You can find Appropedians on IRC at Freenode in the #appropedia and #cotw channels.
IRC is an older protocol but very lightweight and it allows real time interaction. We like that!
A beginner's guide to IRC is a good primer. Be sure to see our policies and help below.
Channel Guidelines
All Appropedia policy applies. In particular,
- Be civil, cooperative and helpful - even if you strongly disagree with someone.
- The Appropedia community is very friendly, but there may still be a time when we need to read the Freenode Channel Guidelines and remember to be catalysts for better understanding.
- All the obvious stuff, no spam, and keep it family friendly as you never know when you're talking to a 12 year old.
Using IRC
There are many options, from easy to hard. The easiest will be one of the web options below. Also easy, but with some useful options for regular users, is Chatzilla (under #Browser, below).
Web
Easiest option but can put a load on some browsers and slower computers.
- Freenode Java applet - enter channel appropedia and pick a username, or
- Mibbit - select server freenode then channel appropedia and pick a username
Browser
- Chatzilla extension for Firefox and other Mozilla browsers. Some suggestions for setup options here (describes a different server and channel, but the same commands apply). The auto-identify option is recommended, especially if you plan to be on IRC regularly. (It's possible to run a standalone ChatZilla rather than as an extension, but that a bit more complex to set up.)
- Opera includes IRC capability
Linux
- xChat is a simple client
- Heavier but easy options include Konversation and Pidgin
- Irssi is extremely light and runs from the command line
Windows
- Trillian and Pidgin let you use IRC and several other kinds of chat
- Geekier versions include xChat and even the command line Irssi.
MacOS X
- In MacOS X, Pidgin, xChat and Irssi are available.
Appropedians
On IRC you can often find...
- Chriswaterguy (talk · contribs) who has configured (Xchat) to always run and to beep when someone posts in the channel so there's a good chance he'll hear you if you say hi and he's online.
- Jason Michael Smithson (talk · contribs) letting irssi idle on IRC on his behalf protected by screen behind an SSH connection via PuTTY to keep it safe from Windows. He'll notice and reply eventually.
Administration
- The #appropedia channel is registered to Chriswaterguy
- Guard is set, with command /msg chanserv set #appropedia guard on
- Group Registration still needs to be done. We should probably wait until the new Group Management System is online (in development as of October 2010). Freenode's volunteers are currently swamped and it seems non-critical for us.
- Freenode Philosophy includes "Community members benefit from better access to each other". Note the easy access to other projects within Freenode, generally with obvious names, e.g.
- #mediawiki
- #wikipedia
- #php,
- #olpc
- #olpc-content
- and other Primary Groups
Reference
- The IRC Prelude
- #Beginner - Undernet is IRC for the Beginner