Help:IRC

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is used frequently by Portal Wiki editors, moderators, and administrators to rant about whatever. The #pwiki channel hosted on irc.freenode.net is the channel used most frequently. Sometimes some Wiki-related discussions occur on that channel too.

Access to the channel is free for all users, and those who are not regularly active on the Wiki are encouraged to join the channel to collaborate with others.

The channel
The channel bot has been configured to broadcast items on Special:RecentChanges to all users within the channel. Discussion in the channel is also publicly logged. Logs can be viewed here. In addition to #pwiki, the #pwikirc channel can be used to monitor RCs without chatter; this channel also includes bot edits. Logs are available here, bypassing the need to actually be in the channel in order to follow the Recent Changes.

Any decisions made or "agreed to" in the channel should not always be considered definitive. The number of users who contribute to the Wiki but do not use the channel is high, and thus the discussion can exclude these contributors. Because of this, discussions that are of interest to everyone should take place on talk pages instead.

You can find a list of editors usually found on this channel here.

Popular clients

 * XChat – Windows (€15.99 or 30-day trial), Linux (free)
 * HexChat – Fork of X-Chat providing free binaries for Windows and Linux
 * ChatZilla (Firefox extension) – Available on all platforms (free, open source); See also: Guide to running ChatZilla without Firefox (using XULRunner)
 * HydraIRC – Windows (free, open source)
 * mIRC – Windows ($20 or 30-day trial)
 * Colloquy – Mac OS X (free)
 * KVIrc – Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X (free, open source)
 * Irssi – Windows, Linux (free, open source)
 * Nettalk – Windows (free, open source)
 * WeeChat - Free, open source (under GPLv3 license) Mac OS X & Linux client (Windows via cygwin is also possible)
 * Smuxi - Free for Windows, OS X, Linux, etc. (based on Gnome / GTK+ )

Alternative
Freenode provides access to their IRC servers through their webchat service. You can connect directly to the channel here.

Also, the Opera web browser has had an integrated IRC client since version 7.50.

Best of
A dedicated page has been setup to archive the best moments from the IRC channel.