So, you want to get on the chat? To do that, you might want to first know what you're connecting to. It's called IRC, and you can read more about it on Wikipedia.

If you have no idea what IRC is and are a newbie, feel free to click the button below to open a new window to chat in. Otherwise, if you have a client and know what you're doing, then feel free to connect with these details and skip ahead to the next chapter.

For those who aren't as familiar, you might've noticed the term "client." There exists a client for almost every OS existent, popular ones include Hexchat (free) and mIRC (paid), and if you become a regular to IRC, you'll eventually want to get a client.

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Once you've connected, you're going to want to change your nickname, to do this do /nick [username], of course removing the brackets and replacing "username" with your desired username.

There are many accepted rules to being on IRC, one such courtesy is when talking to somebody directly, to append their nickname at the beginning of the message.

Most clients available have username auto-complete, so you should only need to type the first few letters then be able to hit the [tab] key and it should finish the username for you, then when you send the message, they will receive a notification.

The same applies to you, if you are mentioned in a message, your client should beep or show a flashing notification.

If you would like to send a personal message, to your internet lover per se, that only that specific user can see, all you need to do is
/msg [username] Hey gurl

So you're all happy on IRC, everything is sunshine and rainbows. Let's say your nick is John. You leave for an hour to go shopping with your besties, however when you come back, you try and join with the nick John, and oh noes! It's taken!

That's what NickServ is for! NickServ is a service provided by the IRC network (the people that run the chat service), which helps user identify themselves, and keeps other people from stealing your name.

It does this by having you register your name with a password and an email, and any time somebody connects with your name (including you), it reqires them to enter your password to allow them to continue to use that nickname.

To register a nickname, all you need to do is:
/msg nickserv register [password] [email]
Replace password and email respectively, and remove the brackets... and you're done!

NickServ should now have sent an email asking you to verify the registration, all you need to do is follow the instructions in the email to finish the registration process.

Now, take note, from now on, once you connect with your name, you're going to need to enter your password, you can do this by doing:
/msg nickserv identify [password]
Once again, remove the brackets and replace password with your password. And that's it!

You're logged in. Most clients have an option to automatically log you in with NickServ, including the web client, just click the services checkbox and enter your password.

SLAPASS stands for Sex, Location, Age, Picture, Aspirations or Goals, Sexuality, and Starsign.

What's this information used for? It's so that others in the chat can know who you are. All they need to do is !info [username] and it gives them that user's SLAPASS information. If you don't want to have one, and stay anonymous, that's fine.

But if you do want to, just do the following command in the chat:
!add Sex / Location / Age / Picture / Aspirations / Sexuality / Starsign
That will add your information and you should get a confirming message saying that the data was saved.

Note, when adding your information, make sure the "/" have spaces around them. This makes it easier for users to click your photo link.