Irssi is simply ignoring any attempt to register of identify

Question

irssi

Launches irrsi

/connect irc.freenode.net

connects to freenode.

/join #ruby-lang

joins the ruby-lang room.

I can see people talking, but I can't talk. There is a blue bar at the top saying

'Nick registration required to talk'.

at the bottom:

[08:15] [james_(+i)] [2:freenode/#ruby-lang(+cnt)] [Act: 1,3]                 
[#ruby-lang] 

Whatever I type to the right of [#ruby-lang] is simply ignored.

/msg NickServ REGISTER <my_password> <my_email>

nothing.

/msg NickServ IDENTIFY <my_nick> <my_password>

nothing.

/nick AnotherNick

nothing. Seriously, the command just disappears and nothing happens.

What's going on?

This brings up nickserv's help dialogue:

/query nickserv help register

though I don't know how to then exit 'NickServ'. When inside 'NickServ' I can type

/msg

for some help. So I type it, hit enter and....nothing. Really annoying.

Answer 1

They are not ignored.

As your Irssi status shows,

[Act: 1,3]

…there is activity in Irssi windows #1 and #3. My guess is that #3 is a private-message window from NickServ (while #1 is almost always the "server messages" window).

In the former you'll see replies to the REGISTER and IDENTIFY commands, while the latter has an error message along the lines of "Cannot change nick while banned on channel". (The restriction from speaking for unregistered users is implemented in the form of a special ban.)

In Irssi, the usual ways of switching windows are:

• Alt + {1…9} as well as Alt + {q, w, e, …} to jump between the first 20 windows;
• CtrlN and CtrlP for next/previous window;
• AltA to jump to the first active window;
• /window 𝒏 (short: /win 𝒏) to jump to a window numbered 𝒏;
• /query nick and /unquery to open or close a private-message window;
• &c.