"Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
Albert Einstein

Commands

In IRC, all commands begin with a /

There are lots of commands available on IRC, but for a start, you need only know the essentials.

/list	list all the channels on the server
/join #channelname	join your chosen channel
/quit	get out of IRC completely

To "talk' in IRC once you've joined a channel, type anything without a / at the beginning. Hit return, and what ever you've typed will immediately appear to all the users in your channel. It is guaranteed in IRC that you will only notice any spelling mistakes after you've hit <enter>!

Depending on the IRC programme you're using, most of these commands (and many others) will be available from the menu.

Command	What it does
/help	A list of commands will be displayed.
/nick Ali	Change your nickname to Ali.
/list	This will list ALL the available channels. The list could be lengthy, you might get a more useful result with /list min 5 (only list channels with more than 5 people in them), or /list k* (only list channels that start with 'k').
/join #interlink	Join the channel interlink. If there's no such channel, this command will create one, with you as the operator.
Kia ora!	Once you've joined a channel, type anything without a / in front, and hit <enter> to talk.
/kick Dorko	In a channel where you're the operator (with the @ by your name), this will kick Dorko out. (Use with great restraint of course!).
/who	List the nicknames of who's in this channel.
/whois Ali	Gives you the real name of the person whose nickname is Ali.
/me	Used to convey an action being committed, eg /me tickles Murray ; ) would be displayed to others on the channel as /Ali tickles Murray ; )
/msg Jill	Send a message only to the person on your channel using the nickname Jill.
/leave #interlink	Use this if you want to leave the channel interlink, but do not want to get out of the IRC server you are connected to. You could then use the /list command to find another channel of interest.
/QUIT or /exit or /signoff	To get out of IRC completely. If you like, you can type a reason, which will be displayed to others in your channel after you go, eg /QUIT dinner time