Final Fantasy Wiki:IRC

Join us. We're a varied bunch.

The Final Fantasy Wiki's IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel (chat room) is the Wiki's main socialising tool. It is also an effective method of quickly notifying admins about any forms of vandalism taking place or asking questions.

To join our channel, simply use the following form and fill out the reCAPTCHA on the subsequent page!

<irclogin/>

Topics

In general, the #Wikia-FF IRC channel is intended for chatting about the Final Fantasy Wiki. It's not exactly a general-purpose Final Fantasy discussion channel. You can talk pretty much about anything you'd like.

Rules

The rules for the #Wikia-FF IRC channel are simple:

1. Don't be a dick. You will never be asked to be "nice," and personal attacks are unpreventable on IRC. But as a guideline, don't go out of your way to irritate others. Vicious abuse is grounds for sanctions.
2. Real-world politics and/or religion may only be discussed with unanimous consent. If someone doesn't want to talk about them, drop the subject.
3. The Final Fantasy IRC's official language: English. We don't care if it's British or American, as long as it's not "1337" or "TXT." Abbreviations are fine, but keep it within reason.
4. No spamming. The meaning should be obvious. Don't say the same thing six times because no one is responding to you. Don't keep yammering on about a subject nobody cares about.
5. No sockpuppets. Of course you're allowed to joke and overall be funny, but as a general rule we frown upon sockpuppets.
6. Don't abuse the "/nick" function; this means please don't go changing your nick every ten seconds as it might be confusing for some people. Also, Do not pretend to be another user.

The standard sanctions for dealing with violators of IRC policies are as follows:

1. Warning by an op
2. Kicking
3. Kickbanning. You don't have to be a scholar in order to avoid getting to this.

Channel Operators

Channel operators are users on IRC with certain abilities, indicated by the number of flags they have. Channel operators are able to maintain the channel and quiet (Mute a user, making them unable to send messages to the channel), kick or ban users. An @ symbol next to their nick indicates that a user is currently opped (some clients may denote opped users in other ways; ChatZilla, for example, shows a light green orb next to their nick in the user list).
The following users have OP rights in #Wikia-FF:

• 8bit BlackMage, uses the nick Eight-bit
• Azul81677
• Bluer
• Bluestarultor, uses the nick Bluesey
• Catuse167, uses the nick Catuse
• Drake Clawfang, uses the nick DrakeyC
• Fëasindë, also uses the nick GreySpirit
• Henryacores, also uses the nick HenryA
• Jimcloud
• Kuja FFIX, uses the nick Kiracieux
• ScatheMote, uses the nick Scathe
• Some Color Mage
• Sovereign92, uses the nick Sove
• Yuanchosaan

freenode staff members also have operator rights in #Wikia-FF, and can be contacted in #freenode if no channel operators are available.

Common commands

All commands must be prefixed with a forward slash (/).

• /nick <newnick> — changes your nickname.
• /me <action> — an action, eg "/me dances on the head of a pin" becomes "User dances on the head of a pin".
• /msg <person> <message> — sends a private message to that person. Equivalent to /query.
• /topic — calls up topic.
• /ignore <person> — ignores any message a user sends. This is a client-side function and will not work on the web gateway.
• /join #<channel> — join a channel. Only works with other channels on the current network.
• /away <message> — activates "Away" mode with a message, visible in your /WHOIS information. For example "/away grabbing a snack, be right back" would result in "User is away: grabbing a snack, be right back". Use /back or /away with no message to deactivate "Away" mode.
• /quit <message> — quits IRC and leaves a message. Use /part #<channel> <message> to leave only that channel.
• /clear — clears the current log. Useful if your connection begins to lag.

This list is by no means exhaustive. Further information can be found by typing /help or on IRChelp.org.

Registering

See this page on the freenode website for full details on nick registration.

Registering can be done by inputting

/msg nickserv register <password> <email>

• Do not include the <>.
• Replace <email> with your address, and <password> with the password you would like to use for the account. This will register your current nick.
• You will receive an email from freenode. Open it, and follow the instructions. If you do not verify the account in this way, it will be automatically dropped after 24 hours.
• To identify when using your registered nick, enter

  /msg nickserv identify <password>

  To identify from another nick, use

  /msg nickserv identify <registered-nick> <password>

  You will be notified if anyone has attempted to identify to your nick. Although nicks registered on freenode do not automatically expire, they will be eligible to be dropped by a network staffer once they have been unused for ten weeks plus one additional week for each full year of registration.
• You may group multiple nicks to your NickServ account. To do this, enter

  /msg nickserv group

  when using the nick that you would like to group to your account. You must be identified to your NickServ account to use this command. Do not collect excessive numbers of nicks.

