Justin --
I find it interesting that you find xchat hard to use and irssi easy,
however I think it's fairly simple to register a nickname in freenode (and,
I'm assuming, in other IRC servers) since the registration process, as far
as I know, works the same whether you're in xchat or irssi.
After connecting to freenode -- /connect
irc.freenode.net -- using the
nickname you would like to register, type
/msg nickserv register $YOUR_PASSWORD $YOUR_EMAIL
(where $YOUR_PASSWORD is the password you create and $YOUR_EMAIL is, well,
your e-mail address)
And essentially, that's it.
I think if you go to /msg nickserv help register you can get more
information.
I don't know if this story is going to change any policy or anyone's
mind on the matter, but I really wish we would change this policy to
make it easier on new (even brand new) users and on ambassadors.
I think there's a good reason that #fedora requires a registered nick to
enter and since the registration process is not exactly difficult, and I
don't think we should change this policy.
Larry Cafiero