Editing IRC (section)

===Channels===
The basic means of communicating to a group of users in an established IRC session is through a ''[[chat room|channel]]''.<ref name="rfc 1459 3.2.2 to a group (channel)">{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 1459
|title=Internet Relay Chat Protocol
| sectionname = To a group (channel)
| section     = 3.2.2
| page        = 11
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref> Channels on a network can be displayed using the IRC command ''LIST'',<ref>{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 1459
|title=Internet Relay Chat Protocol
| sectionname = List message
| section     = 4.2.6
| page        = 24
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref> which lists all currently available channels that do not have the modes +s or +p set, on that particular network.

Users can ''join'' a channel using the ''JOIN'' command,<ref name="rfc 1459 4.2.1 join message">{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 1459
|title=Internet Relay Chat Protocol
| sectionname = Join message
| section     = 4.2.1
| page        = 19
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref> in most clients available as ''/join #channelname''. Messages sent to the joined channels are then relayed to all other users.<ref name="rfc 1459 3.2.2 to a group (channel)" />

Channels that are available across an entire IRC network are prefixed with a '#', while those local to a server use '&'.<ref>{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 2811
|title=Internet Relay Chat: Channel Management
| sectionname = Channel Scope
| section     = 2.2
| pages       = 3 – 4
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref> Other less common channel types include '+' channels—'modeless' channels without operators<ref>{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 2811
|title=Internet Relay Chat: Channel Management
| sectionname = Channel Properties
| section     = 2.3
| page        = 4
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref>—and '!' channels, a form of [[#delay|timestamped]] channel on normally non-timestamped networks.<ref>{{cite IETF
| rfc         = 2811
|title=Internet Relay Chat: Channel Management
| sectionname = Channel lifetime
| section     = 3
| page        = 5
| idanchor    = ietf
}}</ref>