IRC Channel #ComicBooks Frequently Asked Questions Version 0.7.0 Written by Jason Bourgeois (foenix@flamingtelepaths.net) With much taken and revised from the #Comics FAQ v3.0.0 Special thanks to Russ "Eagle" Albery, who kept that FAQ. This document is posted monthly to rec.arts.comics.info. It is also available via the web at: http://www.flamingtelepaths.net/comicbooks/comicbooksfaq.txt and via e-mail request from foenix@flamingtelepaths.net. Since many of the readers of this newsgroup are not familiar with IRC, this document opens with a basic introduction to IRC as a whole, duplicating information available elsewhere. If you are already familiar with IRC, you can skip to the third section. In a newsreader with search capability, search for the string "3.1 " twice. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Table of Contents =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1 Introduction to IRC 1.1 What is IRC? 1.2 How does IRC work? 1.3 How do I get on IRC? 1.4 Where can I get more information? 2 Using IRC 2.1 How do I talk to people? 2.2 What is a "nick" and how do I get one? 2.3 How do I tell who is here/who people are? 2.4 People are here but they aren't saying anything. Why? 2.5 What is lag? What is a netsplit? 2.6 What other channels are there? 2.7 What is a mode change? What are ops? 2.8 Someone is bothering me. How do I get rid of them? 3 Channel #ComicBooks 3.1 What is the purpose of #ComicsBooks? 3.2 Who runs #ComicBooks? 3.3 What's the history of #ComicBooks? 3.4 What is the policy for dealing with problems? 3.5 How do I get ops on #ComicBooks? 3.6 Comic scans. 3.6.1 Do you trade comics here? 3.6.2 Can I trade comics here? 3.6.3 Do you know where I can? 3.7 Can you tell me how much this comic is worth? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Introduction -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 1.1 What is IRC? IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It allows a large number of people to "talk" to each other in real time, similar to AIM, Yahoo Messenger, MSN Messenger, etc except with many people at once. IRC is very similar to the conversation part of a MUD or MUSH. The interface for IRC is different than that of a MU*, however, and there are far more people on IRC at one time than there are on a MU*. 1.2 How does IRC work? IRC is based on a client/server model. That means an IRC network consists of a number of server computers that send messages to each other. In order to talk on IRC, you have to connect to one of these servers. The program that makes this connection for you is called a client. It is possible to connect directly to a server using telnet, but the interface is horrible, there are a lot of things you can't do, and it is extremely complicated. For all practical purposes, IRC requires a client. Note that not all IRC servers are linked together into the same network. The main IRC network, often called EFnet or mainstream IRC, has become quite large over the years and has had many other problems with annoying users and server administrators, causing several other networks to be formed. Examples include Undernet (one of the largest), LinuxNet (for Linux discussion), and the isolated server chiron.cs.uregina.ca (home to several IRC games). The #ComicBooks channel, however, is on DALnet. 1.3 How do I get on IRC? There are several options available to you, depending on what kind of system you're running. As well as covered much better in other files, but I'll cover the basics here. If you are on a unix account, just try typing 'irc' at the prompt. If you are using a Windows machine, you can download from a choice of several clients. All are available for download. Probably the number one client is mIRC, available from http://www.mirc.com/. There is also Pirch, available at http://www.pirch.com/, Trillian, a multiplatform program that can handle IRC, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and many others, from http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/, and many many more. For Mac users, there is ircle, which you can get at http://www.ircle.com/, and a few others. Search http://www.tucows.com for both Windows and Mac, as well as Linux, and several other operating systems, to see if there is anything else you can use. One other note on this: if your site has banned IRC for some reason, please do not attempt to get around that ban. You can talk to your sysadmins and ask them why IRC is banned, and maybe change their minds, but getting on IRC despite a ban will only get you in trouble. 1.4 Where can I get more information? For more complete information on IRC, both on how to get on and on how to use it (although I touch on some of that in the next section), look in the /irc/support directory of cs-ftp.bu.edu. The alt.irc FAQ provides better information on how to get on IRC, and the IRC Primer is an *extremely* good (although long) guide to using IRC. You can also ask on alt.irc or alt.irc.questions (although be warned -- all alt.irc.