Run IRC with M-x irc RET.

Messages:

Command	Description
/join CHANNEL	join CHANNEL
MSG	send a public message for everyone
NICK: MSG	send a public message for NICK
/query NICK	start a private conversation with NICK

Note. As for /query, “You don’t need to join any channels, if you just want to have one-to-one conversations with friends on the same network.” (Rcirc manual, 1.2)

To debug the client,

1. set the rcirc-debug-flag variable to t and
2. watch the *rcirc debug* buffer.

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