This is what happens:

nik> taskmaster:
taskmaster> nik did you mean me? Unknown command ''
taskmaster> Use 'taskmaster: help' to get help!
nik> taskmaster: help

::no response::

nik> taskmaster: status my_project

::no response::

::After fixing a build::

taskmaster: Yippie, build fixed!
taskmaster: Project SMP Pull Requests build #36: FIXED in 1 min 0 sec: http://jenkins.example.com:8080/job/my_project/36/
taskmaster: * Nik: My commit message.
taskmaster: * Nik: My second commit message.

The IRC bot will issue messages about broken builds and the like for configured projects, but does not respond to commands.

These are the only logs that I get from hudson.plugins.ircbot(Finest):

Nov 08, 2012 3:09:17 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.PircListener onNotice
INFO: Notice from irc.example.com: 'Connection statistics: client 0.9 kb, server 2.0 kb.'
Nov 08, 2012 3:06:59 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.PircListener onServerResponse
WARNING: IRC server responded error 461 Message:
taskmaster AWAY :Syntax error
Nov 08, 2012 3:05:28 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.IRCConnection channelJoined
INFO: Joined channel #bots and bot registered
Nov 08, 2012 3:05:27 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.IRCConnection getGroupChat
INFO: Trying to join channel #bots
Nov 08, 2012 3:05:27 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.IRCConnection connect
INFO: connected to IRC
Nov 08, 2012 3:05:27 AM hudson.plugins.ircbot.v2.IRCConnection connect
INFO: Connecting to irc.example.com:6667 as taskmaster using charset UTF-8

Config:

• Using SSL and self signed cert which was addressed by: https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-13018?focusedCommentId=165345&page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-165345
• Using server password
• The Jenkins username is set to a username which is both a Jenkins username and a GitHub account name.
• Everything else is pretty standard with the exception of changing the command prefix.

As far as I can tell this is a bug or I'm missing something after digging through a bunch of the docs.

I'm happy to provide anything else needed.