Is there a way to get the users of an IRC channel without joining it?

irc

Solution

You can issue `NAMES` for a channel where you are not in, but `NAMES` does not display users that are invisible (usermode `+i`).

Most servers set the usermode +i on connect, and some don't even allow changing it.

So if you don't have everyone set their usermode `-i`, you can't see them when not in the channel.

The RFC is not very specific about usermode `+i`. Some say that you can see users with `+i` on a `NAMES` reply if you share a common channel, and others say that you can not.

Problem

I want to be able to get the list of users and their details from an IRC channel without joining it and thus increasing its user count. So instead of issuing `JOIN #chan` and then `NAMES #chan` to get the list of users, I can run the latter command. Is this possible?

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