[IRC] The basic unit of discussion on IRC.
Once one joins a channel, everything one types is read by others on that
channel. Channels are named with strings that begin with a ‘#’
sign and can have topic descriptions (which are generally irrelevant to the
actual subject of discussion). Some notable channels are #initgame
, #hottub
,
callahans
, and #report
. At times of international crisis, #report
has hundreds of members, some of whom take
turns listening to various news services and typing in summaries of the
news, or in some cases, giving first-hand accounts of the action (e.g.,
Scud missile attacks in Tel Aviv during the Gulf War in 1991).