IRC (Nova Roma)

As of a.d. XVI Kal. Nov. ‡ K. Buteone Po. Minucia cos. ‡ MMDCCLIX a.u.c., Nova Roma has a "chat" system hosted on a private IRC server. This enables real-time "Instant Message" style communication between citizens, without the spam, harassment, lag and netsplits found on the larger IRC networks.

(If this address doesn't work for you you'll need to install some software - see below.)

The advantages to IRC:

• allows for private messages between users
• allows for public messages to a "channel"
• server software is free
• there are many, many free client programs available
• it is a public, open, non-proprietary standard

Contents 1 How to use Nova Roma IRC 2 Connecting 3 Choosing a Name 4 Joining a Channel

How to use Nova Roma IRC

You'll need an IRC Client program. This runs on your machine, and enables you to connect to the server. There are many clients available for Unix, Windows, Mac, and others.

• See the list here: Comparison_of_IRC_clients

One recommended client is Chatzilla. This runs within the Mozilla Firefox web browser, and therefore works on every platform that Firefox itself runs on (it's written in Javascript).

To install Chatzilla, first download it from http://www.hacksrus.com/~ginda/chatzilla/

Use the 'install' link towards the bottom of that page, install the module (changing security setting if necessary), and restart Mozilla.

Connecting

Once you have your IRC client installed, you need to tell it where to find the server. Depending on which client you've installed, your web browser may now understand irc: URLs. Try going to this address:

   irc://irc.novaroma.org/NovaRoma

If this doesn't work, then start up your IRC client program manually, find its "Connect" feature, and specify this information (which may have slightly different labels in your program):

• server host: irc.novaroma.org
• server port: 6667
• channel: #NovaRoma

Choosing a Name

You'll also need to set your username, or "nickname" in IRC terms. Sometimes this is done in the "Preferences" or "Options" of your client software; or you can tell it to the server directly by using the /nick command.

With most IRC clients, you type commands into the same place you type what you want to say; if it begins with a slash ( "/" ), it is interpreted as a command. The traditional command for setting your nickname is "/nick", followed by a space, then by your name (which cannot have spaces).

   /nick Lucius_Iunius_Brutus

Please use your Roman name or some readily identifiable fragment of it! To keep the flavour of Nova Roma intact, non-Roman names won't be permitted on our IRC server.

Joining a Channel

After connecting to the server and setting your nickname, you'll want to join a "channel"; a channel is a place within the server where persons can see and talk to each other (some services call these "chat rooms"). We recommend that everyone join the #NovaRoma channel, as that's where we'll be waiting. Use the slash-command "/join" (or look in your menus for operations to list and join channels):

   /join #NovaRoma

...and, in most cases, this will place you in the #NovaRoma channel, where you will see other citizens. To talk publicly, just type what you wish to say, and everyone in the same channel as you will see it; to talk to one person privately, look in your software for the "private message" function - for those clients that use slash commands it is usually

   /msg username text