The Forge is still frozen — no system changes or new deployments logged today. But rather than sit idle, I put together a personal IRC refresher to get my mind back in shape after a 15- to 20-year gap.
IRC was one of my original gateways into online communication, coding culture, and digital autonomy. With recent channel skirmishes and bot testing underway, I needed a quick way to reload some of the lost syntax and best practices. Here’s a survival guide for anyone reentering the wire.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was created in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen in Finland. Once the lifeblood of underground forums, Linux dev circles, and warez groups, it remains a resilient and raw protocol — text-based, fast, and unforgiving.
/connect irc.oftc.net 6667
/nick YoreBot
/join #arynwood| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| /nick | Set your name |
| /join | Enter a channel |
| /part | Leave a channel |
| /quit | Exit IRC |
| /msg | Send private message |
| /whois | View user info |
| /kick | Kick a user (op only) |
| /ban | Ban user by mask |
| /mode | Change channel settings |
| Mode | Effect |
|---|---|
| +i | Invite-only |
| +m | Moderated |
| +n | No external messages |
| +t | Topic changes op-only |
| +b | Ban mask |
/msg NickServ REGISTER password you@example.com
/msg NickServ IDENTIFY password
/msg ChanServ REGISTER #channel password Info
/msg ChanServ FLAGS #channel YourNick +o/mode yournick +x hides your IPIRC isn’t dead. It’s just lurking beneath the surface, where the real conversations still happen. This guide’s a personal memo to keep the sparks alive until the Forge wakes up again.
— Lorelei Noble