Why to use UTF-8

• The characters that you send are visible to everyone.
• There is no unclearity what you say.
  • Example:
    • sain t?it?
      • This can be understood two ways:
        • sain täitä
          • I got louses
        • sain töitä
          • I got work
• All of the characters that you need are in it.

TODO: add other reasons.

Why to disable fallback.

• You know when people aren't sending UTF-8.
  • You can tell them it.
    • You can take action to their misbehavour.
• You aren't supporting depracated (by UTF-8) charsets.

TODO: add other reasons.

How to use UTF-8.

HexChat

UTF-8 is used by default, but if your configuration is migrated from XChat you might not be using it.

Open HexChat and there Network List (CTRL + S or search from the File menu.

Edit network and ensure that the Character set says UTF-8 (Unicode).

"IRC (Latin/Unicode hybrid)" is not valid UTF-8 and mustn't be used!

irssi

I have copied these instructions from Kapsi's "Irssi ja UTF-8" guide so these are untested and I wish someone will verify me that these work.

/set term_charset UTF-8
/set recode_out_default_charset UTF-8
/set recode_fallback ""
/save

1. Sets terminal charset.
2. Sets outgoing charset as UTF-8.
3. Disables fallback when received messages aren't UTF-8.
4. Saves irssi config.

WeeChat

/set charset.default.decode ""
/set charset.default.encode "UTF-8"
/save

1. Stops decoding/fallbacking to other charsets than what we send.
2. Send UTF-8.
3. Saves WeeChat config files.

XChat

XChat defaults to weird charset that claims to be UTF-8 and confuses users as in reality it's not UTF-8!

Open server list from the file menu or press CTRL + S, edit network and select the network. Ensure that the charset says UTF-8 (Unicode).