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+# IRC Etiquette
+
+IRC is the oldest internet chat system, and as such, it has more time than any
+other to develop its internal culture and nuances of etiquette. This may be
+intimidating to new users, so we've set up this guide to help you avoid making a
+potential faux paus.
+
+Note that the official SourceHut IRC channels have a culture of tolerance for
+users who may not be familiar with IRC's norms. Users on our channels are
+encouraged to be patient with new IRC users, so don't worry too much about
+making mistakes. We will correct your errors, so that you won't make them
+elsewhere, but we will be friendly about it.
+
+## Basics of IRC
+
+IRC is organized into *networks*, which are themselves made of *servers* and
+have a discrete universe of *users* and *channels*. [Libera Chat][0] is a
+popular IRC network. When you connect to a network, you can "join" channels to
+participate in them with other users by using the "/join #*channel*" command.
+You can also speak directly to other users with "/msg *user* hi *user*, ...",
+but note that it is considered impolite to message a stranger directly without
+getting their permission first.
+
+[0]: https://libera.chat
+
+IRC is a plain-text system. There is little to no inline styles, message quoting
+or threading, inline multimedia, or long messages. And we like it this way! Try
+to embrace these constraints as you participate on IRC: little workarounds like
+\[inline markdown\](https://example.org) are considered poor taste.
+
+IRC can be a social place, but more often it is a tool being used to get
+something done. Most IRC channels are *on-topic*, which means that they are
+based around a specific topic and discourage discussion on other topics. You can
+find the topic for a channel with the "/topic" command, which will also often
+include things like channel rules and other resources like documentation and
+mailing lists. Read the topic!
+
+## How to get answers
+
+Many people go to IRC to get a question or questions answered, but a lot of
+users go about this in an unproductive way. Here are some tips to get your
+question answered.
+
+First, **immediately state your question in detail**. Do not say, "hi, is there
+anyone around?" or "can anyone help me with a JavaScript problem?" Instead, say
+"hi, I have an issue with using Array.prototype.map in my JavaScript problem."
+Elaborate with as much detail as you can without waiting for someone to answer.
+Be polite, but detailed and brief. Don't start by chatting about the weather if
+what you ultimately want is to figure out a bug with some program.
+
+Once you ask your question, **be prepared to wait**. Not everyone is paying
+attention right away, or another discussion might be underway, or the right
+person to answer your question is offline at the moment. You might end up
+waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours in some cases. If you end up
+waiting longer than you wanted to, it might be wise to move to another medium
+(such as an email to the appropriate mailing list). Don't repeat your question
+over and over again: be patient. If it's been a while and the discussion has
+moved on, you may politely re-state your question, but do this too much and you
+will start annoying others.
+
+While you're waiting, **do your research**. Keep working on the problem
+yourself, keep digging through search engines and documentation and come back to
+report progress as you discover more information. You should do your research
+prior to asking as well: if you have a question which could easily be answered
+by a quick reading of the documentation, you will be wasting everyone's time by
+asking it. Also, if you find the solution to your problem in the course of your
+own research, make sure to let the channel know the answer, too, so they can
+stop looking into it themselves.
+
+Finally, **remember the human**. Be polite and respectful to others, especially
+to others from whom you expect help or advice. No one owes you anything, and
+demanding it from them, no matter how badly you want it, is going to get you
+banned from the chat. Remember to thank anyone who offers you their kindness and
+help, and respect the instructions of the moderators (you can tell who they are
+because they will typically have an "@" symbol next to their name). Presume good
+faith, and don't mistake brevity for discourtesy: on IRC, brevity *is* a
+courtesy.
+
+## How to get someone's attention
+
+You can get a specific person's attention by "highlighting" them (also known as
+"mentioning" or "pinging" the person): simply use their name, and their client
+will notify them. It is not necessary (or encouraged) to use an @ symbol. Note
+that many clients will "tab complete" usernames if you start typing them and
+press "tab".
+
+It is encouraged to include enough details in the highlight for the user to
+understand it out of context, if they see the notification later.
+
+*Good*
+
+```
+<sircmpwn> minus: can you reboot the production server?
+```
+
+*Bad*
+
+```
+<sircmpwn> the production server needs to be rebooted
+<sircmpwn> ping minus
+```
+
+Please do not highlight someone unless you need their attention *in particular*:
+there are often many other people on the channel who can help you with a
+problem, and the operators or project leaders are probably overwhelmed.
+
+## Quoting other users
+
+It is not usually necessary to quote someone to reply to them: simply state your
+message and the natural flow of the conversation will generally make it obvious
+that you're replying to someone. This is often true even if there are several
+ongoing conversations at once. Often you can reply to someone without quoting by
+highlighting them.
+
+However, if the conversation has moved on, or you feel that it's necessary to
+disambiguate your comment, you can quote someone by writing their comment as ">
+*quoted text*", then, on a new line, adding your message.
+
+*Example*
+
+```
+<minus> it's pretty rainy out today
+[...5 minutes of unrelated conversation...]
+<sircmpwn> >it's pretty rainy out today
+<sircmpwn> minus: it's pretty sunny here in Amsterdam
+```
+
+## Don't paste lots of text into the chat
+
+As a rule of thumb, do not post more than 3 lines of text at once into the chat.
+Doing so is strongly frowned upon and is likely to get you banned from the
+channel. If you have a lot of text to share, drop it on [paste.sr.ht] and share
+the link instead.
+
+[paste.sr.ht]: https://paste.sr.ht
+
+## Various etiquette tips
+
+Here's a few miscellaneous tips:
+
+- Do not use the "SMS" writing style. It's spelled "you", not "u". IRC users
+  generally have a full-sized keyboard at their disposal and are expected to use
+  it, even if you happen to be on mobile.
+- Don't use "away nicks": do not change your nickname when you are offline,
+  instead use the /away command. chat.sr.ht will automatically set your away
+  status when you close all of your active clients.
+- Do not bring an IRC bot into someone else's channel without permission
+
+Various other helpful resources on IRC culture:
+
+- [My philosophy for productive instant messaging](https://drewdevault.com/2021/11/24/A-philosophy-for-instant-messaging.html)
+- [Getting help on IRC](https://workaround.org/getting-help-on-irc/)
+- [Ubuntu IRC guidelines](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/IRC/Guidelines)
+- [tilde.chat IRC guidelines](https://tilde.chat/wiki/etiquette)
+- [Julia Evans: How to ask good questions](https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/)
diff --git a/chat.sr.ht/index.md b/chat.sr.ht/index.md
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@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ on-screen to get started.
 
 We have a few additional guides for different audiences:
 
+- [Introduction to IRC etiquette](/chat.sr.ht/etiquette.md)
 - [Quick-start for experienced IRC users](/chat.sr.ht/quickstart.md)
 - [Using the IRC bouncer](/chat.sr.ht/bouncer-usage.md)
 - [Setting up an IRC channel for your project](/chat.sr.ht/channels.md)