It is a seperate chat engine and there are different channels that have a # in front of the name. IRC stands for internet relay chat so you can talk in real time with other pirates. The trivia channel is #piratetrivia, when you are talking in that channel if there is not a trivia game going you type !trivia and killick should start asking you questions (killick is an eggdrop bot programmed for trivia and stats) you get the scrolly name by being in the top 10 scores on trivia at the end of every quarter of the year.
I hope this helps!
P.S. To get the full extent of IRC I recommend using mIRC instead of the java applet.
http://mirc.com and the guide
http://disneyonlineworlds.com/index.php/MIRC_Guide
Thats for windows but if you are on a mac java is the only thing i know of, but im sure there are other applets.