The first thing to remember about this lingo, is just to try to pronounce what is written. However, when it comes to the real abbreviations, guessing is not that easy. Since no one can actually see you on the IRC, you need powerful tools to express your feelings, or you will definitely be misunderstood. The conversation style is often quite sarcastic and teasing, and it is not always easy to know if someone is joking or not. Some IRC clients, like mIRC, now support sending sounds to channels and users.
Sounds can be fun, and sounds can be highly irritating.
Good taste is needed to use the sounds to their best effect. If some people are trying to actually talk, and others are just playing around with sounds, the atmosphere in the channel gets very strange. Also, it is important to realize that a sound can be as offensive as insulting words. This help page was created with the valuable assistance of Mary, Slew, Steen and other helpful people in the channel. Last Update 960628.