3. Beyond the Basics

3. Beyond the Basics
Most novices can enjoy IRC quiet well with the basic IRC skills described in part 1 and the ability to chat publicly and privately discussed in part 2. This section will now cover the basics of channel maintenance. After you have mastered this material, you may learn more about running channels from the exhaustive New IRC Channel Operator's Guide.
3.1. Channel Operators

Channel operators or "ops" have absolute power over their channel, including the right to decide who gets to come in, who must leave, who may talk, etc. When you first start out, it's best to chat on other people's channels and heed their rules, or else you may find yourself kicked out. If that happens and you cannot settle your differences with the ops, just go to another channel.

At some point you will probably want to try your hand at being a channel op, either by creating your own new channel or by gaining the trust of the ops on an existing channel. You need to know a whole different set of commands. With this power comes the sometimes frustrating responsibility of maintaining the channel against intentional abuse as well as the usual IRC mishaps.

Some networks such as Undernet and DALnet support channel registration, whereby you can "reserve" a channel. The advantage is that you are assured control over the channel as long as you show up once in a while, the disadvantage is that many popular channel names are probably already registered by others.

Two of the largest nets EFnet and IRCnet do not support channel registration (or any other services). On these nets, there is no way to ensure you will always control a channel. Some channels try hard with all sorts of bots (which are explicitly banned by most servers) and protective scripts, but it's really just a matter of time before somebody with the right combination of lameness and knowledge comes along and takes over the channel.
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3.2 Channel Maintenance

This section will cover the basic commands used by channel ops to maintain a channel. Try them on a test channel!

Two of the most common things that ops do are setting the channel topic and kicking out abusive people. For the purposes of this section, let's say you have ops on the channel #demo.

/TOPIC #channelname whatever topic for channel

Channels have topics which indicate the current topic of conversation. Theoretically anybody can change the topic on a channel with the /TOPIC command, but usually the channel operators make it so that only they can change the topic. This topic is shown when anybody first joins the channel, and it is also shown constantly at the bottom of the window for graphical clients like mIRC and Ircle.

/TOPIC #demo hello, testing
*** YourNick has changed the topic on #demo to hello, testing

/KICK nickname [optional reason]

Forcibly kick that nickname out of the current channel with the reason specified. If no reason is given, it will just use your nickname as the default reason.

/KICK buddy go away, you're annoying me
*** buddy has been kicked off #demo by YourNick (go away, you're annoying me)

Channel Modes

In addition to the above commands, the behavior on each channel is governed by many "modes", each denoted by a single character such as "x" which can be turned on or off using "+x" and "-x" respectively. You can see the modes currently in effect on a channel by issuing the /MODE command without any flags. For example:

/mode #demo
*** Mode for channel #demo is "+tn"

What does the "+tn" mean? Those and other modes are described below.

Public
This is the default channel mode. Public means that everyone can see the channel in the /NAMES and /LIST lists. These channels usually welcome newcomers.

Private (p) or Secret (s)
The "+p" or "+s" will be explained later, for now consider them to be flags denoting the nature of the channel. These channels provide privacy and security for insiders and may or may not welcome newcomers. If you don't know the names of these exclusive channels already, you won't find them using /LIST. Even if you know the channel name, you still cannot use /WHO #channelname to see who is presently in there unless you join the channel yourself. Note: private and secret are not the same thing, but the difference is pretty arcane.

To make #demo a secret channel:
/MODE #demo +s
*** Mode change "+s" on channel #demo by YourNick

To make #demo a public channel again (removing the secret mode):
/MODE #demo -s
*** Mode change "-s" on channel #demo by YourNick

In the following examples I'll leave out the responses in blue since they are all similar to the above.

No external messages to the channel (n)
People outside the channel cannot do /MSG #channel_name [whatever] which would otherwise be sent to everybody on the channel

Topic control (t)
Only channel ops are allowed to change the topic

Channel ops (o [nickname])
Any op can give ops to anybody else, and once that other person gains ops, he has the same power as you do, including the ability to remove your ops or "deop" you, or even to kick you out. This is known as a takeover. Don't share ops with others unless you trust them fully!
/MODE #demo +o buddy

You can also do a few of these together on the same line, such as:
/MODE #demo +ooo larry curley moe

Moderated (m)
On a moderated channel, only channel operators can talk publicly, others can only listen and will get "cannot send to channel" errors if they try to talk. The exception is if you are given a voice (+v). Moderated mode is useful for conferencing or keeping control over very busy channels.

Invite Only (i)
People can only join your channel if an op permits it. To set it:
/MODE #demo +i

Then to let buddy in, use the /INVITE command:
/INVITE buddy #demo

Limited (l [number])
Only that number of people are allowed to /JOIN the channel.
/MODE #demo +l 20

Later to remove the limit (note you don't need to specify the number):
/MODE #demo -l.

