Irc
 

I’ve never done any IRC and I was wondering what it was like and whether it was worth doing?

IRC is somewhat like a multi-user chat on other protocols, except better IMO

You can always try irc://irc.freenode.net/programmingforums if your browser supports it (Firefox, and mozilla have extensions for it, such as Chatzilla)


if you happen to run linux there is xchat, bitchx, ksirc, or gaim included with most distros

If you run windows Gaim and chatzilla are the only one I can think of, though there are more.

What are the people like on it?

Are they mostly tech heads?

Or a bunch of idiots that don’t know there arse from there elbow?

That depends on the the channel (sort of like a chatroom) you are in. From my experience on the Programming Forums channel, people are nice there, and will probably be helpful.

edit: This site seems to have useful information about IRC commands, what clients are availabe, etc. This one too

I've only ever used mIrc. It's changed a lot since the last time I used it, an I only downloaded it to look at our IRC room, which each time I go there, nobody answers:p mIrc is now has a 'trial period'. Try n' Buy. I don't think it will take much to geta free one.

I use Konversation.

The people on IRC, like anything on the Internet, depend on where you go.

Woo telnet! Actually no, it's really hard to use if you choose telnet, but most of the people on the interesting channels are willing to help you, and usually know what they're talking about...

My favourite is XChat. You can get it for Windows too.