IRC

Introduction
Although it is completely unofficial, a number of us involved with the Text Encoding Initiative have been hanging out in an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel. This allows us to communicate on all sorts of topics quickly, and occasionally a bit of social banter. In order to join into the network and the #tei-c channel you will need to use an IRC client which you run on your computer.

The technical information needed is:
 * Server: irc.freenode.net
 * Channel: #tei-c

More information is available about the freenode network if you wish.

IRC Commands
IRC is at its heart a text-based discussion network. This network is controlled by text-based commands prefixed with a '/'. Text without this command prefix is sent to the chat channel. In many modern clients there are graphical buttons or other methods instead of typing the following commands. However, for reference, some basic IRC commands are:


 * /away [message] (Set an away message, or use no message to return from being away)
 * /away In a meeting, back at 1pm
 * /invite [channel] (Invite a user to join the current or a specific channel)
 * /invite JuliaF #tei-c
 * /join  (Join an existing or new IRC channel)
 * /join #tei-c
 * /list (Display a list of channels on a server. Warning, this can be quite large!)
 * /list
 * /me  (Perform an action in a channel or private chat)
 * /me yawns and falls asleep over Chapter 16.
 * /msg  (Send a private message to a user (as opposed to a channel))
 * /msg Syd What is your opinion on floating