Help for chatters new to Induced IRC

This page is mainly for the benefit of those affected by the sudden closure of Bigpond Chat but will be of help to any new chatter.

Whilst it is always unfortunate to see any chat service close their doors, especially when they are too ignorant to provide a reason or assistance to those who now have to fend for themselves you can rest assured that we are here to help. Induced IRC is open for business and we are here to help you where your old chat service failed to do so. This page has some basic tips to assist you with settling in here on Induced IRC but first a list of some of the questions that those using Bigpond Chat have been asking for the last few days:-

Q: Why is Telstra closing Bigpond Chat?
A: Telstra has chosen not to provide a reason so it is effectively pointless in asking them. As per usual, Telstra's cone of silence has been lowered and the bottom line is that we know about as much as you do.

Q: When will Telstra pull the plug?
A: Bigpond Chat will be shut down for the last time on the 31st October, 2009. An exact time has not been given.

Q: Where do I catch up with my friends now?
A: The best way for everyone to remain in contact with their friends is for everyone to shift to one new network and re-create the chatrooms you were using on Bigpond. We hope you will choose Induced IRC and many of you have done this. Spread the word about us and your friends are likely to follow.

Q: How do I set up my room here on Induced?
A: The easy answer is that registering rooms and nicknames here on Induced is exactly the same as it is on Bigpond. Induced IRC operates ChanServ, NickServ and MemoServ. towards the bottom of this page there are reminders of the initial commands but we recommend that in the longer term you familiarise yourself with the Services help files by using the following commands: ChanServ Help with /cs help NickServ Help with /ns help and MemoServ Help with /ms help.

Q: I want to become a helper. How do I apply?
A: As our number of chatters increases due to the closure of Bigpond Chat and for other reasons it will mean that we will probably require more staff. The official help room on Induced IRC is #Help. It is a system-owned room and the hosts there are subject to firmer rules than apply in the other rooms. Hosts in #Help are required to be available to help less experienced chatters when they are online. To become a host in #Help you will have a demonstrated knowledge of how this network operates and your general IRC knowledge will be good. You will also be a person of good repute and be able to keep a cool head when under pressure. Becoming a host in #Help means that the IRC Operators will discuss your application and take a vote on whether to accept your application. Appointment would then be for a trial basis and then permanent if things work out.

Q: I want to become an IRC operator. How do I apply?
A: At this time the network does not require additional IRC operators. We don't mind if you enquire (some other networks ban you for asking!) but at this point in time the answer will be the same. We have six IRC operators at the moment and that is plenty for our current needs.

Q: Who is Bot?
A: Bot is an official robot that protects system-owned rooms from flooding and a few other minor offences. Bot also serves as a network security robot. On certain occasions you may see Bot in privately owned rooms but only ever at the request of the room's owner and on the approval of the IRC management.

Q: Who is Chat?
A: Chat is a room holder that can be found in #Chat, Induced IRC's main room, and a couple of other system-owned rooms. Chat won't bite! He's there just to hold the rooms open in the event that no real people are present.

Q: Will Induced close?
A: Induced IRC has been operational since the 19th May, 2005. That's more than four years. We have no plans on closing and it is highly likely that we'll still be here in ten, fifteen or even twenty years. Induced IRC is definitely here for the long haul.

Q: Can I use mIRC or a script here?
A: Yes! All chat programmes and friendly scripts are more than welcome.

Q: Can I run a robot?
A: Yes! Friendly robots can be connected here without asking for approval. War robots (robots that flood, harass, etc) are not welcome. For the sake of peace and harmony we require robot owners to keep their robots in their own rooms.

Q: What rooms can I open?
A: You can open any room you like for just about any purpose you like. Providing the Acceptable Use Policy is adhered to you can run your room the way you want to without being watched by IRC operators.

Q: Is there a limit on how many rooms I can join?
A: Induced IRC allows chatters to join ten rooms consecutively. Bigpond had a limit of five rooms.

Q: Is there a limit on how many rooms and names I can register?
A: This network does not place limits on registrations so it is possible to register any amount of rooms and nicknames. We do ask that you be sensible about this however. Register what you need and leave what you don't need for others to enjoy.

Q: Can I open a room to share music and videos?
A: No. Since opening, this network has forbidden any type of file sharing and this is one of the few things we do take seriously for legal reasons. If you want to share files (legal or otherwise) you have the choice of running a website, FTP server, running Limewire, etc. Chat servers are for chatting.

Q: Can I idle in rooms here?
A: Yes. Chat when you want, rest when you want.

Q: Who makes the rules here?
A: Induced IRC has some basic requirements which we call the seven deadly sins but otherwise known as an Acceptable Use Policy. They are the only server-wide rules we have here and relate to those wanting to do very stupid and futile things like room takeovers, hacking, flooding, advertising, etc. You can see these requirements at Acceptable Use Policy. To keep this as simple as possible we've kept the list of rules very short but we do expect people to follow them. Room owners may have additional rules if they wish but no room rule will ever supercede the server rules. The bottom line is that if you behave as you would (or are supposed to) out in a public place then you have nothing to worry about.

