irc.freenode.net#xyz

I've never been into irc or icq when they are in their hottest many years back, as i just dismissed them as some passing trendy-thing-to-do among my youthful peers. And it isn't likely for me to use irc if not for the repeated mentioning of irc.freenode.net#xyz (where #xyz can be any chat room out there) on many of the open-source projects i've visited.

I'm using debian linux with the almighty pidgin, which supports almost all im protocols under the sun. Yet i asked myself 'how the hack am i going to start chatting in irc.freenode.net#xyz ?!'. Well in turns out to be pretty easy. The keys steps can be summarized as:

1. in new account setup, set the irc server as irc.freenode.net
2. use your preferred user name (provided it doesn't conflict with any existing) but don't set ur passwd yet
   
3. in the 'irc.freenode.net' window, use '/msg NickServ REGISTER [password] [email] to update ur password and email
4. check ur email and follow the verification instruction
5. update ur passwd in your account setup
6. add new chat '#xyz'
   

The above is enough to remind me of what to do next time, just in case my memory fails me. See here if you need more details :]