Libera
They talk NetHack over many Internet Relay Chat networks, but Freenode is a good choice for those especially interested in spoilers. Freenode is a project of the Peer-Directed Projects Center, and is popular with both free open source communities and Wikia wikis.
To connect, use irc.freenode.net, port 6667. (Note that chat.freenode.net is the same as irc.freenode.net.) They have a web site at http://freenode.net; you might want to read about registering your IRC nick.
There is a lot of activity in #nethack. Some other IRC channels include #nethack-el, #slashem and #wikia. IRC is a real-time chat room, not a message board like rec.games.roguelike.nethack.
#nethack
This channel is about NetHack. It is far more busy than either #slashem and #wikia, with almost-constant discussion about how to play the game. NetHack, fount of infinite patches, wiki pages, and YASDs, actually interests many players well and often.
The nethack.alt.org community uses this channel, but so do other players. Sometimes when a player requests help, it is necessary to ask if the game is visible on NAO. A bot with the nick "Rodney" reports NAO deaths (and ascensions) to the channel. Rodney plays a constructive role by inspiring discussion and also by providing spoilers through its "learn database".
This NetHack wiki is also on-topic in the channel. It is appropriate to ask for help with the wiki in this channel and to discuss the wiki. Wikihack began in October 2005 with some help from users in this channel. There has been a link to this wiki from the /topic since about August 2006.
#nethack-el
The home page for nethack-el, the Emacs interface to NetHack, states that they have a #nethack-el channel on Freenode.
#slashem
This is a channel for SLASH'EM. The bot Pallas reports deaths on slashem.crash-override.net. The bot SLethe reports death in the other playground on slashem.crash-override.net. Pallas also reports on certain status changes to bugs in the SourceForge project for SLASH'EM. Unfortunately, the channel mostly contains idlers and does not supply ready chat.
#sporkhack
The home page for the variant called SporkHack states that they use the #sporkhack channel at Freenode.
#wikia
Wikia is the host of this wiki. Their channel has room for the Wikia staff, for several Wikians like you. Discussions include problems and configuration issues with Wikia wikis, questions about how to use the wikis, off-topic discussions, and discussions about Wikipedia, since no one ever seems to discuss Wikipedia in #wikipedia. However, #wikia is not the place to ask about topics specific to one wiki such as NetHack, because most users will not know anything about that.
You can look at Wikia:Freenode to learn more about this channel. There is a web portal, http://irc.wikia.com, that brings you into #wikia using a web browser, even without an IRC client.
Links
- Wiki:
- Wikia:c:Internet:Freenode more-general info
- Wikia:Freenode Central Wikia page about Freenode
- http://freenode.net web site of Freenode
