IRC and Runescape

Apparently, I've been quite ignorant all these years in regards to IRC and it's role in Runescape community. I am mostly playing "solo", converse with other players on the streets and sometimes go into Canting Away clan chat - and that's the extend of my "chatting" in Runescape. It may change now, thanks to folks from Impact IRC bot project who were kind and patient enough to walk me through the basics and explain what it is and why it is there :)

I heard about IRC chats before, but was quick to dismiss them from my mind, plus I was under impression that clan chats made external chats pretty much obsolete. What I didn't realize was that IRC does not only accommodate chatting, but also provides a platform for IRC Runescape Bots. And these bots are immensely powerful and useful. And fascinating!

For those who (like me) didn't have previous experience with IRC Runescape bots, don't confuse them with Runescape bots (I know, the names are kind of similar). Runescape bots are there for cheating inside the game. IRC Runescape bots are there to provide Runescape related information to players inside IRC chats. Two completely different things, despite their naming similarities.

Let me give you an example of a command for an IRC Runescape bot (again I used Impact here)

Imagine going through the Lumbridge dungeon and bumping into a pair of Giant Frogs. What are they? Should you stop and kill a few? A quick command in IRC: !Drops Giant Frog and here we go:

(11:12:07) -Impact- × (Drops): NPC: Giant Frog (P2P) | (Drops) Gold: 2-37; 100%: Big bones; Weapons: Mithril spear; Armour: Adamant boots; Runes: Blood(1), Nature(1,3,9), Cosmic(5), Iron(22), Steel(45); Misc: Giant frog legs, Spinach roll, Coal, Long bone, Curved bone

So... Let it hop! :)

Staff like that. You can see more Impact commands here.

Is Impact the only IRC Runescape bot out there? Not at all. There are others too. RuneScript IRC bot is probably the most used one, but I am yet to try it.
As far as tools go, SwiftKit users perhaps have the easiest way to get started, as there is an embedded and configured IRC client. Otherwise, mIRC is a way to go (and you'll need to join SwiftIRC network to get into Runescape channels, see "how-to-start" in here).

Finally, I want to show a few quotes from Runescape players who are using IRC (again, thanks to Impact team for furnishing them).

"rs chat kinda blows, on here you can talk and do stuff like share pics without filters"

"People use IRC because it is a form of instant messaging, which is obviously very popular. People can communicate from all over the world in chat rooms called channels. Anyone can make a number of channels. SwiftIRC is a network for RS, and a lot of people use it to chat because they have the freedom to talk without word censors and fear of being reported. IRC clients such as mIRC supports a powerful scripting language, which people have used to create IRC bots like Impact that help people with their day to day RS activities."

"because its a quick source and easy to contact players of RS"

"Personally I use IRC because of a client called SwiftKit for RuneScape, which has an IRC client built into it. One day about 3 years ago I decided to find out what it was, I connected, chatted with some people, and made quite a few friends. It's a fun way to get to know people and the bots are very convenient to get information from. It's just a fun experience, everyone has a different one, some people don't like it, but I'd highly advise giving it a try, you never know what you'll find out!"

Don't know if I convinced anybody to give Runescape IRC bots a try, but I am definitely going to explore this area myself.