## 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](http://www.kapsi.fi/ohjeet/irssi-utf8.html) 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. ### WeeChat ``` /set charset.default.decode "" /set charset.default.encode "UTF-8" ``` 1. Stops decoding/fallbacking to other charsets than what we send. 2. Send UTF-8. ### 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)**.