vmbrasseur
commented
10 years ago - Read the StepZero IRC primer (link here)
- Remember that there are real people at the other end of the wire and that they have real feelings
- When someone reacts poorly, try your best not to become defensive
- It's telling that the first two points here are based in negative situations. Read: People can be jerks. Try to chill.
- There are sometimes a lot of conversations going on in an IRC room. If you have a conversation which involves only one other person, do the room a favor and take it to a personal message. This will reduce the amount of noise in the room.
- Try to stay on topic. Sometimes a room will get a bit goofy, but in general, things usually stay on the topic of the room channel.
- Never forget: Most open source project IRC channels are publicly archived. Don't say stupid things (in general, but also) which you don't want people to see later. A diamond is forever, but it still doesn't last as long as one bad comment/photo on the internet.
- A lot of channels have "bots" which will auto-post to them. When you first join a channel where you plan to spend a lot of time, ask someone where you can find information about the channel bots. Using these bots can be both fun and informative.