Brief intro to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and channel #Esperanto.
NOTE!
The text below is pretty old and partly no longer up-to-date.
Most important, it doesn't mention the different "networks"
of IRC servers existing today.
For (somewhat) more up-to-date info, please consult
the
section
"IRC" of the "Esperanto Yellow Pages"
(in Esperanto)
or
the
"IRC
Prelude" at
http://www.irchelp.org
(in English).
Thanks!
- mw
There exists a system called IRC (Internet Relay Chat), by means of which one can chat over the network with other people. Briefly, one joins channels, which consist of people who want to chat about a given topic. One of these channels is the channel #Esperanto.
Channel #Esperanto is dedicated to all people who speak the International Language Esperanto or want to learn (about) it.
There are various ways of using IRC. If you just want a taster of IRC, try the following (some will certainly momentarily be down, so try again!):
telnet ircclient.itc.univie.ac.at 6668 (131.130.39.10; in Austria)
telnet irc.demon.co.uk (158.152.1.74; for UK users)
telnet flode.nvg.unit.no 6668 (129.241.163.231; for users in Norway)
(Additional note, 21 jun 99:
NOTE!
"IRC" exists in several, mutually independent "networks" (e.g.
"EFnet" (the original IRC-network(?)),
Undernet,
IRCnet,
DALnet, and
NewNet),
which are NOT mutually connected.
If you want to meet your friends with IRC,
you may use different servers,
but the servers have to belong to the same network.
I list some information about the channel(s)
#Esperanto
in several IRC networks in the
section
"IRC" of the "Esperanto Yellow Pages"
(in Esperanto).
)
When you've succeeded and are in IRC, type:
/join #Esperanto
and you will enter the Esperanto channel. Whatever you type now will be seen by the other people on the channel. Officially, meetings occur between 15:00 and 17:00 UTC on Tuesdays (4 to 6 pm in Central Europe) and between 3:00 and 6:00 UTC on Mondays (10 pm on Sundays in New York), but often there are people present at other times. There is often also the information robot EspServ from whom you can ask for information by:
/msg EspServ help
Following is a typical list of users of the channel #Esperanto, which you get after the command:
/who #Esperanto
Nickname Channel User@Host "Real name" -------- ----------- ------------------------------------------------------ EspServ @ #Esperanto belinfan@utis179.cs.utwente.nl "Esperanto Info Server" Kvarko #Esperanto RISON@vsopve.cern.ch "Mark RISON" axelB @ #Esperanto belinfan@utis179.cs.utwente.nl "Axel Belinfante" Edmundo #Esperanto etg10@grus.cus.cam.ac.uk "E.T. Grimley Evans" Moldur #Esperanto martinw@muppet60.cs.chalmers.se "Mi estas mi!" decxjo #Esperanto ederveen@athena.research.ptt.nl "Derk EDERVEEN" testudo #Esperanto slootman@nat2.uia.ac.be "Wim Slootmans" jens-vedo #Esperanto jksson@athena.mit.edu "Jens Karlsson" VerdLanco #Esperanto ulf.lunde@kvatro.no "Ulf Lunde" Ombrulo #Esperanto jardar@swix.ifi.unit.no "Jardar Eggesboe Abrahamsen"
Every person has a nickname which they themselves choose to use on IRC. EspServ is not a person but a robot: that is, a computer program that participates in IRC like a person and can answer questions from other IRC users. Those persons (or robots) marked with @ are channel operators. They have the privilege to change channel modes, to "op" (= make into a channel operator) another trusted person on a channel, kick or ban some misbehaving users and perform other operations.
If you wish to IRC more comfortably and, more importantly, more flowingly,
you can get hold of a so-called client for your computer.
It enables you to use IRC without having to telnet to some
distant computer.
How to get a client (emacs and VMS clients are definitely easy to get!),
and many more answers you'll find in the List of
Frequently Asked Questions
about IRC,
or you can ask for further details from the computernerd committee members.
Some Esperanto IRC-ers even have their pictures on-line.
We will not be responsible for possible addiction to IRC. Waste your time as you please!