Description of problem: When you run Xchat for the first time, you can't see what you type in the text box. This happened too with other versions of Fedora. The text is white, and so is the input box. Solution: Settings > Preferences > Input Box , and uncheck "Use the Text box fonts and colors" Please have this unchecked by default. Thanks.
This seems to be brought on by certain themes. I wonder if this option can simply be left unchecked by default.
Thanks for your report. I am not able to reproduce this in rawhide, however: The check box is disabled by default for me.