i'm not sure but the nick is insert in the ial only if it does some action(msg, me, nick, join ecc) after you enter the channel.
try to enter in a new chan and do //echo -a $nick(nickthatdoesn'tdonothingyet) and you will see * /echo: insufficient parameters
(it will works if the nickthatdoesn'tdonothingyet is on another channel)
