Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Updated 3 weeks ago

Internet Relay Chat (or IRC) is an open standard for chatting on the internet. It’s been around forever, and it’s great!

Getting started

To kick things off, visit your address’s Social page and then click the "Create IRC account" button. You’ll then receive a password that you can use to connect. If you ever forget your password, you can visit the same page to generate a new one.

From there, you can hop right onto our web client at https://chat.social.lol, or you can read on below to use your own client if you would prefer.

Connecting & authenticating

To use IRC, you need a client that can connect to the server. There are many clients available, all with different features.

You can point your client to irc.social.lol, using port 6697 for a secure and encrypted connection. Our IRC server requires SASL authentication, so you’ll need to be sure to use your omg.lol address as your “nickname” (often just called a “nick”, some clients call it “username”) and also configure your IRC password prior to connecting. Information about configuring different clients can be found on our IRC Clients page.

Persisting your connection

Our IRC server has a bouncer built in, which means that it will keep your connection active for you even if you close your client and come back later. You can still use your own bouncer if you’d like, but it’s not necessary to stay connected!

Joining channels

You can join as many chat channels as you’d like, including our “official” ones, and you can create your own (joining a channel that doesn’t already exist will create it). If you want to see a list of existing channels, their topics, and how many people are in each, the /LIST command should do that (depending on your client).

Other stuff

Unlike default IRC experiences of the past, you don’t have to worry about your IP address being leaked on the irc.social.lol server. Our server will automatically apply a cloak to your connection, effectively hiding your IP address from everyone. (If you do a /WHOIS on yourself, you’ll still see your own IP address in the response, but other members won’t!)

Our server uses the latest IRCv3 standards (including the latest draft standards), so compatible clients can enjoy such features as avatar display, typing indicators, emoji reactions, message editing/deletion, and more!

We also have a karma system. You can award karma to people by typing their name followed by ++, e.g. penelope++.

And, finally, we have the IdleRPG game running on #IdleRPG. Feel free to join!