* groups have a very high flame content and you may well be flamed for asking even simple questions). =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Using IRC -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 2.1 How do I talk to people? Once you get on IRC, you will be in the area called "limbo." This is where you are when you aren't on any channels. All discussion on IRC is broken up into channels, each vaguely centered around a particular topic (although much more loosely than Usenet). The first thing you will want to do is join a channel. Commands in IRC start with a / anything you type that does not begin with a / will be sent to your current channel. The command to join a channel is /join (/join #ComicBooks for example). All channel names (with one minor exception) begin with #. Once you are on a channel, everything you type will be shown to everyone else on the channel when you hit Enter, and you will see everything they type. To leave a channel, type /part . To leave IRC, type /quit (if you want to send a message to the channel when you quit, you can type /quit ). /help will give you the on-line help. As well sending messages directly, people on IRC will often "pose." Those messages look like this: * Foenix writes an IRC FAQ. (Foenix is my nick, the name I go by on IRC. More on nicks later.) To send these kinds of messages, type /me . For example, I would type: "/me writes an IRC FAQ." to send the above message. Finally, you can also send private messages to people. To do this, type /msg . Only the person the message is sent to will see it. For example, if I typed /msg bob Hello!, Bob would see: *Foenix* Hello! Or depending on the client, a seperate window would pop up, and/or a new button next to the channel button, with "Foenix" on it. Note that IRC /msgs are not completely secure, so it is not a good idea to send things like passwords via /msg. 2.2 What is a "nick" and how do I get one? If you are on IRC, you already have one. A nick is the name that other people see before your messages to the channel, and the name they use to send you private messages. The default nick is your username. If you want to use a different nick, type /nick . If the server tells you that you have specified an invalid nick, then someone else on IRC is already using that nick and you have to pick a different one. Only one person at a time can use a nick. To use the same nick each time you are on IRC, most of the programs available allow you to put the nick you wish to default to, and often a secondary choice as well. If you wish to keep other people from using your nick, once you have decided upon one, there is a program called NickServ you can use. This is something the folks behind DALnet run, and all you have to do is /msg NickServ@service.dal.net reigster and it will send to the e-mail address a confirmation code. This nick will remain yours as long as you keep coming online with that nick. If the nick does not appear for thirty days, it will become unregistered and up for grabs. NOTE: Currently, due to recent attacks, DALnet is not unregistering nicks after 30 days. 2.3 How do I tell who is here/who people are? You will see a list of everyone on the channel when you join, and in most of the programs, will remain visible to you at all times.. You can also get a list of everyone on a channel by typing /who . As well as listing all the nicks, this will also list their addresses (since people change nicks regularly, it is easiest to identify people by their addresses). To get more information about a particular person, type /whois . This will tell you which channels they are on and what IRC server they are using. 2.4 People are here but they aren't saying anything. Why? There are a lot of reasons why a person on a channel may not be saying anything. Often people will open a window to IRC while they are doing something else and only check it every few minutes. They may also be on more than one channel at once and are busy talking somewhere else. Finally, there might be some kind of network problem. Try typing /whois . If they are on more than one channel, that will tell you. It will also show you if they are marked as away. (To mark yourself as away, type /away . That message will be shown when someone uses /whois or tries to /msg you. It is a good idea to mark yourself as away when you aren't watching IRC so people won't get frustrated trying to talk to you.) If you type /whois , repeating the same nick twice (for example, /whois Foenix Foenix), you will also see the person's idle time. If they have been idle for more than 10 minutes, they probably aren't watching. 2.5 What is lag? What is a netsplit? IRC relies on the connections between the servers, and the connections or the servers can slow down or fail. If the person you are talking to is not responding, or if they are talking about things you said several minutes ago, then they might be "lagged." In other words, it is taking some time for message to get from your server to their server. To check this, type /ctcp ping. This will tell you the amount of time it takes to send a message to the other person and get a reply back. (Some people's clients do not support /ping and this command will give them error messages. If someone asks you not to /ping them, please stop.) Sometimes the connections between servers can fail completely. This is called a netsplit, since it effectively divides IRC into two separate networks (one on each side of the failed connection). If you see a signoff message with two computer names in it like this: *** Signoff: Foenix (tsunami.ma.us.dal.net sniper.tx.us.dal.net) then there has been a netsplit. This message means that the connection between tsunami.ma.us.dal.net and sniper.tx.us.dal.net has failed. To the people on each side of the netsplit, it looks like the people on the other side have left. For example, if Alan saw the message above, I (Foenix) would see: *** Signoff: Alan (sniper.tx.us.dal.net tsunami.ma.us.dal.net) The only things to do about a netsplit is get on another server, or wait; it will fix itself eventually. 