A Basic AutoGreet Package

Purpose:

This text file is designed to equip you with a basic understanding
of the AutoGreet function in mIRC, and provide some examples of 
how to implement the feature for online use.
________________________________________________

Definitions:

Channel Greet: a personalized greeting on screen to a person 		who joins a channel. (These include messages to a user
	who has just joined or left the channel.)

Semiautomatic Greet: a channel greet that requires manual
		activation by either an alias or a popup.

AutoGreet: a channel greet that "triggers" itself as soon as a 
		user joins or leaves the channel
________________________________________________

Forms of Channel Greets:

There are three forms of channel greets:

	1) one or more lines sent directly to the channel window
	designed for everyone on the channel to see.

	2) a special "message" window opened for the person just
	joining or leaving the channel.

	3) a "notice" to the active window of the person just
	joining the channel.

Note: 

	Re: #1 - When a half dozen people on a channel are using
		auto greets that print in the channel window, and 
		someone joins the channel, the auto greets cause an 
		immediate minimum 6 line scroll. If the greets are
		more than one line, the scroll can be quite long,
		and therefore annoying... and this will happen
		every time someone joins the channel!  Add to this 
		the natural tendency of people to manually
		type a greeting, even if an automatic greet is at
		work, and you have considerable channel clutter.
		(PLEASE TURN AUTO GREETS TO THE CHANNEL WINDOW OFF 
		WHEN JOINING #50+RETIRED!)

	Re: #2 - It is EXTREMELY aggravating to join a channel
		and suddenly find a half dozen or more "msg" 
		windows that "magically" open themselves up as the
 		result of autogreets. Unless you have specific 
		permission to run an autogreet with a "msg" 
		window, it is poor practice to do so... the mark 
		of a real "beginner."

	Re: #3 - "Notice" greets are the preferred form of 
		greeting since they appear ONLY to the window of
		the user just joining, and do not require that
		user to close a greet window separately if he/she
		has configured mIRC to show notices in the active
		window.  Everything that can be done in any other 
		form of autogreet window can be done also in a 
		notice window, without adding clutter to the 
		channel or creating extra work for a person just 
		joining or leaving the channel. 

		On #50+retired, PLEASE MAKE ALL CHANNEL GREETS 
		(automatic or otherwise) "NOTICE" TYPE GREETS!

Note also: Re: #1,2,3 - Many channels do not welcome AutoGreets, 
	especially those left on by "visitors" who designed their
	autogreets for a completely different channel. No channel 
	likes AutoGreets when they cause rapid and unnecessary 
	channel scroll. IT IS A GOOD IDEA TO PROVIDE A MEANS OF 
	TURNING AUTOGREETS OFF when they are not needed.  You can 
	do this by means of the #groupname switch in mIRC (see the
	mIRC help file).  

	Autogreets provided or modelled here all come with matching
	#groupnames and "popups" to allow you to turn the greets on
	and off as may be necessary or requested. PLEASE USE THEM!
__________________________________________________

A Basic MANUAL Greet (alias)

Someone joins the channel and you want to send them a personalized 
message... this alias is not fast but allows you to specify a new 
greeting for each person. Note: you must first highlight the new 
nick in the list in the right of the channel window.

Paste this line into the alias section:

_____Paste below here _______________

/greet /notice $1 $$?="Type your greeting"

_____Do not paste this line _____________

Use:
	When someone joins the channel, type "/greet <nickname> <enter>"
(no quotes, of course) at the beginning of a new line, and in the box
that appears, type the greeting you wish that person to see.

	This form of greet does not need to be turned on and off 
since it only operates when manually invoked and filled in.  You 
may also shorten the "name" of this greet to "/gr" or even "/g" if
you do not want to type the whole word for each person who joins.
__________________________________________

A Basic SEMI-AUTOMATIC Greet

Suppose you want to send a *standard* greeting to each person you 
know who joins the channel.  This greeting is invoked in a similar
way to the one above, except that it does not require you to fill 
in the words of greeting each time. It greets the new arrival by 
name and delivers your greeting to his/her window only. (Be sure 
to highlight the desired nick in the nicknames list on the right 
side of the channel window.)

Paste this line into the alias section:

_____Paste below here _______________

/greet //notice $1 It's sure good to see you again, $nick $+!

_____Do not paste this line _________

Use:
	When a new person checks into the channel, highlight his or
	her nick, then type /greet <nickname> <realname> on a line by
	itself.  That's all there is to it.

