Making a successful IRC channel

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Here are some steps on getting your own IRC channel active:

1. Just join #channel where channel is the name of channel you want to have

/join #channel

1. Set the topic and invite some people to talk with :)

/topic #channel <topic>

This way your channel wont be protected in any way so read below some tips

Registering channel

To register a channel you need to have registered nickname. Register nick with:

/msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <email-address>

Email address in most cases can be fictional, however several networks send nick registration confirmations to valid e-mail addresses.

Check if there is a ChanServ service too:

/msg ChanServ help

If you get any reply it means there is such service and you can use it to get your channel registered and sets you as owner. So register it now:

/msg ChanServ REGISTER channel password description

Where:

1. channel is your #channel
2. password is your channel-owner password (should NOT be the same as the password used for nickname registration with NickServ)
3. description is a small description about your channel visible to anyone after checking info about channel with

/msg ChanServ INFO #channel ALL

Example with #shellium channel:

ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- Information on #shellium:
ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- Registered : Jun 11 05:55:15 2008 (1 year, 18 weeks, 2 days, 14:18:51 ago)
ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- Mode lock  : +ntz-cg
ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- URL        : http://www.shellium.org
ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- Flags      : SECURE KEEPTOPIC GUARD PRIVATE
ChanServ(ChanServ@services.)- *** End of Info ***

Setting up channel modes

You can set up some channel modes with:

/MODE <channel> [<mode> [<mode parameters>]]

Where:

1. <channel> is your channel name
2. <mode> is a channel mode you want to set
3. <mode parameter> is additional parameter needed by seweral modes like password or setting max users limit

To see the full channel modes list check: IRC Channel Modes List

Channel bots

Almost every channel has bots. An IRC bot is a set of scripts or an independent program that connects to Internet Relay Chat as a client, and so appears to other IRC users as another user. It differs from a regular client in that instead of providing interactive access to IRC for a human user, it performs automated functions.

If a Network provide a BotServ, service similiar to ChanServ and NickServ you can add a pretty simple one. Read more and see how to add it with:

/msg BotServ help

This one will only op, deop, voice, devoice people in your channel with proper rights.

More advanced bots (most popular is Eggdrop) can do many more things. However it need more time to set up, additional scripts and bit experience in managing that.

Advertising

You have already your IRC channel running but... you are alone. Start to invite some friends to talk with, advertise your channel on your website etc. You can try to advertise your channel in other channel on the same network however you should first ask if you are allowed to that. Noone likes spam, flood or pushy ads.

See also

1. IRC Channel Modes List
2. Internet Relay Chat bot on Wikipedia

These tips by

Idea by: TylerC 21:34, 17 October 2009 (UTC) Article by: OkweL 22:17, 17 October 2009 (UTC)