IRC isn't slang. It's the name of the software/program which is used in chatrooms. I doubt you will actually see the acronym used by anyone actually chatting in the chatroom. I'm still not sure how we got to IRC from you looking up "smth".
:up: Equally, the users are not required to be, and usually are not, aware that a
relay is involved; in the instance of any one conversation, each bit of it can (and probably does, depending on the software) follow a different route. (One of the signs of this happening - in Twitter, as an example (although I'm not sure that qualifies as IRC and I'm just giving this as an example of how different routes can make themselves felt in an Internet 'conversation') - is that a tweet can arrive
after a retweet of the same tweet. What this means is just that the route from the tweeter to the receiver is longer than the sum of [the route from the tweeter to the retweeter] + [the route from the retweeter to the receiver].)
But if that example doesn't help, don't worry. The point of good software is that it leaves users free to do what needs to be done, without worrying about what's going on
under the hood as they say (the
They in question being American -
we'd've said 'under the bonnet' ;-))
b
