Getting started
on Service-Overtchat
You don’t need to install anything to chat. This page walks you through it, step by step, from your first connection to reserving a nickname, all the way to opening your own channel.
Chat right away, with nothing to install
The website’s chat talks to the IRC server from your browser, over an encrypted connection that the web server relays to it. It’s the quickest way in — and the password you type there goes through none of the website’s scripts: only that relay carries it, on the same machine.
Open the Chat page
Join the chat →. A short form asks for your age before letting you in — then the chat opens.
Choose a nickname
Type the nickname others will see you under. If someone has reserved it, you’ll need its password (path 3); otherwise, pick a free one.
Join a channel and talk
The channel list is on the left. Click, and write. A problem? The call button alerts an operator; insults and impersonation of staff are rejected outright by the server.
A regular IRC client works too. mIRC, HexChat, Irssi, or our desktop client OverScript all connect to the same network. The website’s chat is just one door among others — handy because it asks for nothing.
Reserve and protect your nickname
Nobody else can wear a reserved nickname: while you’re away, it stays yours. Two paths lead to the same result — one from IRC, the other from this website.
In one command
Connected under the nickname you want to reserve, send the service:
/msg OverNick REGISTER <network password>
Choose a strong password: it’s what will protect the nickname, and what you’ll give again to identify.
With the sign-up form
The Sign up page guides you: it reserves the nickname on the network and, if you wish, creates an account on the website to follow your requests.
The website password is separate from the network password. The network one protects your IRC nickname (OverNick REGISTER command). The website one, if you create a web account, only works on this website. Don’t mix them up — and don’t make them the same.
Coming back under your nickname — identifying
A reserved nickname is only protected once you have identified. Until you do, it isn’t yours yet on this connection. Identifying means proving the nickname really is yours.
From a client or the webchat — recommended
Send:
/msg OverNick IDENTIFY <network password>
The password goes to the IRC server over your connection: directly from a client, through the web server’s relay from the webchat — never through a website script. It’s the safest route.
From the website — convenient
The “Identify” form on the Sign up page asks for your nickname and your network password, provided you are already connected under that nickname (the service checks that you are present before opening the identification).
What the website does with your password. Through the form, the web server sees it just long enough to encrypt it for the bot — only the bot can open it, with its private key, and it erases it right away. The passwords themselves are stored as a salted, irreversible hash. If you would rather it not go through the website at all, identify from a client or the webchat.
Three wrong passwords lock the nickname. Three wrong attempts on the same nickname within 24 hours — through IDENTIFY, GHOST, DROP, SUPPRIME or the website form — lock it for 15 minutes; a repeat within 24 hours doubles the duration, up to 24 hours. During the lock, OverNick examines no attempt, not even a correct one. To lift it early: log in to your website account, or go through “forgotten password”; an operator can also lift it from the panel. The nickname’s owner is told by email, if an address is known.
Open your own channel
A channel of your own, with its own rules and operators: you request it, then run it from the website.
Make the request
The Request a channel page collects the channel’s name, its purpose and the nickname that will host it. A clear request, whose purpose respects the code of conduct, gets accepted all the faster.
Take charge of it
Once the channel is open, the restricted access area (at the bottom of the same page, with your nickname and its password) opens its administration to you: ranks, greeter bot, settings.
Uphold the rules
The channel rules say what applies everywhere; the rest is up to you. The automatic filters (banned words, anti-flood) are turned on channel by channel, at your request, by the network staff.
Once you’re comfortable
All the commands
Each service — nicknames, channels, network — answers by private message. The reference is on the Commands page.
The OverScript client
Our desktop client, designed for this network. Download it here; it is described alongside our bots.
Set up your own network
Everything you see can be installed on your own machine. The step-by-step installation guide starts from scratch.
A doubt, an abuse, a question? The chat’s call button alerts an operator live, and the Contact page is open for everything else.