finally have my #irc server running about the way I want. next thing will be linking it up to another server to create a tiny little irc network.
it really isn't hard to set up either this ircd (ngircd) or one of the alternatives in debian, the only thing I have issues with is how it interacts with #systemd when you try to restart it. but that's a systemd thing. and maybe I'm just bad at that.
otherwise you can just install the package and have a working irc server just like that.
