
HOW TO BEHAVE ON IRC

Authors:      Lea Viljanen (LadyBug)  viljanen@kreeta.helsinki.fi
              Ari Husa     (luru)     so-luru@tolsun.oulu.fi 
Modified by:  Troy Rollo   (Troy)     troy@plod.cbme.unsw.oz.au



1) Language

   The most widely understood and spoken language on IRC is English. 
However! As IRC is used in many different countries, English is by
no means the only language. If you want to speak some other language
than English (for example with your friends), go to a separate channel
and set the topic (with /topic) to indicate that. For example
   /topic Finnish only!
would mean that this channel would be reserved for Finnish discussion.
On the other hand, you should check the topic (with /list command) 
before you move to a channel to see if there are any restrictions about 
language.
   On a channel not restricted by /topic, please speak a language
everybody can understand. If you want to do otherwise, change channels
and set the topic accordingly.


2) Hello/Goodbye

   It's not necessary to greet everybody on a channel personally.
Usually one "Hello" or equivalent is enough. And don't expect everybody
to greet you back. On a channel with 20 people that would mean one
screenful of hellos. It's sensible not to greet, in order not to be rude
to the rest of the channel. If you must say hello to somebody you know,
do it with a private /msg. The same applies to goodbyes.

   Also note that using IRCII's /ON facility to automatically say hello
or goodbye to people is extremely poor etiquette. Nobody wants to receive
autogreets. They are not only obviously automatic, but even if you think
you are being polite you are actually sounding insincere and also
interfering with the personal environment of the recipient when using
autogreets. If somebody wants to be autogreeted on joining a channel,
they will autogreet themselves.


3) Discussion

   When you come to a new channel it's advised you to listen
for a while to get an impression of what's discussed. Please feel free
to join in, but do not try to force your topic into the discussion
if that doesn't come naturally.


4) }{|`~][\@^

   IRC has quite a lot of people from Scandinavian countries,
the above characters are letters in their alphabet. This
has been explained on IRC about a thousand and one times, so
read the following, do not ask it on IRC:

   {     is an A with 2 dots over it (ä)
   }     is an A with a small circle above it (å)
   |     is either an O with 2 dots over it or an O with a dash (/)
         through it (either ö or ø)
   `     is an e with an accent over it (é)
   ~     is an u with 2 dots over it (ü)
   [, ], \, @ and ^ are the preceding five letters in upper case.

Of course (I'm being ironical here), the both the french and the
german mappings are DIFFERENT.


5) ATTENTION!

   Remember, people on IRC form their opinions about you only by 
your actions, writings and comments on IRC. So think before you type.
