IRC

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is one of the primary avenues of communication for those involved at all levels in the Gentoo project. Since chat messages are sent and received almost instantly, using IRC quickens collaboration processes by providing a real-time environment for communication. IRC is also well suited for user support, but should only be relied upon when clear answers cannot be found by using a search engine, on the forums, mailing lists, or here on the wiki. Most Gentoo subprojects have specific channel on Freenode for inter-project communication. Project related channels are used for: tracking changes to source code, requesting and discussing (new) features, addressing various issues, real-time team meetings, internal support, and communication between Gentoo developers and the community.

Channels associated with the Gentoo project have a code of conduct that should be reviewed by each user before connecting to any channel. Navigate here to view a list of official Gentoo-related channels on Freenode.

Available software
The following table contains some of the IRC software available in Gentoo. Discover which client works best by emerging each one or by visiting each homepage:

Usage
For many who are used to messaging through a web browser (Facebook Messenger, Google Hangouts, etc.) or game client (Steam, League of Legends, Blizzard, etc) using a program designed specifically for chatting may seem odd. Learning can be especially challenging when attempting to use a text-mode (CLI) client like Irssi or WeeChat. IRC can be tricky to learn because there are many associated, sometimes entirely new, concepts that should be covered in order to prepare users to communicate effectively. For this reason the IRC guide has been written. Head over there for in-depth information on many IRC related topics. Also see the External resources section below.

Bot
The IRC bot Willikins is available on many Gentoo channels and also in a private query.

Spam protection
In order to prevent private message spam on IRC from unregistered users, one can set user modes +g or +R.

Alice wants to ignore private messages from users who are not identified, but wants to get an information that someone wanted to send a message to Alice. Alice can decide to receive messages with the /accept command: /mode alice +g

Alice wants to ignore private messages from users who are not identified totally:

/mode alice +R

External resources

 * https://gentoo.org/get-involved/irc-channels/
 * https://www.irchelp.org/ - A site dedicated to helping users understand IRC.
 * https://freenode.net/ - The largest IRC network providing discussion facilities for the Free and Open Source Software communities, not-for-profit organizations, and related communities.
 * https://freenode.net/kb/answer/usermodes - Freenode article on user modes
 * https://gchat.gentooligans.com/ - The behavior policy of the channel (deprecated by the Code of Conduct).