2.6 What other channels are there? Lots. There's no way I can list more than just a few of them. Here are a few that are related to #comics or that you may find interesting: #subcafe For fanfiction writers and readers only. #CollectorTimes The official channel for the Collector Times Online. #X-Fan The official channel for the X-Fan website, dealing more with the X-Men corner of Marvel. To get a list of channels, type /list. You do *not* want to use this command without qualifiers; there are *lots* of channels and the list will scroll for some time. The best qualifier is -min; this lets you specify the minimum number of people on the channel. For example, /list -min 5 will only show you the channels with 5 or more people. Some channels will look like a bunch of garbage characters. Thesechannels are in a foreign language with a different alphabet; in order to read them, you will need to set your translation (/help set translation for more information). IRC was invented in Finland and is used world-wide, so many of the channels are not in English. 2.7 What is a mode change? What are ops? A person with "ops" on a channel is a channel operator, and they will have a @ next to their nickname in /who listings and the nickname list. This means that they can set various things about a channel, like make it private or invite-only, ban people from the channel, and kick people off the channel. These settings are called modes, and changing them is called a mode change. Ops causes huge numbers of problems on IRC, as people fight over the control of channels and kick each other off. Frequent mode changes and fights over ops are heavily frowned upon on #ComicBooks; see later questions. 2.8 Someone is bothering me. How do I get rid of them? The /ignore command will filter out any messages from a particular person. If someone is bothering you or harassing you, type /ignore all where is their nick. If they continue to pester you by changing their nick, type /ignore
all where
is their address (as shown by /whois). You can use wildcards like * and ? in
. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Channel #ComicBooks -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= 3.1 What is the purpose of #ComicBooks? #ComicBooks is for discussing anything related to comics. A lot of readers of rac.* meet on IRC on channel #ComicBooks to talk about the same topics as covered by rac.*, as well as many other things. #ComicBooks is also for just general chit-chat among the regulars and anyone else who wanders by; we make little effort to confine ourselves to comics. IRC conversations tend to be less thought-out and more rambling than newsgroup threads because they are in real time, and we often end up talking about something totally unrelated to comics. There are some things #ComicBooks is definitely *not* for, however. That includes any kind of explicit discussion (not related to comics), insults, random topics totally unrelated to comics that no one is interested in talking about, and other things that the other people on the channel find annoying. The best thing to do is just listen for a while and get the feel of what everyone is talking about and join in. 3.2 Who runs #ComicBooks? #ComicBooks is run by consensus. The object is to make the channel useful and friendly for as many people as possible, with a minimum of set rules. The only basic rule is don't do something that is annoying everyone else on the channel. 3.3 What is the history of #ComicBooks? I can only go so far back on this one... #ComicBooks' history began way back on EFnet, as #Comics. This channel became the official IRC channel of the Rec.Arts.Comics.* heirarchy of newsgroups, where folks from all over would come by and chat about any old thing, all bound together by theircommon interest, comicbooks. Over time, some friction grew, and there was a split in the channel, and one group of folks formed #ComicBooks, which slowly took up the mantle of being the official Comics IRC channel, as #Comics slowly drifted off quietly. Even more friction grew, and the vast majority of folks on #ComicBooks left, eventually finding their way over to DALnet, after about two years wandering around various parts of IRC. That brings us more or less up to date, with #ComicBooks being back open for buisness, and once again hoping to be the official comics discussion forum on the internet. 3.4 What is the policy for dealing with troublemakers? People who attempt to take over the channel so that they can control it, who insult people on the channel, who flood (send huge amounts of stuff to the channel to prevent other people from talking), or who consistantly annoy everyone on the channel can be kicked off or even banned from #ComicBooks. Many of the regulars, enough that one should be on #ComicBooks most of the time, can use their ops to kick and ban people from the channel. Note the criteria above. A person annoying *you*, personally, is not a reason to kick them off the channel. Just use /ignore, as mentioned in an earlier answer. Only people who are interfering with conversations on the channel, annoying *everyone*, or making the channel impossible to use will be kicked. Also, regulars will be given more leeway than new people. This is a double standard, I know, but it is necessary because the *last* thing that anyone needs is to have regulars fighting over who controls the channel, when it should be a consensus of everyone. 