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Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#121

Post by joezydeco »

spudlyo wrote: post #7

I hang out on a private IRC server with about 15 folks, mostly old friends of mine working in various parts of the industry. It's primarily a place to talk about geeky topics and complain about work.

Same here. We've had a private channel running for over a decade now and as people move to new jobs and shuffle around, the channel is always home.

We've even built a bot to capture URLs and tweet them to a private handle so people can check out sites after work or while away from the channel.

To the person asking if IRC is distracting, it's a LOT less distracting than the hipster that sits next to me and is constantly checking his smartphone every time an SMS comes in. Pavlov would roll over in his grave.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#122

Post by notmyname »

slowpoison wrote: post #116
notmyname wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use znc running on a slice. ( http://en.znc.in/wiki/ZNC ) I've also heard of Bip ( http://bip.t1r.net/ ), but I've never used it.

What exactly is "running on a slice"?

exactly what wrs said.

I run znc on a small VPS instance that is always running, always up, so I don't have to worry about keeping my connection to an IRC server open. ZNC (the bouncer) keeps me logged in to the IRC server, and I connect to ZNC when I need to be in contact with others.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#123

Post by Sukotto »

mitjak wrote: post #93
Sukotto wrote: post #87

Not on iPhone they aren't :-( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306

Wrong link?

yes. I meant to post the one about the Rooms IRC client for iPhone getting approved for the AppStore then getting pulled minutes later. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560753

Ironic, and possible relevant.

Personally I do not use IRC. My work blocks it unless I want to court a reprimand by finding those few servers with non-standard port numbers.

At home, I'm too busy with wife and kids, and whatnot to spend any real time chatting. Most of my online activities are batched to only occur once or twice a day which pretty much precludes irc.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#124

Post by superuser2 »

sandGorgon wrote: post #78
zokier wrote: post #42

imho great deal of IRC's greatness comes from irssi, an awesome client for it. It has a learning curve though, especially if you are not familiar with screen (or tmux). While you can run it locally, it really shines when you run it in a server inside a screen session, connected via ssh. Each phone I have had in the past 5 years has had a ssh client available, so I could just attach to my session and have the exactly…

which IRC server do you guys use ? I have long wanted to set up an private IRC server for our workplace, but got lost in the zillions of complicated IRC server setups. Do you use it over VPN .... or have you set it up to use some kind of authentication ? It would be great if you could help.

I've investigated this possibilty and found that OpenFire (Jabber server) is very easy to work with. You can control user account centrally, and create rooms and assign who can access which rooms, from a web GUI. I've yet to see an IRC server that easy.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#125

Post by ehsanul »

sophacles wrote: post #97
ehsanul wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A recommendation on a good console-based IRC client that doesn't use the alt-key for any shortcuts (interferes with my XMonad setup)?

Just curious, why not have the windows key be your primary meta for XMonad? In general I try and use that key for my WM shortcuts since most apps don't use it.

Because it's slightly less convenient for my thumb to reach, and just feels unnatural: it causes an ever-so-slight strain as I try to keep my fingers on the keyboard's home row. Yes, I can be pretty finicky sometimes. I know I'd probably get used to it if I tried, but it's rare for me to need alt for applications.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#126

Post by programmer7 »

notmyname wrote: post #64
rufugee wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share the name of the bouncer? Sounds like nice functionality...

I use znc running on a slice. ( http://en.znc.in/wiki/ZNC ) I've also heard of Bip ( http://bip.t1r.net/ ), but I've never used it.

Thanks I started using ZNC since yesterday. Finding it awesome!

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#127

Post by p858snake »

sophacles wrote: post #95
sandGorgon wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

which IRC server do you guys use ? I have long wanted to set up an private IRC server for our workplace, but got lost in the zillions of complicated IRC server setups. Do you use it over VPN .... or have you set it up to use some kind of authentication ? It would be great if you could help.

Jabber servers works really well for workplaces... they have chat rooms and private communications.

So does I.R.C.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#129

Post by neilk »

IRC is one of the primary communication tools for Wikipedia and its sister projects. The community is so distributed, coordinating meetings using UTC time becomes second nature.

There are dozens and dozens of channels. This page attempts to track just some of them.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels

And even the non-technical staffers at the Wikimedia Foundation hold "office hours" on IRC from time to time.

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours

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