Big Dummy's Guide To The Internet by Electronic Frontier Foundation (early reader chapter books .txt) 📕

#hottub

would send a message to fleepo asking him to join you on

the #hottub channel. The channel name is optional.

/join Use this to switch to or create a particular channel,

like this:

/join #hottub

If one of these channels exists and is not a private

one, you will enter it. Otherwise, you have just

created it. Note you have to use a # as the first

character.

/list This will give you a list of all available public

channels, their topics (if any) and the number of users

currently on them. Hidden and private channels are not

shown.

/m name Send a private message to that user.

/mode This lets you determine who can join a channel you’ve

created.

/mode #channel +s

creates a secret channel.

/mode #channel +p

makes the channel private

/nick This lets you change the name by which others see you.

/nick fleepo

would change your name for the present session to

fleepo. People can still use /whois to find your e-mail

address. If you try to enter a channel where somebody

else is already using that nickname, IRC will ask you to

select another name.

/query This sets up a private conversation between you and

another IRC user. To do this, type

/query nickname

Every message you type after that will go only to that

person. If she then types

/query nickname

where nickname is yours, then you have established a

private conversation. To exit this mode, type

/query

by itself. While in query mode, you and the other

person can continue to “listen” to the discussion on

whatever public channels you were on, although neither

of you will be able to respond to any of the messages

there.

/quit Exit IRC.

/signoff Exit IRC.

/summon Asks somebody connected to a host system with IRC to

join you on IRC. You must use the person’s entire e-mail

address.

/summon [email protected]

would send a message to fleepo asking him to start IRC.

Usually not a good idea to just summon people unless you

know they’re already amenable to the idea; otherwise you

may wind up annoying them no end. This command does not

work on all sites.

/topic When you’ve started a new channel, use this command to let

others know what it’s about.

/topic #Amiga

would tell people who use /list that your channel is meant

for discussing Amiga computers.

/who Shows you the e-mail address of people on a particular

channel.

/who #foo

would show you the addresses of everybody on channel foo.

/who

by itself shows you every e-mail address for every person

on IRC at the time, although be careful: on a busy night

you might get a list of 500 names!

/whois Use this to get some information about a specific IRC

user or to see who is online.

/whois nickname

will give you the e-mail address for the person using

that nickname.

/whois *

will list everybody on every channel.

/whowas Similar to /whois; gives information for people who

recently signed off IRC.

11.4 IRC IN TIMES OF CRISIS

IRC has become a new medium for staying on top of really big

breaking news. In 1993, when Russian lawmakers barricaded themselves

inside the parliament building, some enterprising Muscovites and a couple

of Americans set up a “news channel” on IRC to relay first-person

accounts direct from Moscow. The channel was set up to provide a

continuous loop of information, much like all-news radio stations that

cycle through the day’s news every 20 minutes. In 1994, Los Angeles

residents set up a similar channel to relay information related to the

Northridge earthquake. In both cases, logs of the channels were archived

somewhere on the Net, for those unable to “tune in” live.

How would you find such channels in the future? Use the /list

command to scroll through the available channels. If one has been set up

to discuss a particular breaking event, chances are you’ll see a brief

description next to the channel name that will tell you that’s the place

to tune.

11.5 MUDs

Multiple-User Dimensions or Dungeons (MUDs) take IRC into the

realm of fantasy. MUDs are live, role-playing games in which you

enter assume a new identity and enter an alternate reality through

your keyboard. As you explore this other world, through a series of

simple commands (such as “look,” “go” and “take”), you’ll run across

other users, who may engage you in a friendly discussion, enlist your

aid in some quest or try to kill you for no apparent reason.

Each MUD has its own personality and creator (or God) who was

willing to put in the long hours required to establish the particular

MUD’s rules, laws of nature and information databases. Some MUDs

stress the social aspects of online communications — users frequently

gather online to chat and join together to build new structures or

even entire realms. Others are closer to “Dungeons and Dragons” and

are filled with sorcerers, dragons and evil people out to keep you

from completing your quest — through murder if necessary.

Many MUDs (there are also related games known as MUCKs and MUSEs)

require you to apply in advance, through e-mail, for a character name

and password. One that lets you look around first, though, is

HoloMuck at McGill University in Montreal. The premise of this game

is that you arrive in the middle of Tanstaafl, a city on the planet

Holo. You have to find a place to live (else you get thrown into the

homeless shelter) and then you can begin exploring. Magic is allowed

on this world, but only outside the city limits. Get bored with the

city and you can roam the rest of the world or even take a trip into

orbit (of course, all this takes money; you can either wait for your

weekly salary or take a trip to the city casino). Once you become

familiar with the city and get your own character, you can even begin

erecting your own building (or subway line, or almost anything else).

To connect, telnet to

collatz.mcrcim.mcgill.edu 5757

When you connect, type

connect guest guest

and hit enter. This connects you to the “guest” account, which

has a password of “guest.”

You’ll see this:

The Homeless Shelter(#22Rna)

You wake up in the town’s Homeless Shelter, where vagrants are put for

protective holding. Please don’t sleep in public places— there are plenty of

open apartments available. Type ‘apartments’ to see how to get to an

apartment building with open vacancies.

There is a small sign on the wall here, with helpful information. Type ‘look

sign’ to read it.

The door is standing open for your return to respectable society. Simply walk

‘out’ to the center.

Of course, you want to join respectable society, but first you

want to see what that sign says. So you type

look sign

and hit enter, which brings up a list of some basic commands. Then

you type

out

followed by enter, which brings up this:

You slip out the door, and head southeast…

Tanstaafl Center

This is the center of the beautiful town of Tanstaafl. High Street runs north

and south into residential areas, while Main Street runs east and west into

business districts.

SW: is Tanstaafl Towers. Please claim an apartment… no sleeping in public!

SE: the Public Library offers both information and entertainment.

NW: is the Homeless Shelter, formerly the Town Jail.

NE: is Town Hall, site of several important services, including: Public

Message Board, Bureau of Land Management (with maps and regulations), and

other governmental/ bureaucratic help.

Down: Below a sign marked with both red and blue large letter ‘U’s, a

staircase leads into an underground subway passage.

(Feel free to ‘look’ in any direction for more information.)

[Obvious exits: launch, d, nw, se, w, e, n, s, ne, sw]