IRC may be considered a bit ‘old hat’ now. It was launched 1988 and at the time was considered one of the best things since sliced bread. A text-only chat where you could meet untold millions of people talking about common interests… Or more sordid subjects if you liked that kind of thing.
Raspberry Pi is being discussed on it’s own channel – #raspberrypi. If you know how to get on IRC already, get over there – looks like it’s normally populated. You may even catch me on there sometimes.
For those of you without a clue, here’s a quick guide. You might have to find some menu options here and there, but this should give you a good idea of what’s involved.
I’m using a chat client called Pidgin in it’s portable format. So if you don’t like it or don’t use it, you just delete the folder and that’s it.
- Download and install Pidgin portable
- Start it up.
- Add an account for IRC (use the dropdown).
- Set a username and a password here. (The username is your irc ‘nickname’ that you’d like to use).
- Join a chat and specify the #portableapps channel. This will get you into the IRC system as you need to set-up additional security for the RPi channel.
- Type in:
/msg NickServ REGISTER <password> <email address> - This will register you and get a verification email sent to you.
- Go to your email and wait for the IRC one to come through.
- Follow the instructions to verify.
- Leave any of the channels/rooms you’re in.
- From Pidgin, join a chat and enter as the channel name: #raspberrypi.
You should then be into the chatroom and away you go – type type type!
hmm did you get excited or something and forget something? Like maybe the sever?
For those old hat to irc heres what you needs to know irc.freenode.net in channel #raspberrypi
I’d also rather use a different irc chat program then pidgin but thats a matter of personal preference.
To each their own
You should alter your steps to direct people to #freenode rather than #portableapps as the latter can’t assist in getting a nick registered or joining other channels.