Keyword or Password Protected (k keyword)
You must know the keyword to /JOIN the channel. To set the keyword as "trustno1":
/MODE #demo +k trustno1

Then in order for somebody outside to join, they must type:
/JOIN #demo trustno1

And to remove the keyword:
/MODE #demo -k trustno1

Channel bans (b [nick!user@host])
I've saved this for last becuase it's the most complicated. After a kick, the offender can still rejoin the channel immediately unless you first set a ban to keep them out (remember to ban then kick, not the other way around). You need to specify a ban "mask" that matches the offender's nickname, username, and hostname (if you are not crystal clear on the distinction between those three, revisit the /WHOIS command in part 1 now or else what follows will only confuse you more). You also need to use wildcards like the "*" character to replace any part the offender can easily change.

For example, if you want to ban buddy, and his /WHOIS says:
*** buddy is abcd@dialup-6.provider.com (Think different.)
Then the most specific ban mask would be "buddy!abcd@dialup-6.provider.com" (note the use of "!" and "@" to separate the nickname, username, and hostname). If he changes any of those three, however, he can slip right back in! For example, he could change his nickname "buddy" using /NICK. If he's using a graphical client like mIRC he can change his username "abcd" after a quick /QUIT and reconnect. He can even change the first part of his hostname ("dialup-6") by dialing up to his provider again. That's why it might make more sense to do:
/MODE #demo +b *!*abcd@dialup*.provider.com
Or even a domain ban against everybody from that provider (use sparingly since you may keep out a lot of innocent people):
/MODE #demo +b *!*@*.provider.com

You may view the current bans (from on or off the channel) by leaving off the ban mask. In the example below, there are 2 bans on #demo, the first an old ban restored by the server irc.mcs.net when it rejoined after a split, the second ban was set by buddy against anybody from the blah.net domain whose username contains "foo":

/MODE #demo +b
Current bans on #demo are:
*** #demo *!*@*.dummy.com irc.mcs.net 903321784
*** #demo *!*foo*@*.blah.net buddy!abcd@dialup-6.provider.com 903310028

If you want to remove the first ban, you have to use the exact same ban mask, namely:
/MODE #demo -b *!*@*.dummy.com

Most of the above modes can be combined. For example, to remove the invite-only restriction, while at the same making the channel with topic changed only by ops, not allowing external messages, and password protected with "trustno1" as the key:
/MODE #demo -i+tnk trustno1
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3.3. Server Commands

This section describes how to get more information about the IRC servers you use. Each server is run by IRC operators or IRCops, who are sometimes mistakenly known as "IRC cops". These people run each IRC server and try to maintain a fast, reliable IRC network. They are not cops and do not interfere in user or channel matters such as restoring ops, fighting takeovers, defeating bans, nickname disputes, etc. For more information on what IRCops do, see the IRC Operator Guide which is like a training manual for IRCops, or Monkster's short Oper Myths which definitively lists what IRCops can/can't/will/won't do. If after reading those you still think you need to contact an IRCop to report IRC abuse, see our IRC logging guide for directions.

A special word on nukes: denial of service attacks, commonly known as "nukes", are not part of IRC at all. As such, IRCops have no authority in trying to stop them. See our guide on logging and reporting nukes.

Unless otherwise stated, all commands below apply to your current server unless you specify another server's hostname as the optional argument.

/LINKS

The LINKS command shows all the servers currently connected to form the IRC network you are using. If a server mask is specifed, LINKS shows any servers that match the given server mask, which may contain wildcards.

/LINKS *.com
*** irc.rift.com irc.total.net 3 [205.150.226.4] Rift Online
*** irc02.irc.aol.com irc.lightning.net 6 America Online EFNet Server
[list truncated]

The 1st column is the server name, the 2nd is the server it is linked to, the number in the 3rd column is the number of links away that server is from yours. Caution: don't do /links too many times or you could be mistaken for a troublemaker and sanctioned.

/ADMIN

Displays the administrative details about a server. Usually this will give you an e-mail address you can use to ask questions or report complaints such as illegal bots (just don't hold your breath, most IRC ops are very busy people, and see description of IRC op at the beginning of this section so you don't bother them with takeovers and ops problems).

/ADMIN
*** Administrative info about irc.psinet.com
*** PSI Net EFNet IRC Server
*** Admin - Katherine Spray
*** moonwolf @ IRC

/MOTD

Gives the "message of the day" for a server which explains the server's policies and other information. You should always read this before using any server.

/MOTD irc.ais.net
[excerpted MOTD follows]
*** - The Rules for IRC.AIS.NET:
*** - o No Clones/Multiple clients
*** - o No link looking scripts
*** - o Clients must respond to valid ctcp requests
*** -
*** - Failure to comply with any of the above rules may result in your
*** - connection to this server being blocked.

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