First Things First: Internet Relay Chat Openings

Abstract

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was the Internet's first widely popular quasi‐synchronous computer‐mediated communication (CMC) system. While research has consistently demonstrated the interpersonal nature of IRC, and is now turning to more structurally‐oriented topics, it is argued that IRC research now needs to systematically address links between interaction structures, technological mediation and the instantiation and development of interpersonal relationships within a framework that privileges IRC interaction and social explanations. This exploration of the openings of IRC interactions is positioned as a step in that direction. The openings investigated in the study are those that occur directly following user's entries into public IRC channels, termed the newly‐joined users' Channel Entry Phase (CEP). It is found that turn coordination in the CEP is often ambiguous, has the potential to disrupt relationship development, and leads to considerable emphasis on interactive strategies for the clear ordering of opening phases.

24. Responses and non-responses in workplace emails

“…Past research on CMC grounded in the tradition of CA includes a number of studies of turn-taking procedures and interactional coherence in text-based conversation (Herring 1999, this volume; Garcia and Jacobs 1999;Rintel, Pittam, and Mulholland 2003;Markman, this volume;Panyametheekul and Herring 2003). By comparing chat interaction with the turn-taking rules of traditional conversation (e.g., Sacks et al 1974), these scholars have shown that common features of chat include disrupted turn adjacency (Herring 1999), preference for selecting next speaker by addressing him/her explicitly rather than next speaker self-selecting (Panayametheekul and Herring 2003), and the organization of actions through a particular threading strategy (Markman, this volume).…”

22. Conversational coherence in small group chat

“…If participants were successful at gaining attention, they followed with transition signals in an attempt to move into the next phase of interaction. In a related study, Rintel, Mulholland, and Pittam (2001) found that the automated joining message sent by the chat server functioned similarly to a telephone ring, allowing new users to initiate interactions. However, unlike receivers of telephone rings, participants in IRC chat did not orient to joining messages as requiring attention, and therefore these messages did not guarantee that an initiation move would be ratified.…”

Closing Moves of Dyadic Chat Room Talk in Chinese Between Family Members

“…Negretti (1999) finds that web chat openings contain the basic sequences such as summons-answer, identification, greeting sequences but display special features like identification as "a self-introduction aimed at having one's presence acknowledged by the other participants" (Negretti, 1999, p. 83). Rintel and Pittam (1997) identify four Internet Relay Chat (IRC) opening moves: server announcement of the user presence, "exchange of exploratory/initiatory linguistic tokens", "textualized exchange" of "greeting" (optional depending on relationship), and "transition signals for moving to the medial phase" (as cited in Rintel, Mulholland, & Pittam, 2001, Previous research on IRC openings, para. 2).…”

“…2). Rintel, Mulholland, and Pittam (2001) examine three stages of IRC: presence recognition, initiation, and response. These findings exhibit similarity to sequences in telephone openings.…”