1 Title: Finding Channels
4 Finding Channels on freenode
5 ============================
7 With many thousands of channels on freenode and more being registered all the
8 time, a good way to search for channels of interest to you is useful.
10 Enter
`alis`, a network service designed for exactly that purpose.
12 At the most simple, you can use
`/msg alis LIST *searchterm*` to find channels
13 whose name contains the term in question - for instance,
`/msg alis LIST
16 You can also search on the channel's current topic, require a minimum number of
17 users (to weed out barely-used channels), and use various wildcards to control
18 your search - for instance,
`/msg alis LIST #freenode* -min 10` would find all
19 channels in the freenode namespace with at least
10 users.
21 For full details on how to use alis,
`/msg alis HELP LIST` will send you back
22 the following help text:
27 LIST gives a list of channels matching the
28 pattern, modified by the other options.
30 Syntax: LIST <pattern> [options]
33 -min <n>: show only channels with at least <n> users
34 -max <n>: show only channels with at most <n> users
35 -skip <n>: skip first <n> matches
36 -show [m][t]: show modes/topicsetter
37 -mode <+|-|=><modes>: modes set/unset/equal
38 -topic <pattern>: topic matches pattern
39 -showsecret: show secret channels (requires chan:auspex)
41 The pattern can contain * and ? wildcards. The pattern has to
42 match the full channel name or a full topic, depending on where it
43 is used; the wildcards are important. The pattern is also
44 automatically surrounded by * wildcards if
45 a channel name pattern starts with a wildcard or a #, or
46 a topic pattern contains no * wildcards.
48 For example, for channel names, from most to least specific:
49 ?bar - any character followed by "bar" with no other characters
50 #bar* - anything starting with "#bar"
51 ##*bar* - anything starting with ## and containing "bar"
52 *cows*moo* - anything containing "cows",
0 or more characters, and "moo"
53 *bar* - anything containing "bar" (equivalent to "bar")
56 /msg alis LIST searchterm
57 /msg alis LIST * -topic multiple*ordered*search*terms
58 /msg alis LIST * -min
50
60 /msg alis LIST #foo* -mode =n
61 /msg alis LIST *freetopic* -mode -t -show mt
62 /msg alis LIST ##nocolors* -mode +c -show t
63 ***** End of Help *****
65 An alternative method to search is to do so via the web, using
66 [netsplit.de](http://irc.netsplit.de/channels/?net=freenode).