I still use IRC, mainly in #esoteric on Freenode but also sometimes others. I think that IRC is much better than many of the more modern protocols. (You can even use IRC without specialized software, and I have occasionally done so on computers before the IRC client is set up.)
Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
211–220 of 254 posts
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#212This `Ask HN` prompted me to give a look on bash.org after more than 10 years!
LOL
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#213I could not do my job as a security engineer without Freenode and irc.hashbang.sh
Honestly IRC is better now than it ever was.
All the skiddies and people that chase the latest hot centralized proprietary web based gif machines are gone leaving only thousands of highly experienced folks who understand how computers work at a low level, maintain their own personal and server operating systems, and love a good problem to dig into and solve.
We also love the random curious new-world person that wanders in wanting to learn our ways ;)
If you are wondering where all the maintainers to your favorite FOSS software are... They never left IRC because they largely prefer to keep the internet decentralized and support open standards.
About the only thing competing with IRC is matrix.org which even has a fancy GUI if you are into that... And it bridges to IRC so you can join those channels too.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I still find it the least "invasive" Doesn't it just broadcast your IP address pretty plainly?
Who really cares in this day if anyone knows your IP? It's not like that many of us are running servers from our home connection and thus vulnerable in some particularly pointed way. Behind a NAT you're pretty much fine unless some nation-state is out to get you.
You haven't used IRC much, have you? Maybe it's become a more civil place, but years ago exploits and DOS attacks over some stupid dispute were common.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#215I still use it, because Freenode is an amazing resource.
The fact that matrix/discord/slack are becoming more common in open source projects makes a bit sad, matrix a little less so but still. Matrix is neat in its idea of federating without having to trust other matrix servers, but the protocol is less than friendly in many ways. Its not nearly as simple as the REST JSON API the docs espouse. If its any indication of complexity there's really only one defacto matrix server implementation, there's dozens of IRC implementations. Client implementations are a little more abundant but with a wide array of feature support.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#216The only time I have ever used it was about 4 years ago to get some help on Haskell. And the only reason for using it was the community was there. Although I sensed there is a positive shibboleth effect when you meet the person in real life. So maybe IRC is good for virtue signalling / networking.
For other communities I see they are using Discord, Discourse, Reddit or Slack these days. I have no favorites, I just go along to wherever the community is. Unless it is Facebook, then sorry no, not joining FB.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#217I still use IRC.
On EFnet, I'm an op in #wow, and lurk in #geekissues. On Freenode, I lurk in #offsec and #python.
In #wow, most of the chat isn't World of Warcraft-related anymore. The amount of on-topic chat will bump up when an expansion is released, but the channel is mostly dying these days.
I first used IRC back in 1995, and some time shortly after I basically never logged off. Started using a bouncer a few years ago after someone joined a channel, started spamming racial slurs, and so I banned them, and they responded with a DDoS that knocked out my home internet connection. The fact that IRC still exposes your IP address is a pretty serious security issue.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#218IRC is, for me, perfect. It does exactly what I want and nothing I don’t need.
More and more I appreciate simple, easy to maintain, technology that isn’t bloated. IRC, basic POP email, simple HTML websites, “featureless” phones (which, incidentally, are just phones), stereo receivers, etc.
It’s so nice when you have something that just works. It’s so much less stressful. It always does what you want instantly and their is no maintenance. No updates. No loading screens.
IRC has a learning curve, sure, but it’s not hard. You learn it once and you’re done. You don’t need to read releases notes every month.
So much software dedicated to increasing efficiency or productivity just swaps time spent on old tasks with time spent on new tasks.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#219I used to use Freenode a lot but in recent years have gone elsewhere. The community just isn't what it was before and a lot of that comes down to numbers. It wasn't long ago that Freenode was the place to go for help with open source projects but I've noticed more and more an exodus to Slack, Discord et cetera. It's fairly common now to be greeted with a channel topic about this and by that point you're not going to…
To put some numbers on the board, you'd think #node.js and #javascript channels on Freenode would be massive given the ubiquity and low entry barrier of the technologies. But there are probably 10 regulars across both channels. I hang out in both daily and it's always the same people. Of course, they also suffer from the toxic personality of veterans that tend to scare away normal people. Now compare that to Elm's Sl…
>you'd think #node.js and #javascript channels on Freenode would be massive
The entire point of still hanging out on IRC is to avoid node and js-wielding hipsters, so no, I wouldn't expect those channels to be massive. IRC is still the definitive resource for anything related to sysadmin/sre/netops/mailops.
>Things like "always online" and offline messaging
That's also kinda the point. I don't want anyone who joins to be able to search everything I've said in that channel over the last 5 years. Some users may keep personal records, sure, but the history doesn't need to be highly available. Likewise with offline messaging -- if I'm saying something on IRC, I want to talk to "the room". If I want to contact someone specific I could PM them, sure, but I could also just email them like a normal person. IRC is meant to be ephemeral -- and that's what makes it so great compared to Slack/Discord.
Re: Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC?
#220Every day at work.
It's where most of the work force hangs out, lots of different channels for different topics.