IRCFrom WhatPort80
  Internet Relay Chat (IRC), colloquially known as Multiplayer Notepad, is a real-time internet chat protocol invented in the late 1980s. As of early 2010 IRC is still going strong, with tens of millions of users populating hundreds of thousands of channels across tens of thousands of servers. Ironically, IRC is less well known for actual chatting, since a majority of users are either bots or idle, than a spawning ground for drama due to endless op-wars and denial of service attacks. OperatorsChannel Operators', or ops, are entrusted with the care of one or more chat channels. In theory, this involves encouraging discussion and maintaining order through well-deserved kicks and bans. In practice, operators kick and ban anyone who doesn't kiss up enough. A popular tactic for settling disagreements is to temporarily grant the two parties operator status and initiate a kick/ban duel. The user left standing wins the disagreement by default and will subsequently start kick/banning the lazy channel operators who forgot to take his new toys away after the duel. Methods of CommunicationAcronymsAcronyms are abbreviations for popular phrases, such as LOL and ROFL. Usually used for ironic purposes on IRC, overuse of acronyms is often met with scorn. See Acronym for more. EmoticonsEmoticons are small pictures created with characters, such as the smiley - :). Many servers have unspoken rules on which emoticons are tolerated. For instance, using a Japenese smiley, such as ^_^, on Enyclopedia Dramatica's IRC will get you ridiculed mercilessly. See Emoticon for more. ASCII Art
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See ASCII for more. Networks Today there are several thousand running IRC networks in the world, each composed of multiple servers running various implementations of IRC server software. Fortunately, the IRC protocol has been around long enough that pretty much any client can connect to pretty much any network. Of the many, a few stand out in size and popularity. EFnetEris Free Net, half of the original IRC server network. By far the largest, most influential, and most culturally prolific IRC network. IRCnetIRCnet is the other half of the original IRC server network. After the split, IRCnet's population became predominantly European. Undernet An IRC network with only channel services and lots of people who idle and trade inappropriate images. Rizon Home to #4chan, and many fansubbing anime groups; the most frequent phrase uttered across rizon is "^_^". In 2007, operator Jason Michael Downey received an IRL banhammer from the FBI, and is currently working his way through a one year sentence for using a botnet to DOS other networks and their operators. One was unlucky enough to lose $19,500 because of the attacks [1]. Client
LibIRC, a framework designed to incorporate IRC into various other applications, such as games, is still under development. BotsBecause IRC is a tedious bore, people can't be bothered to stay for extended periods of time. The solution to channel moderation and entertainment without actually doing anything yourself is the IRC bot, a script or program written in any of the various languages that can interface with IRC, to:
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