In order to get on IRC, you need an IRC client. If you're on a PC, I reccomend mIRC. It's simple and easy to use, yet very powerful when combined with a good script like IDTScript. Once you're all set up, simply pick a server, such as thepeel.inside3d.net, and you're off.

There are a lot of cool channels to visit. All of the ones I'm mentioning are on Inside3D (server thepeel.inside3d.net). Some of the popular hangouts are #gloom, the official channel for Gloom, a quake2 mod made by Team Reaction (they're based on Inside3D), #jailbreak, the official chan for another Team Reaction mod, and #coders, a channel for general coding discussion. You might also want to check are #3ddr (my channel :-) ), #AQ2General (an Action Quake2 channel, I believe), or #eggdrop, for help with eggdrop bots.

#3ddr is a channel that I had Q access in for some reason. Q was 3DNet's channel bot, but even when I moved to Inside3D, I kept the channel around. It's a general gaming chat channel, nothing especially unique. It's populated by me (QID|YDL), ChanServ, my bot (blink), and shinji (a coding guy I know). Other people stop by occasionally, mostly asking for help with my script or bot, since the discussion is mostly in #coders or #gloom.

1. no abusing the bot
2. no flooding
3. no advertising
4. no general lameness (you'll know when you're violating this rule)
5. no op begging