!	 $eterna: newuser,v 1.8 2021/03/21 04:29:43 mrg Exp $
!
! Copyright (c) 1990-2018  Michael Sandrof, Troy Rollo, Matthew Green,
! and other ircII contributors.
!
! All rights reserved.  See the HELP IRCII COPYRIGHT file for more
! information.
!

        NEW USER INFORMATION FOR IRC

This file contains some caveats for people new to IRC. It is not a
guide to commands for IRC. For a brief guide to commands for new
users, see /HELP INTRO.

See /HELP ETIQUETTE for a guide to good manners on IRC.

IRC is an international network servicing 20 or more countries. There
are over 10,000 registered users, and a similar number of regular
unregistered users. Do not expect everybody to speak English.

The primary means of identification is currently by nickname. This can
be modified with /NICK, and registered with NickServ. (/MSG NickServ HELP
for information on NickServ). Note, however that some nicknames are
duplicated, and since unique nicknames CANNOT BE ENFORCED it is common
to find someone else using a registered nickname.
If you have any doubts about the identity of somebody using
a given nick, use /WHOIS NickName to find out more. This gives detailed
information on the person using the NickName. For example, if you
are getting abusive messages from "Fred", type:

/WHOIS Fred

If the information displayed is not the same as that which you would
expect for Fred, it is probably a case of impersonation.

Recently some users have been tricking others into allowing them to
control their IRC sessions or damaging their files. If somebody asks
you to type a command and you don't know what it does, use
/HELP CommandName to find out more about it first. In particular,
/ON has been used to cause trouble and is now initially disabled
for new users. Additionally, /QUI is short for /QUIT and will
terminate your IRC session. If you see any message asking you to
type /QUI or /QUIT, ignore it.

Some new users have been baffled by "CTCP" messages appearing on
the IRC session. These are messages from other users, asking your
client to perform some service for them. They are generally
generated by somebody typing in a CTCP command.

If you have not already done so, read the HELP files INTRO and
ETIQUETTE.

See Also:
  CTCP
