alrighty, for everyone who has asked, follow these steps to get set up to particpate in #SDRE, the sunny day chat channel. this is written at the novice level, so for some of you it may seem like overkill, but i don't want to get any e-mails back saying, "you told me to run the program, how do i do that?" also, for any mac users out there, i'll have a tutorial for getting set up with ircle (www.ircle.com i believe) in the near future... I. DOWNLOADING AND INSTALLING MIRC Load up your web browser and browse to the site: http://www.mirc.co.uk/ Once the page is loaded, click on the "Download mIRC" link. If you use Windows 95, 98, or NT, choose one of the download links under that section. Try to find one geographically close to you. (I am in Seattle, so I usually select "mIRC 5.51 (32) in California" or "mIRC 5.51 (32) in Alberta" since those are the two closest.) This will download the mIRC software to your computer. Make sure to take note of where you are saving the file, so you can get to the install program later. After the download, find the install program on your computer and run it, if your browser didn't already do that for you. Hit "OK" to all the questions presented. It should then tell you that mIRC installation was successful. II. STARTING MIRC AND SETTING UP A CONNECTION Run mIRC from Start Menu | Programs | mIRC. A little window will pop-up with author's face and registration info. (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention, mIRC is shareware, and you should pay for mIRC if you use it, although you don't *have* to.) Click the "OK" box there and you will find yrself at the Options menu. Fill out the four fields: Full Name: you don't have to use your full name, or even your actual name. a pseudonym or nice SDRE quote will do nicely. this shows up when people run a WHOIS on you to request more information about who you are. remember that on IRC, people can only know as much about you as you want to tell them. E-Mail Address: you can type anything you want in here, as long as it has an @ in it. this address doesn't show up to anyone. (it's only there to help set up an ident, which you don't need to worry about now.) Nickname: the name you want to go by on IRC. your "handle" as it were. you must make this 1-9 letters. Alternate: another nickname you would like to use if someone already has the nickname you specified. (Specifying an alternate nickname is optional. When you connect, it will try to use the nickname you specified. If someone else on IRC is using it, it will try the alternate if you specified one. If you didn't specify an alternate, or if the alternate is taken too, you will see the message "Register First." upon connecting, and you will once again have an opportunity to specify a nickname.) Okay, here's the only complicated part, specifying an IRC server. #SDRE is on the EFNet IRC network, so you have to find a server that will connect you to EFNet. There are a few different ways to go about this, but here's what I recommend you do: Click "Add" -- a new window will pop-up Under "Description" and "IRC Server" enter: irc.idle.net Click "Add" You are now configured to participate in EFNet IRC. With any luck, you will never have to do any of this stuff again. III. GETTING CONNECTED AND ON TO #SDRE If mIRC isn't running, start it up. When the options menu comes back up, click on "Connect to IRC server!" (Make sure the irc.idle.net connection you made is the one selected in the pop-up menu.) Once you connect, a window will come up with a preset list of channels you can join. Hit "Cancel" to close it, then type this: /join #SDRE There you are! Unless you hit a slow time, there should be a few other SDRE fans there who want to chat with you. On the right side of the window will be a list of other people who are on #SDRE. For the most part, just start typing. You may want to just watch for a second so you can see what people are talking about. Although it is the #SDRE, and normally only frequented by Sunny Day fans, the topic of conversation is not always Sunny Day Real Estate. The goal here is to have a channel where SDRE fans can meet, but don't be surprised if they are talking about anything but Sunny Day. IIII. COMMANDS There are tons of commands to use on IRC, here are a few simple ones. All commands start with a slash (/). These examples assume your nickname is "SDREFan". /whois -- brings up detailed info on the nickname you specify. for example: /whois Famous /me -- performs an action is whatever channel you are on. this is useful if you want to punch someone, kiss someone, jump out a window, etc. for example, if you type "/me punches Famous in the nose" you would see "* SDREFan punches Famous in the nose" it will make more sense once you give it a try. /quit -- when you are done on IRC, type /quit and proceed it with a message. for example, type "/quit time for dinner" and you will be disconnected from IRC, and people will see "*** SDREFan has quit IRC (time for dinner, be back soon)" V. OPS AND BOTS You will notice that in the nickname list on #SDRE, there are a few people at the top who have a @ in front of their nickname. These are the channel operators, and they can do things like kick or ban users out of the channel, change the channel topic, change the channel modes (like moderate it, set a limit on how many people can be in at once, or set a channel password) and all kinds of different stuff. Right now there are about 5 or so #SDRE regulars that have channel operator status. Anyway, if you are being a jerk on #SDRE, remember you can be kicked out for it. If you stick around #SDRE long enough, and build up some trust with the people there, we'll give you operator status on the bot. "The bot" I speak of is a user on IRC that actually isn't a person, just a computer program that stays on #SDRE all day and watches over it, and make sure nobody takes the channel. Right now our bot is "Lizadrin" but we might getting a new one soon. The bot is always an op, and gives certain people ops when they join. The bot also does fun stuff. Try typing any of these things into the channel: %spin -- spin the bottle, picks someone at random at the channel for you to kiss 8ball -- ask the bot a question! for example... <Famous> 8ball are a lot of people going to stop by #SDRE tonight? <Lizadrin> Famous, Survey says...yes!! alright, i hope it's true. so far the record of people in #SDRE at once is 6... i want to break that record tonight! let's see how many people we can get in here. like ansi said, there are some upcoming plans to try to get some sdre members to stop by the channel at times (joe has expressed some real interest), and to kind of integrate the channel with the interactivity aspect of sunnydayrealestate.com. again, we'll keep you informed. ----- e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] home page: http://www.foxinternet.net/web/manicpop/ why should i? because: http://www.ysib.com/ sunny day real estate: http://www.sunnydayrealestate.com/ irc: "Famous" on EFNet, channels #SuperDeluxe and #SDRE -----