Nick registration has the following benefits:

• Allows you to retain ownership of your preferred nick.
• Makes it more difficult for other users to impersonate you.
• Allows for easy identification by other users and operators.
• Allows you to forcibly disconnect ghosts and other users using your nick.
  This can be done by inputting

  /msg nickserv ghost <user> <password>

If you are using a client rather than a web gateway, it is recommended that you set up your client to automatically identify to NickServ to ensure that you are always signed into your account when you are connected to freenode. Instructions on how to do this can usually be found on the IRC client's website.

Dealing with spammers and trolls

Occasionally, the FF wiki's IRC channel may be attacked by spammers and trolls. If this happens, please follow the following procedure:

1. Warn the user, and notify them of the rules. Be calm and professional. Not all rule breakers are trolls - new users may be unaware of the IRC rules.
2. Are there any active operators on the channel? They will swiftly deal with any obvious annoyances. If they are only sporadically active, contact them via private message.
   • An away status means that the user is away. Please do not attempt to contact operators with this status: if they have been long inactive, they are unlikely to return if contacted through talk page or private message; if they are away for a short period of time, then they are likely to return and see the problem user themselves.
3. If no channel operators are active, contact a network staffer in #freenode. They are able to join our channel and deal with problem users.
4. In the unlikely event that there are no active operators or network staffers, use /ignore. Record the user's nickname and hostmask, and give it to the next operator who arrives. Alternatively, you may choose to leave a message (including hostmask) on an operator's talk page. Inform users who enter later about the problem user.

GFMinotaur and GFSacred

Main article: Final Fantasy Wiki:IRC/GFMinotaur

Main article: Final Fantasy Wiki:IRC/GFSacred

Bots run by Bluestarultor. Like MasterTonberry before them, they are based on MadCow. GFMinotaur intentionally has many features disabled with the intent to help it be less a toy and more a tool. GFSacred is one that's more a toy. The bots are now stable enough that downtime should be minimal, with the only outages being short temporary lapses to implement new modules or make other changes.

Support includes advertising user arenas, general feedback, and function suggestions (which will be implemented slowly, depending entirely on Bluestarultor learning Python).

In the event of an unplanned outage where Bluesey does not realize his connection flaked for long enough the bots were unable to reconnect there is also a section on his talk page to inform him.

How to join

You can either use a web gateway in your web browser or install a specialized chat program called an IRC client. These are available for a variety of platforms.

Web gateway

• freenode webchat, a qwebirc gateway, is a convenient web client that lets you join our channel from a normal web page. Simply type in your nickname and ensure that "#Wikia-FF" is in the channel box. If you wish to identify to NickServ at this point, tick the 'Auth to services' box and enter your NickServ username and password.
• Wikia also has a qwebirc gateway at irc.wikia.com. Join in the same way as the freenode gateway described above. You can also enter your username and choose "#Wikia-FF" from the drop-down list at the top of this page to connect to our channel.

IRC clients

There are many IRC clients; some of the most popular are listed below. For a full list of IRC clients, see Comparison of Internet Relay Chat clients on Wikipedia.

• Cross-platform
  • ChatZilla - Firefox add-on, SeaMonkey feature and standalone application (with XULRunner)
  • Opera - Web browser with a built-in IRC client
  • Quassel IRC - Full and distributed client with an optional Beginner's Mode to make setup easier for novice users
• Windows
  • mIRC - Full client with extensive configuration options and a wide range of scripts available. Note that mIRC is shareware, not free, although it can still be used after the trial period expires by simply ignoring the registration prompts.
  • Other notable Windows IRC clients include HexChat, irssi, KVIrc, Miranda IM, Quassel, Trillian, Visual IRC, XChat and XChat 2.
• Mac OS X
  • XChat Azure - Fully featured client for OS X
  • Other notable Mac OS X IRC clients include Colloquy, Ircle, LimeChat and Quassel.
• Linux
  • irssi - Versatile client featuring a text-mode user interface
  • Other notable Linix IRC clients include Konversation, KVIrc, Quassel, WeeChat, XChat and ii, as well as ircII and its derivatives.

IRC client setup instructions

Before connecting, you need to configure your client. Instructions on how to do this can usually be found on the client's website. After you have done this, joining our channel on freenode is rather straightforward. The parameters are:

• Server: chat.freenode.net
• Channel: #Wikia-FF (note the correct spelling)

Many IRC clients have "freenode" in the default network list; you only need to select it. After you are connected to the network, type /join #Wikia-FF in the input box and press Enter.

UTF-8

The #Wikia-FF channel uses the UTF-8 encoding, just like the Wiki proper. This should not pose a problem with English, as UTF-8 is backwards compatible with ASCII-127, but non-Latin scripts (such as Greek, Cyrillic or Chinese and Japanese characters) may be rendered improperly in UTF-8-incapable clients. Most of the IRC clients mentioned above support UTF-8 encoding in their most recent releases; however, be aware that some may not have UTF-8 encoding set as default.