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Do you (still) use IRC?
I'm just curious how many people still use IRC (Internet Relay Chat) here. And if you use it, what do you use it for? Is there anything (server/channels, etc) that you would recommend to others?
I use it a bit, mostly for casual chatting on tildeverse.org servers, the SDF server, or on Freenode. On Freenode, I also use it when I need to interact with FOSS developers who use IRC as one of their main forms of support.
Yep, I basically use IRC (via weechat and weechat-android) for all my communication. For example, I have a channel on snoonet that I use to talk to friends and I am in some FLOSS channels on freenode. I also run a private IRC server (using oragono) to talk to my wife (she uses thelounge) and another private IRC server for a local Linux Users Group.
Most IRC channels (especially not FLOSS project channels) are pretty dead these days though, so I use my IRC client to talk via other protocols as well. For instance, to talk to people at work on Slack I connect using the irslackd gateway, which works pretty well. I also use bitlbee to talk to people on Discord, XMPP, and even SMS (via jmp.chat). I also wrote my own Telegram IRC gateway to chat in a few groups on that platform.
Basically, for me, everything goes through my IRC client. I wish I could just use IRC, but the reality is that most people are on more user friendly platforms now. As long as I can bridge or use a gateway to those platforms, however, I don't mind it too much.
Yeah, I've noticed the same trends. Discord replaced more than a few IRC channels. I've seen a couple of Mattermosts too. I kind of miss the times where everything was on IRC. It was so simple back then. No program juggling, no completely different workflow, just a new channel to add to the connect list.
I'm on IRC all the time. I run tilde.chat, which is the network for the tildeverse. I'm on freenode quite a bit and also a bunch of other smaller networks.
Like pnutzh4x0r, I use weechat + weechat-android. I also use bitlbee and wee-slack to connect to xmpp and slack respectively.
The community on tilde.chat is lovely and very fun to hang out on.
I'm mostly a lurker, but I have set up an old Kindle Fire HD to be an always-on monitor for IRC chats to flow on the wall next to my desk. I almost never participate in discussion, but I definitely like reading the discussion that flows by. It's very nice to have a passive messaging format that doesn't nag with an overwhelming amount of push notifications. That being said, I do also have FB Messenger and Discord on the same tablet if the mood strikes me, but the beauty of IRC is that it can run on outdated HW without much complaint.
I made a post a few months back about my favorite channels, if anyone finds them useful.
I relearn IRC every year or two for some project or interest I find that depends on it for communication ... my knowledge of it never 'sticks'. It's use is kludgy and unintuitive, and I never feel comfortable on it. Have had to quick-change my user password more than once, after accidentally broadcasting it to the World, etc.
Yes still use it, and plan to keep on using it. My FRC robotic students couldn't figure out how I knew how to make slack and discord sing... Loved breaking the news to them that the slack and discord were not new in the slightest. Had to think how long I've been using IRC, guess for over 20 years?
Take care,
Dr. WaSaBi (a.k.a. Russ)
I lurk on Quakenet for Xonotic because that game hasn't joined the 21st century yet. I like the idea of using IRC more but I never really start
Xonotic's irc channels are bridged to Matrix and (oh no) Discord, if you'd rather use something else.
The Australian contingent still seems to mainly be on IRC. The Discord has an Australian channel but when I was on there there didn't appear to be any activity
Not regularly. Though I've certainly used it within the last year.
Some years back, IRC was the chat platform for our subreddit. That was the last time I used it with regularity.
Now I only use IRC when I stumble upon some subreddit that hasn't switch over to Discord and I'm looking for an immediate answer to something.
I'm still active on Efnet, for better or worse. I think all know it's WORSE! Haha. But I've been on Efnet for so many years and there are still some hangers on around that I'm close with and I can't give it up.
Occasionally I will check out some things on Freenode but that's less and less these days.
I can't believe I spent 1999-2008 practically living on Dalnet. Those were dark days. One of the deepest darkest abysses of the internet. Somehow I've only really been involved in "friendly" (for Efnet) channels on Efnet, so despite the reputation it has, I've had a pretty good experience.
My only use for IRC these days is filesharing. Torrenting is heavily monitored in germany, and I have to admit the workflow of signing up to a 1337warezZz channel and messaging a bot to send a file feels very cyberpunk to me.
