IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat, and is a protocol for chatting (where the messages that are written in plaintext, appear to all the recipients in real time), that was common from relatively early in the history of the Internet, and is still very popular. IRC servers form networks of servers - each network is separated from the other networks and the servers of each network share the same chat-rooms, user profiles and messages. Each network has different rules and conventions and a different culture. This allows chat-rooms (called channels in IRC-jargon) with the same name to exist in different networks.

Some popular IRC clients include the cross-platform Chatzilla (which is open source and free-of-charge and can be installed as an add-on for the Firefox browser), HexChat, a cross-platform, open source and free-of-charge IRC client (which runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X), and the Windows-based mIRC (which is shareware and not open-source). Furthermore, there are also web-based interfaces for chatting on IRC networks.

IRC is a great way to get answers to questions quickly and easily. Just note that some networks are not recommended for asking Perl questions on, due to the treatment of beginner question, or general unfriendliness.

• Wikipedia page on the "Internet Relay Chat"
• IRC Help - comprehensive helps and FAQs about IRC.
• The Wikipedia's List/Comparison of IRC Clients

This is most probably the best network for getting help in Perl and technical matters in general.

Check out the #perl channel (also see its FAQ).

Libera Chat has a web-based interface.

The channel #perl accepts beginner questions.

For completeness sake, we should mention the irc.perl.org Network which hosts dedicated channels for many Perl-related projects and groups. Note however, that using it, is not recommended for people who are new to Perl or IRC due to its atmosphere (which can become hostile), and because the channel #perl there (which is what most people would guess first) is not intended for beginner questions. Please use Libera Chat or OFTC instead.

Once you have become more experienced with Perl, and wish to contribute to Perl-related projects, you can gather up the courage to visit irc.perl.org and make use of it.