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                      ngIRCd - Next Generation IRC Server
+                           http://ngircd.barton.de/
 
-                      (c)2001,2002 by Alexander Barton,
-                    alex@barton.de, http://www.barton.de/
+               (c)2001-2017 Alexander Barton and Contributors.
+               ngIRCd is free software and published under the
+                   terms of the GNU General Public License.
 
-                  ngIRCd ist freie Software und steht unter
-                       der GNU General Public License.
+                                -- README --
 
-                           -- README / Liesmich --
 
+I. Introduction
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-ngIRCd ist ein Server fuer den Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Er ist von Grund
-auf neu geschrieben, also nicht wie die meisten anderen IRCd's vom Urvater,
-dem Daemon des IRCNet abgeleitet.
+ngIRCd is a free, portable and lightweight Internet Relay Chat server for
+small or private networks, developed under the GNU General Public License
+(GPL; please see the file COPYING for details). It is simple to configure,
+can cope with dynamic IP addresses, and supports IPv6 as well as SSL. It is
+written from scratch and not based on the original IRCd.
 
-Zur Zeit befindet sich ngIRCd noch in Entwicklung, vieles ist noch nicht
-implementiert bzw. nur "halbherzig": Channels gibt es noch nicht, genau so
-wenig wie Server-Links. Das private Chatten (PRIVMSG) mit den Client-Befehlen
-/msg und /query sollte hingegen funktionieren, ein wenig praktische Funk-
-tionalitaet ist also tatsaechlich schon vorhanden ;-)
+The name ngIRCd means next generation IRC daemon, which is a little bit
+exaggerated: lightweight Internet Relay Chat server most probably would be a
+better name :-)
 
-Diese Version ist aber auf jeden Fall als "Preview" anzusehen!
+Please see the INSTALL document for installation and upgrade information!
 
-Bisher (mehr oder wenig vollstaendig) implementierte IRC-Befehle:
 
-DIE, ISON, MODE, MOTD, NAMES, NICK, NOTICE, OPER, PASS, PING, PONG, PRIVMSG,
-QUIT, RESTART, USER, USERHOST, WHOIS.
+II. Status
+~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Ueber Rueckmeldungen, Bug-Reports und Patches freue ich mich! Also los, haut
-in die Tasten! :-))
+ngIRCd should be quite feature complete and stable to be used as daemon in
+real world IRC networks.
 
-Via E-Mail erreichst du mich als <alex@arthur.ath.cx> bzw. <alex@barton.de>.
-Die Homepage des ngIRCd findest du unter <http://arthur.ath.cx/~alex/ngircd/>.
+It is not the goal of ngIRCd to implement all the nasty behaviors of the
+original ircd, but to implement most of the useful commands and semantics
+specified by the RFCs that are used by existing clients.
 
-[ ... more to come ... ]
 
+III. Features (or: why use ngIRCd?)
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-Hinweise zur Installation findest du in der Datei INSTALL.
-Alle Autoren von ngIRCd sind in AUTHORS aufgefuehrt.
-In der Datei COPYING steht die GNU General Public License.
-Das README liest du gerade ,-)
+- Well arranged (lean) configuration file.
+- Simple to build, install, configure, and maintain.
+- Supports IPv6 and SSL.
+- Can use PAM for user authentication.
+- Lots of popular user and channel modes are implemented.
+- Supports "cloaking" of users.
+- No problems with servers that have dynamic IP addresses.
+- Freely available, modern, portable and tidy C source.
+- Wide field of supported platforms, including AIX, A/UX, FreeBSD, HP-UX,
+  IRIX, Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, and Windows with Cygwin.
+- ngIRCd is being actively developed since 2001.
+
+
+IV. Documentation
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+More documentation can be found in the "doc/" directory and the homepage of
+ngIRCd: <http://ngircd.barton.de/>.
+
+
+V. Download
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The homepage of the ngIRCd is <http://ngircd.barton.de/>; you will find
+the newest information about the ngIRCd and the most recent ("stable")
+releases there.
+
+Visit our source code repository at GitHub if you are interested in the
+latest development version: <https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd>.
+
+
+VI. Problems, Bugs, Patches
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Please don't hesitate to contact us if you encounter problems:
+
+- On IRC: <irc://irc.barton.de/ngircd>
+- Via the mailing list: <ngircd-ml@ngircd.barton.de>
+
+See <http://ngircd.barton.de/support.php> for details.
+
+If you find bugs in ngIRCd (which will be there most probably ...), please
+report them to our issue tracker at GitHub:
+
+- Bug tracker: <https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/issues>
+- Patches, "pull requests": <https://github.com/ngircd/ngircd/pulls>
+
+There you can read about known bugs and limitations, too.