of IRCers who did role plays on Saturday
nights. Alas, that has died. #drwhorpg and the sister channel
#drwhoplot have since expired.

2.7 What is #drwhoplot?

See the entry for #drwhorpg for information about this expired
channel.

3.1 What is that @ sign and why don't I have one next to my name?

Many IRC clients indicate Operator status using an @ sign. An Operator
is someone who can give another person Operator or Op status, kick
annoying persons, and invite people to a channel. First timers to a
channel are rarely given Ops because they don't know how to use them
(or they do know and may use them unwisely).

3.2 What are Ops?

There are three kinds of Ops in a channel (not including Founder
Status which only comes when you create the channel yourself). An Op
is simply someone who has been granted Ops during their stay in the
channel. As soon as they leave, the Ops leave with them. An AOP is
someone who is automatically granted Ops when they join the channel
(provided Chanserv is awake and not lagging). An SOP is someone who
has AOPs but also has the power to grant AOPs to other people.
These are people that the founder trusts to keep the channel going
smoothly when he/she isn't around.

3.3 How can I get Ops?

Ops are only granted to people who behave sensibly in the channel and
who use them wisely. The best way to get Ops is to never ask for them
(you really have no need for them anyway) but to come to the channel
often and contribute to the discussions in an intelligent way. Ops are
NOT a popularity contest and should never be thought of as such. The
main function of Ops is to protect the channel from people who would
abuse the people in it. They are not there to kick out people that
they have a personal beef with. If someone has been a jerk on the
channel, they should be warned and, if they don't improve, kicked out.
People can also be banned temporarily, automatically, and even killed
from an entire Network if their behavior is such to warrant it.

4.1 I've joined the channel, but no one is talking. Why?

Sometimes a conversation dies and people are doing something else. Be
patient and they may return to the keyboard and talk to you. Sometimes
the people are talking but you are so lagged from them that you cannot
see their responses. If you suspect it is lag, try pinging the
channel. The most common command for this is /ping #channelname. For
example, if you suspected people are lagging in #drwho chat, type
this:

/ping #drwhochat

4.2 What is lag and why does it happen to me?

Since there are hundreds of different servers all connecting to the
same network, they sometimes have trouble communicating with each
other. Occassionally one server lags (has a time delay) to another and
the people on those different servers see comments seconds sometimes
minutes after the other person sent them. This can make for some
unusual conversations. If you find yourself lagging to the other
people in a channel, change servers.

4.3 Everyone disappeared while I was talking to them. Why?

Lag is not the only thing that plagues servers. Sometimes they can
completely split off from each other. These are commonly called
Netsplits. If you are patient, the people will return (though probably
very lagged) and you can change servers to join the other people on
their server.

4.4 How do I change servers, and which one should I change to?

As mentioned earlier in the FAQ, the /server command works for most
IRC clients. If your client works differently, read the help files on
that client to see what their equivalent is. The server to change to
is the server that the majority of the people in the channel are on.
The /whois command lets you discover many things about people in the
channel, but the most important thing is which server the person is
on. Let's say that you perform a /whois on a person in the channel
with a nickname Turlough. You type the following:

/whois Turlough

And the Network comes back with the following information:

Turlough is turlough@127.trion.net * Vislor Turlough
Turlough on @#drwhochat
Turlough using viper.mo.us.dal.net Getting High Off Information
End of /WHOIS list.

It lists that viper.mo.us.dal.net is the server that Turlough is on.
To change to that server, type the following command:

/server viper.mo.us.dal.net

5.1 When I come online, someone called Nickserv says that I'm using
someone else's nickname. Who is Nickserv and why is he bothering me?

Dalnet has several programs that protect channels and users. Chanserv
protects channels and Nickserv protects nicknames. Registered
nicknames are protected by Nickserv, but unregistered nicknames are
not. Some registered nicknames are kill-protected, which means that if
you keep using the nick, you will be kicked off the network. Nickserv
gives you time to change your nickname to something else. For most IRC
clients, typing /nick newnick will get you your new nickname. For
example, let's say you'd like to change to Bernice. You would type:

/nick Bernice

and suddenly your nickname is Bernice. (I wouldn't suggest choosing
that nick since it is already registered.)

5.2 How do I register my own nickname?

Before you register a nickname, it's a good idea to check if it's
registered already. Let's say you wish to register the name Turlough.
If you type the following command, you can see if that nickname is
taken.

/msg nickserv info Turlough

Nickserv will then give you a message that indeed, Turlough is
registered.

Once you've found a nickname that is not registered and that you like,
(for example Harry_Pimm) you can type the following command while
wearing the nick:

/msg nickserv register marytamm

The word "marytamm" in this case is the password. You should choose a
password that cannot be easily guessed but that you can remember
yourself. You can use numbers and case matters. "MaryTamm" is
different than "marytamm".

Be sure that Nickserv is not lagging when you do this, otherwise it is
all for naught. The best time to do business with Nickserv and
Chanserv is when DalNet isn't very busy. So 10pm EST on Friday night
is probably not the time to do it.

6.1 What are these SOUNDs that are being played?

Many IRC clients allow users to play sounds in a channel so that other
people can hear them. There are three key things you need in order to
hear these sounds. (1) A sound card. (2) The sound (usually a .wav
file) on your hard drive. (3) IRC software that plays sounds when
someone sends a sound. We can't help you on #1, but many IRC clients
allow people to "grab" wavs from the person playing them. The most
common command (at least as used in the Doctor Who channels) is !nick
filename.wav. For example, if Turlough played a wav entitled pim.wav,
you could grab the wav from Turlough by typing the following command:

!Turlough pim.wav

If the person does not have auto-send through their client, you can
always ask them nicely for the file.

6.2 How can I play sounds?

In order to play sounds in a channel, you need the same three things
you need to hear sounds in a channel. Then you need to be sure that
your sound is in the directory that the IRC client is looking for it.
(Check your client's helpfile to see how to do this.) Then you need
only use the following command (for example, to play a .wav entitled
pim.wav.)

/sound pim.wav

6.3 My client can do colors. Is that allowed?

Although colors are very pretty in chat channels, they don't look the
same for all clients. With some, they look more like line noise than
like art. So, please don't use colors in the Doctor Who channels.
Remember, not everyone sees things exactly as your client shows them.

7.1 Do any of the channels mentioned here have websites?

The official #drwhochat homepage is at
http://www.crl.com/~nathanr/dwc.html.

#drwhochat has a site about the frequenters of the channel at
http://ww2.netnitco.net/users/antdom/link.htm.

#drwhorpg has several roleplays at
http://iaith.simplenet.com/roleplay.html.

#PMEB's main sponsor, the Paul McGann Estrogen Brigade, has a page at
http://www.pmeb.org.

I hope that the FAQ has answered all of your questions. If you find
something hasn't been answered that should be, email me at
webmaster@pagefillers.com and I'll try to answer your question and may
include the answer in the next update of the FAQ.

Doctor Who IRC FAQ version 1.1. Created April 9, 1998 by Trina L.
Short. ©1999.

                       Last update, November 27, 1999.