Internet Relay Chat

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I take it that most of you already know what IRC is. If you don't: An IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network is a server [see computers] network (often global) where people can join channels (often referred to as `chat rooms', but I don't really like that term) and talk [see communication] (via the keyboard [see writing]) to (or with) other people.

There are IMHO two aspects of IRC that make it interesting. First, everybody starts on equal footing. You select a nickname (also referred to as an `alias' or a `handle', from radio amateur lingo), which is the only thing (apart from the IP address of the machine you come from, and a line supposed to contain your `real' name, but which you can set to whatever you'd like) that identifies yourself [see me]. There is no race, no gender, no social class, no physical appearance... And it facilitates the process of making friends with people you'd never meet otherwise. Of course, you are free to tell people your age, send a picture [see photography] or whatever, but you're not forced, and people cannot judge you based on it until you do. (A lot of people, especially those new to IRC, suddenly try to tear all that down again, by asking for stupid things like "asl" (short form for `Age, Sex, Location'). I mean, what would be the purpose of that? When you're actually in a place where you can communicate _across_ those borders, wouldn't other things be a lot more interesting? *sight*)

Second, the conversation is written [see writing, language and communication]. IRC has grown into a whole new form of expressing yourself (some are even carrying the SMS language over to IRC nowadays -- I personally think that's quite lame :-) ), and better yet: You can actually keep up with multiple conversations at once, with lots of different people. And my personal favorite: You can log it. Nothing beats seeing what you actually said (which, of course, on IRC reflects what actually happened, there isn't much interesting happening besides the talking ;-) ) a couple of years ago... I miss the logs I once had from my first IRC sessions (which must have been around 1994 or 1995) -- it's often interesting to see how one would react earlier, and how one has progressed from there. :-)

While I'm at the ranting, I think it's a bit funny that all the dyslexics [see writing] (at least all the Norwegian ones) seem to have gathered on IRC -- at least, I tend to meet a lot of people who can't write right, and blame it on dyslexia. Actually, it usually goes more like a variant of "shut up, I have dyslexia so I can write as bad as I want"; I mean, if you're dyslexic, shouldn't you be spend more time on trying to write correctly, not less? (This is more or less the same argument as e-mail/news [see the Internet] and quoting -- since potentially hundreds of people may or will read what you write, it's worth using five seconds extra so you can save those hundreds the extra time or irritation it takes to make any sense out of bad spelling and grammar. I'll leave that rant for another day. :-) ) It's funny how all `dyslexia' seem to correspond with lack of intelligence (whether general or social [see society]) as well -- interestingly enough, I seldom meet intelligent people who just can't spell right. Isn't dyslexia supposed to be more or less equally distributed among people? Hmm... ;-)

Of course, after a while, one often wants to meet people in real life. This is, of course, easy if they live nearby -- but if they live in a different country, that's quite difficult. I've known people that have traveled across continents to meet people they've met online... Often, though, `computer parties' [see The Gathering] serve as excellent meeting spots for online friends, even sometimes people from different countries. When you meet somebody IRL, there is, of course, a certain chance that you don't really get well along, but often, it's quite a lot easier to get to know each other face-to-face if you already know how the other person thinks and reacts... The looks and other external attributes (ahem) often just becomes something extra which you can quickly learn to adapt to. On the other hand, I've had people that I simply don't like IRL, but who I still get well on with on IRC ;-)

A little word of warning, though: IRC can be seriously addictive, and very unproductive. Always-on-connections (ie. `broadband' etc.) seriously boost the amount of time you spend on IRC if you're not careful. ;-)