Note:
	1) This system of greeting shows nothing if you do not manually
	type the nickname you wish to greet.  The "realname" is
	optional and does not have to be entered.

	2) You can add color to a greeting (though not in a notice) by
	using the double slash "//" which is interpreted by mIRC as a
	command.  For example:

	/greet //ct Howdy, $1, it's great to see you again!

	3) You can also make other custom color greets by editing the 
	greeting in the aliases section using <ctrl+K># in the 
	usual way for mIRC (See webpage using color section), or
	you use any other color alias (such as those found in the
	scripts section of the #50+retired webpage). For example,
	you could use:

	/greet //notice $1 Hi, $1, have a tootsie roll and stay a while... | /notice $1 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0 

	This would print the greet line with a color tootsie roll
	immediately under it, only in the greeted user's window.

	All of these greetings require you to manually type in the nick
of the person you want to greet, and that nick must be correctly for
the notice to arrive at its destination.  But what if the nick is
complicated or difficult?  And what if you don't want to have to type
a new nick every time someone joins the channel?
___________________________________________________

A SEMI-AUTOMATIC Greeting as a PopUp

	The greeting just above can be placed in the nicknames 
popup window to make it possible to respond more quickly when a 
new person joins the channel.

Paste one or the other of the following lines into the Popups,
Nicknames section:

_____Paste below here _______________

AutoGreet:/notice $$1 //It's sure good to see you again, $$1 $+!

ColorGreet:/ct It's sure good to see you again, $$1 $+!

TootsieGreet:/notice $$1 Have a handful of 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0's on $me and sit a while...

_____ Do not paste this line _______________

Note: 
	These lines must NOT WRAP in the nicknames section.  Be sure
to edit out any line wrap that appears, so that the entire autogreet 
is ONE LONG LINE.

	Notice also that the 3rd greet like the one above with the 
tootsie roll, but instead of calling the alias, it has the tootsie roll
incorporated right into the popup line. (For a good starter collection
of this kind of color popup greet, see also the scripts section of the
#50+retired webpage:

	http://members.tripod.com/~Bubba_B/50plus.html


Use:
	Highlight the new nick, RIGHT CLICK in the nicknames box 
and choose one of your new AutoGreets.
____________________________________________

Fully AUTOMATIC Greetings:

	These are the fastest form of AutoGreets, almost instananeous
(depending on lag conditions), offer the greatest flexibility and
variety and are therefore a little bit more complicated.  

IMPORTANT: AutoGreets should always be provided with a means of 
	disabling themselves for times of heavy channel traffic or 
	when you are visiting other channels.

	The varieties and forms of autogreets are almost limitless
and certainly cannot be treated exhaustively in this BASIC intro.  We
suggest that you visit the mIRC homepage (http://www.mirc.co.uk) and
investigate some of the excellent links to other mIRC sites from 
there.  Below you will find some representative starter greets that
will introduce to some of the various techniques available, and give
you something to experiment with.  We hope you find them enjoyable
and instructive.

IMPORTANT: Automatic greetings use the Remote, Events section, therefore
	Your remote section must be turned on for this to work.
	Click the "remote scripts" icon (9th from the left) then
	click on "Listen" and make certain that *at least* the 
	"Events" item is checked.


_____ Paste the following lines into the Remote, Events section ___

#autogreet off
ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick Hi, $nick, good to see you again!
#autogreet end

_____ Do not paste this line ________________

_____ Paste the following into the Channels, Popups section ___

AutoGreet Switch
.On:/enable #autogreet
.Off:/disable #autogreet

_____ Do not paste this line _______________

Note:

	The autogreet consists of at least 3 lines... two for control
	and one for the greet itself.  Be sure to paste all three so
	that you can easily turn the autogreets on and off. (They 
	start in the off setting, so be sure also to paste the popup
	controls.)

	The "!" before the "1" is important: it keeps the greet
	from greeting you when you join a channel! 

	The #<channelname> is optional, you can use just # without a 
	specific name and the greet will be active in all channels. 
	But adding the name offers a good control feature: It makes 
	the greeting functional for one channel only. This keeps you
	from having to turn it off when you move around, but also 
	allows you to log onto several channels at one time, and
	not have to turn off all greets.  It also makes it possible
	to use different greets for each channel you are logged onto.

