Ok thanks a ton for that alias model. I understand most of what's going on besides some of the syntax of how its actually happening.

However i still do have a question. Using this with my current code i get a message insufficient parameters error. From what i gather from the code this should return the line that I would then want to display in chat.

my code that actually calls the alias is such:

on: me:*:join:#:{
.timerfacts 0 $rand(240,300) msg $chan $randomline(facts.txt,n)
}

i think where it is failing is that i am not calling alias properly with (facts.txt,n) < -- the "n" here or "tn" / clear parameter as you described it. what am i supposed to pass in here? Sorry if this is a dumb question. I only really knew to use (facts.txt,n) in my first bit of code from some googling but didnt understand why the "n" part was necessary.