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· Step Six ? Learning A Foreign Language.
Ye gods! What are those people saying? It?s a whole new world out there, and in order to be able to hold a conversation at any sort of normal pace, a new set of abbreviations, acronyms, terminology and language use has evolved. From IRC, a lot oft his has filtered through into other uses. Text messages on mobile phones, for example use a lot of the abbreviations first used on IRC. I?ll try and give you enough to get started without going through every single phrase you?re likely to see online. The easiest way to learn is to ask questions ? if someone uses a phrase you don?t understand, simply ask him or her to explain.
?ASL?? (or ?A/S/L??) ? means age, sex, location. The bane of my life! Some people cannot have a conversation with you without knowing these facts.
LOL, ROFL, LMAO ? ?laughs out loud?, ?rolls on floor, laughing?, ?laughing my ass off?. If you say something funny, you might see this. Some people may also join two of them: ROFLMAO which you should be able to guess.
Op (or Operator) ? people who have a " @ "symbol beside their name are called ?Ops? and they are in charge of whatever room you are currently in. Generally they are nothing more than regular, trusted users of the chat room and at some point were just like you! These people have the power to kick you out, ban you or tell you off if you?re being naughty. (This OP signs could differ from network to network * = ADMINS ; ^SOP's @=AOP's and %=halfops).
Voiced ? people with a ?+? beside their name are voiced. These people are usually regulars, quite trusted, but not enough to be operators or have any power.
TTFN ? ?ta ta for now?. I don?t think this is even an IRC term, but it is used online.
CYA ? see you, as in ?See you later?
IMHO ? ?in my humble opinion?
AFK ? ?away from keyboard?. Usually appended to the end of their nickname to show that they?re not sitting at their computer e.g. DukeAFK.
WTF? ? ?what the feck??. You know what I mean!
PPL ? short for people.
BBL ? ?Be back later?
BBIAB ? ?Be back in a bit?
POPUP ? a small piece of code that usually displays a message, or some kind of ?text picture?
Script ? a (usually) small add on that provides extra features for your IRC program. Some scripts allow you to play mp3 files, display automatic messages when certain things happen or just provide a more colourful experience.
UR ? abbreviation of your. ?I like ur style?, for example.
· Step Seven ? Some final pointers.
Something else you might have noticed and I?ll comment on now are emoticons. You may know them better as ?smilies?. There are loads of them out there, and they?re getting weirder by the day! As an old skool IRC user, I prefer the use of smilies like:
. (smiling) or :P. (pouting) or >
. (mischievous) rather than the newer ones which look like ^_o_^ (or something similar ? I haven?t got a clue what they?re meant to be either!).
IRC is something that you can grow in to. If you simply wish to chat to other people, then you can stay as blissfully ignorant as you like! If your curiosity gets the better of you, you can get onto more advanced things like writing your own scripts, becoming a channel operator (if you?re invited to) or starting your own permanent channel. The things to do are near endless!
Chatting on the Internet is nothing to be scared of. Lots of people like you try chatting everyday - some like it, some don?t. It?s possible to make lots of friends, if you want to. It?s also a cheaper way to talk to friends and loved ones in foreign countries if they know how to IRC as well.
Going back to the scare story right at the start of this opinion, well, it does happen on extremely rare occasions. But, using some common sense, and you can be totally safe. As stated earlier, never give out personal details unless you are more than 100% sure of whom you?re talking to. The odds of something bad happening to you are like the odds of you being killed in an air crash. Morbid, I know, but highly unlikely.
I think that concludes today?s lesson. Hopefully, I?ve given you enough information to get started. If any of you have any further questions, don?t hesitate to e-mail me via the address on my profile, or for more detailed information on mIRC, there?s a web site at _http://www.mirc.com where you can download the latest version as well as get help on both mIRC and IRC in general. Other help sites include: _http://www.irchelp.org/ which is the official web site of the #IRChelp channel which is based on the Efnet network, but the help contained should be useful for most networks."
Happy chatting!
Last edited by Hunted at Jul 28 2002, 10:09 AM