Then again I rarely download anything anymore. It's a bit sad to see it go...
To be honest, IRC filesharing was way better than torrents for the simple reason that bytes came in sequentially. When Doctor Who started up again in 2005 I was able to start a download about 10 minutes after it finished airing in the UK and the transfer rate was higher than the encoding rate, so I could pretty much just start watching as soon as the transfer started.
No, but that's mostly because I don't really chat generally. I only care about instant feedback when it's with someone I care for, and those people I just use text messages, usually.
Honestly, even in the past, I didn't care much for random chats. The closest thing I regularly accessed was when there was a role-playing element, such as when playing MUDs and in MUCKs.
The thing that changed was how much I was looking for other people for support. I was really lonely as a teenager, so I spent a lot of time trying to connect with people. Now I'm fairly self sufficient and don't feel the need to make new friends, and I'm spending most of my time improving the quality of the relationships I have.
I used it the other day to get in touch with some of the developers of Alpine Linux. Nice experience overall.
On a related note - What IRC client are people using on Windows these days? I use IRSSI on my Debian machine but I've never really found a client I love on Windows.
Have you tried running Irsii on the Windows Subsystem for Linux? I feel like it should work.
Honestly I always just assumed WSL would be paywalled like Hyper-V.. It would appear that it is not...
I use Quassel IRC. The cool thing is that it has a client-server architecture, so I can run a headless core on RPi which is always connected to IRC, and I can comfortably connect to that core using a graphical frontend.
The default frontend is written in Qt, so it should work nicely on Windows as well, but there are web and Android versions available as well.
I haven't used IRC for maybe 10 years.
I tried recently. Installed and configured weechat, joined #voidlinux and other channels on freenode, but it was meh. I don't have much to talk about and when i have i prefer sites like here or other forums because the discussions lasts longer. The talking on IRC are too short and fast paced.
I first used irc back in 1992 for a handful of years, then stopped for a good decade or so. Since then, i guess i've hopped on a channel once per year max. I loved it back in the early 90's, because back then - even before i truly knew what "cyberpunk" meant - as @fazit put it best, irc...
And, that to me is awesome! Even to this day, only matrix comes close to feeling cyberpunk; while almost everything else (slack, other IM platforms, etc.) feels like some sort of plush, plastic, cheesy, eye-candy. Though, as much as i love matrix, i do agree with @vegai that the complexity is less than ideal. However, i have this feeling (and i don't know why) that matrix will become the basis of so many essential comms in the future, when code libraries, clients, and servers vastly improve and become easier to manage and deploy. Maybe because matrix feels hackable like irc used to make me feel, but thats' where i've been spending my time on.
(Side note: while i don't use irc these days, shot out to the protocol that helped me fall in love with connecting with the world!)
I read a few freenode channels, mostly for FLOSS projects. It's also quite good for finding pirated acestreams for Formula 1 races :-)
I do! At least, on occasion. It's not my primary place to hang out, but I much prefer chatting on it to something like Discord, and it's generally quite chill these days since not that many people still use it. I've hears there's a project out there that can bridge a bunch of your social networks (like Discord, Twitter, etc.) to IRC, but I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet. Would definitely use it a lot more if that works, namely for Discord.
I still use IRC, though primarily just for getting tech support for FLOSS projects. In the more populous channels, I get some great help.
My co-workers think I'm a wizard when they come to me with a postgres/ruby/rails question and I get an answer to it on IRC. None of them know about the quality of IRC as a tech support resource.
Heck yeah I use it! I have a hard time finding a good way to use the servers that are blocked off. I've got ssh tunnels set up right now, but I need to figure out a better way, like a bouncer. (Tips are welcome!)
RN, I'm most active on #gemini at tilde.chat. Sometimes I hit up #meta, but .... it's weird sometimes too.
I only use it when I try to get to the mods of AnimeBytes to reactivate my account. My efforts have been in vain for the past two months though
I don't use it so much, but I feel like I'm missing out. I want to get back to that at some point.
I'm still basically in two IRC channels which I've been in for something like two decades now. They're pretty quiet these days. For one of the channels the people have mostly moved to Slack and Discord.
It'd be nice if there were one good place where things could migrate. I'm am getting sort of tired of paying IRCCloud to have a not-ass IRC experience.