Over the last few months, I’ve been using Riot.im (the client for Matrix.org) as my primary IRC client, and access to other end-to-end-encrypted chats.
A few weeks ago I decided I wanted to use my “normal” IRC nickname on Freenode, so looked into how to do it. It’s surprisingly easy, but there are a few gotchas.
Making Matrix know your password
First of all you need to message the IRC bridge bot and tell it your nickserv password: !storepass chat.freenode.net MyComplexPassword
Next, you need to chat with NickServ directly and authenticate with it: identify MyNormalNick MyComplexPassword
Lastly, you go back to your chat with the bridge bot, and tell it your nickname: !nick chat.freenode.net MyNormalNick
If, in the process of doing this, you find you can’t log in as yourself, message NickServ and tell it to release your account from being protected: release MyNormalNick MyComplexPassword
Setting topics
While the bridge bot will let you set a topic (!cmd TOPIC #channel Something) this didn’t really work for me, so instead, I use ChanServ to do it for me: topic #channel My New Topic
Just remember that you must have ops granted to you for that channel through ChanServ to be able to make such changes.
You can also set modes for people, or the channel, ban people, voice or op them through ChanServ, just send the command help in the chat to ChanServ for more guidance!
And, if you’re stuck, feel free to come ask for help! I’m (predictably) JonTheNiceGuy!