3.5 How can I get ops on #ComicBooks? We really don't need more people who can get ops on #ComicBooks. The only need for ops is to remove troublemakers from the channel and fix any problems that we may have from someone trying to take it over. That being said, if you're a regular on the channel (for three months or more) and there have been problems while you were there and no one who could kick and ban was, send me e-mail at foenix@flamingtelepaths.net. The topic can be changed by anyone, so there is no need for the average user to worry about it (and trust me, it's more trouble than it's worth usually). 3.6.1 Do you trade scans on this channel? Short answer: NO. And don't ask. Long answer: No, this is a discussion channel only. Dalnet's Acceptable Use Policy (http://www.dal.net/aup) prohibits channels that have as their primary purpose the trading of files. And even if they didn't, we would. Go buy the comic already! 3.6.2 Can't I just ask if someone has a scan I want? Or run my fserv in the background? Sure you can. And we can kick/ban you too. This channel is a DISCUSSION forum. It is not for comic trading. I could go off on a long rant about it, but will spare everyone the tedium. We're not against trading files in general, but this channel is NOT, I repeat NOT FOR THE TRADING OF COMICS. Can we make this any clearer? 3.6.3 Do you know where I can find any comic scan trading places? NO. We actually buy our comics. We can direct you to comic store locators, and online stores, but we do not know where you can aquire comic scans. Save us the trouble and don't ask. 3.7 I've got this comicbook here, can you guys tell me how much it's worth? Any comic is worth how much you can get somebody to pay for it. ;-) Comicbook values are not only based on the age, scarcity, content, and title of the issue, they're also highly dependent on the condition the comic is in. So, without seeing the book, no one can give you a value. Here's a very brief rundown on the different grades used for comic condition, and what each one means: Mint (M) - Flawless, with no surface wear visible at all on the cover. Interior pages are white, with no corner blunting or loose staples. There are no comics in circulation that are really in this grade. Near Mint (NM) - No vivble surface wear, only the most minor printing or bindery defects allowed. Cover inks are bright and reflective with no fingerprints. Cover inks are bright and highly reflective. The best grade that a "circulated" comic can be in. Very Fine (VF) - Minor surface wear visible, may have slight blunting or rounding of the edges. Paper may be off-white or slightly tan, but should still be supple and evenly colored. Cover inks are bright with high to moderate reflectivity. Fine (F or FN) - Slight surface wear and stress marks along the spine from reading. Cover inks may show a significant drecrease in reflectivity. Very Good (VG) - This is the condition most used comics are in. Shows some wear, and minor creasing is allowed on the cover. A small (no larger than 1/4 ") triangle may be missing from the cover, and interior pages may have some small tears and folds, but all must be intact and still attached to the spine. Page color may have some browning, but the paper cannot be brittle. Good (G) - This is the lowest grade that is still considered collectable. All the pages and the cover muct be present and attached, although small rips and even small pieces missing from the edges of the interior pages are allowed, and the cover may be loose. The cover may be scuffed, abraded, or lightly soiled. Interior pages may be discolored, but not brittle, and everything much be readable. Fair (F) - A ragged, unattractive comic. All the pages are present, although there may be pieces missing. Cover may be split along the spine and partially detatched, but no more than 1/12 of it may be missing. Coupons may be missing from the cover, back cover, or interior pages. (If any coupons are missing the comic is automatically dropped to Fair, no matter what the condition might be otherwise.) Paper may be slightly brittle around the edges, but not in the center. Poor (P) - Yuck. The comic may be mildewed, have had coffee or other liquids spilled on it, and the dog may have even peed on it. These comics usually smell bad. No collectable value whatsoever. A comic may be dropped to this grade if the interior pages are significantly brittle. Comics in this state of brittleness will often fall apart when you examine them. Take a good look at your comic, grade it, then knock off one grade because everyone overgrades at first, especially if it's your own comic. Then, go to a bookstore and look for a copy of Wizard magazine, which publishes a monthly price guide. Wizard only prints the values of the most common and/or newer titles, so if your comic is older or more obscure, if might not be listed. Wizard also only lists the NM value. The Overstreet Guide to Comics is published yearly, contains nearly every comic ever made, and also lists values from VG to NM. Overtsreet is also preferred by most dealers and serious collectors. You should be able to find a copy in a bookstore or library. Look up the value of your comic in it's current condition, then take 50% of that if it's Overstreet, or 30% if it's Wizard. That's what a comic shop or professional dealer will pay you. Sorry to break the bad news. If you're buying or collecting comics for the investment value, instead of for love of reading, you're going to be miserably disappointed. A good resource for more information about grading comics can be found here: http://www.comiclink.com/condition.htm