Ok, you got me, I like to hang out on IRC, and when I say I like to hang out on IRC, and I mean a *LOT*, if I'm on the internet, I'm on IRC...may not actualy be paying attention to it at all, but I will be there!
I use the nick xpurple on IRC, pretty ovious, right? (don't laugh, it was a retorical question)
Ok, now this is the time where I'm supposto rant about how cool irc is, and how much better I like it than ICQ, but hey, IRC is just a set of protocals that make up an inviorment, not the most impressive I've ever seen, sometimes I'd rather hang out on a mud than on IRC, because those inviorments have lots of nice features. But most of the people on muds suck hardcore, and truthfully the same goes for 99% of the people on any given IRC server.
Exception to the rule: irc.linpeople.org
People on this server are for the most part quite friendly, and helpfull. This is where I hang out 90% of the time. In a channel called #linpeople (kina ovious?) As a side note, this is a linux orientaed server, and if you arn't running linux, don't tell anybody, and everything will be find...
Other places I hang out
The undernet, specificly dallas.tx.us.undernet.org, but any undernet server will work, use us.undernet.org to find one with a good ping time. I am ususaly on #sailormoon on this server, but hop around a lot. Sometimes I go into #irc4kids, but only to test out my new k-rad 31337 war scripts (Muhhaaa)
#sailormoon on the undernet is quite interesting, and odd. It is based around a japanese TV show with a target audience of 10-14 year old girls. Note that people fitting this catagory rarely are found in the channel. Most of the people in that channel are about as wierd as I am...well, probably not, but it was worth a try :)
Ok, have I convenced you to try it? (at least once?)...Well, you will need a client program to use an IRC server (well, not realy, but it makes it a *LOT* nicer than telneting directly into the server, and dealing with the protocals manualy)...
ircle, the best MacOS irc client known to man
mIRC An irc client for windows...I only put it here for those people who are total morons, who can't learn to use a real OS (99.99% of the population)