What is IRC?
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of real-time Internet chat or synchronous conferencing. It is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums called channels, but also allows one-to-one communication via private message, as well as chat and data transfers via Direct Client-to-Client. (source: Wiki)

Why IRC?
As some people already discovered, IRC is a fast and clear way of communication with each other.

Channels
There are several official LVP Channels, including:

#LVP (English chat)
#LVP.nl (Dutch chat)
#LVP.echo (In-game chat displayed at IRC)
#LVP.vip (Special channel for crew and LVP VIP's)

How do I connect?
There are two ways to do so: Web Chat or Client Software

Web Chat
An easy way to chat is to use the LVP web chat.
If you use the web based chat, you will join the #LVP and #LVP.Echo channel by default.
Type /join #LVP.NL, for example, if you want to join the #LVP.NL channel. Multiple channels are allowed.

Client Software 

Step 1: Download and install an IRC client, since I used mIRC in this tutorial I suggest you to download mIRC at http://www.mirc.com/get.html

Step 2: After Installation and starting mIRC you will see this screen, fill in your name, etc and move on to the next step.





Step 3: Go to Connect/Servers and click "Add". Feel free to have your own description and use one of the servers of the Las Venturas Playground.
For now we will use irc.gtanet.com. Do not change the ports!





Step 4: After clicking "Add" you will see this screen. Double click on the server you have just added, followed by "connect".





Step 5: If you see this, that means you're connected to the network. And is on the right path so far!
Looking forward to have permanent rights on IRC? Then make sure you register your account by using the register command "/ns register" in this window. You'll be given more information on how to register your account. Don't forget to login into your account on every connect by using the command "/ns identify [password].





Step 6: Now type : "/join #LVP" and press enter, you will now join the LVP channel. If you want to see in-game messages on IRC, use "/join #LVP.echo". 





Step 7: Adding channels to your favorites. To add a channel as favorites, first select it and then click on favorites. Now to automatically join a channel on every connect, make sure to select "Join on connect", followed by "add". If the channel is password protected, be sure to write this in the password field.




End of tutorial

Rules
There aren't a lot of rules in the chat.
Just don't spam/flood the channels, or abuse the LVP Bots.
Neither be a racist, or flame to users.
We also hate the USE OF CAPS ALL THE TIME.
So don't.

#LVP.Echo
This channel needs some explanation.
There are 10 bots, called N*w*ni. Where the * can be: a, i, u, o, e.
Nuwani is the main bot, N*w*ni and N*w*ni are helping bots. (Anti-flood)
Sometimes it's needed to load extra bots if the traffic is too high.

In the #LVP.Echo channel you can see all the ingame chat and public messages which you can see ingame.

Via #LVP.Echo you can communicate to the ingame players.
You can do this by typing "!msg your message" (Without the quotes) in #LVP.Echo.
If you have voice (+v), you can also use "!pm playerID message" to send PM's to players or "!regular your message" to talk in the ingame regulars/VIP chat.

See you soon on IRC!

On behalf of the Las Venturas Playground Management,
Sander "Nakebod" Rutten

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	The contest Dear LVP-players, As our community grows ever larger we are looking to new ways to make us seen. As a first effort to make us more visible and to satisfy our pride we will be creating some special LVP-art. This art will have the form of banners that can be placed on sites and in signatures. To reflect the potent of our community we would like that you make those banners. In an effort to realize this, this banner contest has been created. For an entry to be valid it will be bound to as few rules as possible as not to hamper your inspiration. So are you interested in creating the new face of LVP to the outside world? Let you inspiration roam free and let your talents pay homage to our great community! Sincerely yours, The LVP Management
	Want to know more?

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