Kai... I think we take for granted the experience we have with IRC... sure once you figure it out... its really really easy... But 99% of internet users are far too dense (no offense SuziB) to figure it out. We're used to this plug and play IM clients that require little to no thought. IRC is the last of the chat clients that you need to log into a server -- join "channels" -- and know text commands.
So Suzi... go to
www.netgamers.org and have a look around... register an account, read through some help files... OR...
http://www.netgamers.org/module.php?...=getfile&id=28
Download that... and read this:
http://www.netgamers.org/index.php?page_id=13
I'm sure there is a better Netgamers FAQ out there tho...