IRC is an online chat tool.

It will be like the LoU chat, except without the lag and with moderation. It will also enable us to have coalition discussions in private.
There are Many IRC channels out there, ours will be #DiesIrae

Basic directions:

1) Get an IRC client and install it
http://irchelp.org/irchelp/mac/ for Mac IRC clients ( I use http://limechat.net/mac/ but just started, not sure if I like it yet =b)

Lots of PC clients, http://www.mirc.com/ is a very popular one, you can pick your own otherwise.

2) Logon (MAKE SURE YOU LOG ON THIS SERVER!) (should be "server properties" in settings somewhere in your client.

Server is :
irc.stratics.com
Port: 6667 (should be the default)

once you're logged in, type /join #DiesIrae

That should get you in the chat channel. There are lots of funky things you can do beyond that, but you can figure those out later on.

Lots of IRC info on http://irchelp.org , I haven't read it... =b