		You can add color or invoke other aliases as in the 
	examples above.  For example:

	Example 1: To place a greeting in a rainbow colored box 
			you would use:

ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick 12345678910111213141512 Howdy, $nick 151413121110987654321

	Example 2: To use the tootsie roll greet from the popup
			above you would use:

ON !1:JOIN:#50+retired:/notice $nick Have a handful of 15,15.5,5.5,4.40,5TootsieRoll4,44,4.5,5.15,15.10,0's from $me and sit a while...

	The greeting line can be further expanded for a myriad of
	possibilities beyond the scope of this document.

	You can also limit your greetings to only certain persons
	by assigning a level number other than one (1) to the 
	greet, and putting the desired persons into the "users"
	section under that number.  For example, all your old war
	buddies could be placed in user level 45 and a special
	greet designed for just them; other autogreets would
	continue to work for other levels (see mIRC help file for 
	details).
______________________________________________

AutoGreets for Those Leaving the Channel:

	These AutoGreets are similar to the "JOIN" statements above
in that they are placed in the "Events" section, but instead of "JOIN"
they trigger on "PART," that is when the user leaves the channel. The
line used in the "Events" section would read:

	ON !1:PART:#50+retired:/msg $nick <message>

The PART trigger occurs when a user logs off the channel from the 
command line, closes the channel window or uses a popup to quit the
channel.  Here the /msg command MUST be used because the PARTed 
person may not have an active window for a /notice to appear in.

IMPORTANT:

	Parting greets are recommended ONLY for channel ops.  They
can be confusing to users new to IRC, and it is annoying to need to
leave IRC in a hurry and suddenly have several additional windows 
that need closing just as you are quitting.  In addition, it is
guaranteed to annoy *YOU* when "drive-bys" (people who check in and 
right back out of the channel) get "messaged" and insist on replying
or commenting again and again, which opens a /msg window on your
screen every time they make a comment. 

	If you are not flood protected, you can be flooded off the
server through this window by a knowledgeable user bent on attack.  
Even if you close this /msg window, every time the "drive-by" makes 
another comment, it will reopen the /msg window on your screen... on
top of everything else... even if you are in a different program!  
The only way to stop this annoying cycle of unwanted /msg windows 
from a stranger is to "/ignore" them using the "-p" switch or to 
change your nick.

	To exclude a user from receiving AutoGreets sent by you on 
JOIN or PART requires that you either:

	Create a special user level for autogreets and one by one 
	add to the "Users" section those you wish to receive the
	AutoGreets 
				- or - 

	Assign the user you wish to exclude to a user level HIGHER 
	than the AutoGreet level using the "+" sign before the level
	number.  That user will then only trigger "Events" equal to
	or above the number assigned.  +5:*!username@*.domain.nam 
	would only trigger level 5 events and above; he/she would not
	trigger a level 1 "Event," for example.

If you do not understand this principle, or do not feel confident in
applying it, it's probably not a good idea for you to use AutoGreets
based on PARTing the channel; for now just stick with JOIN greets. 
(See mIRC help section for more details.)

______________________________________________

One Last Word (or a few) about AutoGreets:

	AutoGreets are enjoyable for everyone when properly used.
They can also be the bane of channel existence, and *could* get you
summarily kicked and/or banned when improperly used.  Be sure you
know how to turn an autogreet on and off before you install it,
and PLEASE remember that common courtesy to other users means:

1) Limit autogreets in the main channel window! Above all, do not
make the beginners' mistake of auto-greeting yourself every time you
join a channel.

2) DO NOT use autogreets that open "msg" windows (i.e., using the 
	/msg <nick> command)

3) Turn autogreets off in a crowded channel (*BEFORE* SOMEONE HAS 
	TO ASK YOU!!) Remember: Popup greets offer the greatest
	measure of control.

4) ALWAYS COMPLY WITH CONTROL OP REQUESTS TO TURN OFF AUTOGREETS.

5) Unless you are a control OP and have good reason to maintain the
use of AutoGreets, it is common courtesy to honor reasonable requests
from other users to be excluded from your AutoGreets.

6) To ignore autogreets from users employing /msg windows, use:
	/ignore -p <nick> [mask]

	To ignore /msg and /notice greets use:
	/ignore -pn <nick> [mask]

	The ignored users may still open DCC windows with you, 
	but will not be able to send any other notice or query 
	until you remove the ignore:

	/ignore -pn off|<nick> [mask]