User talk:Kmattingly2

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet text messaging or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums, called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message as well as chat and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client. IRC was created by Jarkko Oikarinen in August 1988 to replace a program called MUT (MultiUser Talk). IRC was used to report on the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt throughout a media blackout. It was previously used in a similar fashion during the Gulf War. Channels are chat rooms that focus on a specific topic. Most IRC clients require commands to be preceded by a slash ("/"). Angle brackets ("<" and ">") denote what's placed in the encapsulated field, not a literal part of the command. Arguments encapsulated in square brackets ("[" and "]") are optional and override the command's defaults.