Q: Are we allowed to run websites pertaining to our rooms here?
A: Most definitely. Induced IRC will also happily host your site for you but you must do all the coding work. For more information on this please see this page. Althernatively there are dozens of free webhosting services out there that place advertising banners on your pages but with that comes the extra power of built-in site builders which are handy for those who have limited or no knowledge of HTML coding.

Basic chat commands

Connect to Induced IRC

All chatters have a choice of three methods. On this website you can chat in a CGI or Java chatroom just by following the links on the front page of the site. CGI Chat is a light-weight chatroom for those whose web browsers are old or do not support the Java Runtime. For those with Windows XP or later, you would be better off using one of the Java Chat chatrooms as these have more features and are slightly more stable.

For those who have mIRC or another chat programme installed on their computer you can connect with the command /server irc.induced.net or if you want to include Induced IRC in your server list you can follow this informative tutorial for mIRC.

Find rooms to join

The /list command will show you what rooms are available if your script does not bring it up automatically for you.

Register a nickname

You need to think of a good password which is hard for others to guess. When you know what password you want to have use the command /ns register PASSWORD E-MAILADDRESS and NickServ will reserve your name only for you to use. You must provide a valid e-mail address so we can return your nickname to you if you forget your password or your name is stolen by another user. If you choose not to provide a valid e-mail address and any of these things happen we will not be able to return your nickname to you. E-mail addresses cannot be seen by other chatters unless you enable that function yourself.

Change e-mail address

Sometimes people change their ISP and along with that, their e-mail address. It is important for you to keep your registration details up to date incase there is a problem. You can use the command /ns set email NEWEMAILADDRESSHERE to update your e-mail address. You need to identify to your name before you can do this.

Change password

You should change your password regularly to ensure that no-one can steal your nickname. At a bare minimum this should be done once every six months, employing a strong password with upper and lower case letters, numerals and symbols sych as !@#$%&. A minimum of seven characters should be used. You can use the command /ns set password NEWPASSWORDHERE to change your password. You need to be identified to your nickname to do this.

Register a new room

Firstly, determine that the room of your choice is not yet registered to another chatter. If not then type /join #ROOMNAME to enter your new chatroom. If you are the first person in the room you will receive ops automatically by the IRC server. To make the room yours to keep you need to register it with ChanServ using the command /cs register #ROOMNAME PASSWORD DESCRIPTION. The password convention for nicknames should also be followed for roomnames - ie: make them hard for others to guess. The description is simply a very brief description of what your room is about. Once chanServ recognises your registration your ops will change slightly. The '@' in front of your name will disappear and be replaced with the founder's tag '~'. This means you are now the owner and the boss.

When chatting routinely you do not need to identify to your room but you do need to identify to your nickname to get ops in your room. Use the NickServ identify command shown above to achieve this. Once you are identified to NickServ, ChanServ will op you. With this access you can change your room's topic, kick and ban people who disrupt the chat in your room and give ops to those chatters that you trust. You can also remove ops from those who abuse your trust in them. To perform deeper room controls listed in ChanServ's help file you will need to identify to your room with the room's registration password.

Identify to your name

To identify to nicknames you need to change to your registered nickname and use the command /ns identify PASSWORD.

Identify to your room

To identify to your room use the command /cs identify #ROOMNAME PASSWORD.

Services available to chatters

Induced IRC offers a powerful group of IRC Services to allow chatters to own nicknames, channels and send short notes called memos to each other and these Services are known as NickServ, ChanServ and MemoServ respectively. For those chatters coming to Induced IRC from Bigpond Chat you will find that most of the commands are pretty much the same. Some will differ slightly however though you will get used to these slight differences in no time at all. To go into detail on what is available from Services this page would be too big to load into your browser but in place of that we invite you to explore the Services help files at your own leisure with the following commands:-

To look at ChanServ's help file type /cs help.

To look at NickServ's help file type /ns help.

To look at MemoServ's help file type /ms help.

Network policies

What are the rules on Induced IRC?

As has been mentioned elsewhere on this page, Induced IRC is committed to providing a greater deal of freedom of expression than exists on other chat networks. Hosts of system-owned chatrooms like #Chat are asked to take this into account and provide the chatters with as much leniency as possible. As an example, occasional swearing is permitted but abuse isn't. If a chatter says something that has more than one meaning then the chatter should be given the benefit of the doubt until such time as their discussion can be clarified to greater detail.

Induced IRC has a small number of rules that are in place to protect the network infrastructure and to protect the good name of Induced IRC around the world. These rules apply across the network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without exception. These are outlines in the network's Acceptable Use Policy.