Using XChat/HexChat instead of Twitch chat

[xelnia]

Since Twitch chat can be a huge pain in the ass, I thought it would be good for people to know about another option for chatting while streaming. You can use any IRC client to join any Twitch channel chat room. Some people use XChat; I use HexChat. These two clients are essentially the same, however XChat requires registration and $19.99 after 30 days while HexChat is free. HexChat is actually based on XChat and they work in essentially the same way.

Download page for XChat: http://xchat.org/download/
Download page for HexChat: http://hexchat.github.io/downloads.html

Here is a pretty good walk-through on setting up HexChat specifically for Twitch: http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/719-tutorial-connecting-to-twitch-tv-via-xchat-mirc

I'm no pro at IRC clients, but I'll help anyone who has questions as best I can.