The Ping.FM module integrates in a number of ways with the Ping.FM Service.

1. It can announce new posts to your site through ping.fm
2. It can receive and process updates received from ping.fm via a custom URL
3. It can update your ping.fm status through IRC

Install the module normally. From there, you can configure two levels of permissions: "administer ping.fm" and "post to ping.fm." To administer some configuration options, go to admin/settings/pingfm, where you can specify which node types should be announced, or specify an alternative developer key if you have your own (in nearly all cases, you'll just use the Drupal developer key that's the default). You can also specify the default format of your ping.

As a user, you now need to go to your account, and hit the "edit" tab. Here you'll see a new "ping.fm" section that will allow you to configure your personal API key and link it to your account. Once you've done that, you'll see the custom URL you can use if you wish to set up that functionality over at the ping.fm site.

For receiving updates from ping.fm at your site, The ping.fm module itself only provides an API to set up the listener. You need to enable another module to actually do something with the update. Ping.FM Node Module is included with the ping.fm module suite, and will create a node for each update it receives. You then have the power of views, etc to manipulate the data. This is good if your site receives updates for multiple users. For a simpler approach, if you just want to display the most recent update in a block on your site, see the ping.fm block module.

[TODO: Documentation needed re: Ping.FM Bot Module]