The Internet Relay Chat (aka IRC) channel is a place for people to textually chat in real-time. It is recommended, but by no means required, that you learn what IRC is by briefly reading some of the IRC Frequently Asked Questions or The IRC Prelude.
Connecting
The Lojban IRC channel is on the Freenode IRC network. It is recommended that you register your nickname with Freenode, using the nickname setup instructions.
New to IRC?
If you don't have an IRC client, you can use a web interface:
The freenode interface is recommended because it is more stable and featureful.
Simply enter the chat nickname, IRC Chat, and click "Connect". Easy! Click on the channel you want (tabs on the top of the page), and type your text in the text bar - the last line at the bottom of the chat page. Instructions to IRC are preceded with "/". First, identify yourself with the instruction "/nick name" where "name" is any nickname of your choice. When you decide to quit, type "/quit".
Familiar with IRC?
Use irc.lojban.org or irc.freenode.net for the server, port 6667. The channel is #lojban. Registering with NickServ is recommended.
Conduct
There are almost always more than 70 people connected, but most of the time, they'll be idle. Say coi, hit Enter and wait. Get a soda. Practice your vocabulary. But be patient. Dedicated IRC'ers don't sit in front of the computer 24/7 waiting to respond within 10 seconds of everything said. Think of it as sort of a fast moving message board.
You might also have a look at the IRC cheat sheet, which contains a list of translations of frequently used expressions.
Rules
Please speak in Lojban or about Lojban.
Just behave and be respectful, don't intentionally try to annoy others. You'll be warned if you're misbehaving, and if you continue you can be kicked from the channel or even banned. Don't worry though, usually you'll only annoy people if you're actively trying.
Logs
Furthermore, thanks to help from Theodore Reed and Jordan DeLong, there are now public logs of the lojbanic portions of the IRC channel.
Note: the logs are filtered so that they contain only lojbanic text. However, you might still be offended by the things discussed there. If you are, that's your problem and the LLG explicitly disclaims responsibility for anything said on the IRC channel, including by members or officers of the LLG.
Furthermore, no guarantee is made as to the correctness of the Lojban therein.
Discussion Topics
A list of interesting discussion topics, about the nature of the language, is being actively maintained. The discussions are presented as is, copied from the IRC channel:
- The Definition of {gi} (test)
- Using Undefined Gismu as Names (unconcluded)
- Relative Clauses with Cmevla
- A Vague PA (unconcluded)
- The Definition of {vo'a}
- Using Punctuation Marks as a Visual Aid
- The Difference Between Logical and Non-Logical Connectives
- Quoting Vowels
- Implied {co'e} and Question Answering/Avoiding (unconcluded)
- Lojban Versions and Change Scripts (unconcluded)
- A Cmavo for "Unspecific Previously-Uttered Bridi
- Dotside or Not?
- A Place for Official Definitions
- Subsequent UI Cmavo (unconcluded)
- {jai} and {fai} for Other Places
- Unspecified Cmavo Instead of Medium
- Building Floors/Stories Numbering System
- Problems with Non-Lojban Quotes
- Sumti Places Requiring Sets
- Order of Seltau/Tertau
You are welcome to add to the list if you happen to witness an interesting discussion.