Wikipedia Chat

For those you who are interested in real-time chat, there is a possibility to chat with other Wikipedians on the Internet Relay Chat network. The name of the channel is #wikipedia located on the server irc.openprojects.net.

How to connect

All you need is an IRC client installed on your machine (installation of a Java client on the Wikipedia server is being considered). A list of clients respective to your operating system is given in the IRC entry.

Once downloaded and installed perform the following steps:

1. Use the /server command to connect to the server, eg. /server irc.openprojects.net

2. Choose a nickname /user <nickname>, eg. /nick JohnDoe. Nicknames can be up to 8 characters long. You can use letters and numbers (no spaces or symbols).

3. Join the channel, type /join #wikipedia. Channels are the equivalent of chat rooms on irc.

4. For help type /help. Commands on irc have to be preceeded by a '/', channel names by a '#'.

5. Optional: You can register your nick with the nickserv service - only you will be able to use it. Type /msg nickserv register <password>, eg. /msg nickserv register foo. When logging on later on type /msg nickserv idetify <password> so that nickserv can identify you as the owner of a nick. For more help type /msg nickserv help.

6. Read the help and readme files of the client you installed for more information.

External links:

• [A guide to IRC]