#webdev on EFnet
Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
71–80 of 138 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#72on freenode: #android-dev #webos-internals
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#73STILL use IRC? IRC is in heavier use today than ever before! Not only has the amount of networks (and servers per network) exploded the past 10 years, but so has also the global amount of users per network and IRC as a whole.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#74I run irssi on screen all the time
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#75If you're looking for a good tech community / channel to hang out in, I can recommend two. These channels are best suited for programmer / coder types who enjoy hanging out and chatting about tech stuff.
irc.darkscience.org/#darkscience irc.oftc.net/#neverfear
And their respective websites:
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
how many are active? IRC is usually full of many decent sized rooms with limited chat and mostly inactive users
This is a feature . Most of the people on an IRC channel are lurkers. And the channels are very quiet so that people can hear you when you do speak. Believe me, I wish they were quieter , because even as they are they tend to be too distracting for me to lurk there while working. It does seem creepy. Our company's salespeople laugh at the programmers because we really love to gather in one physical room, then sit sil…
I guess I don't actually find the 300-lurkers-who-never-talk channels much of a feature. Much prefer the ones with 15-30 or so semi-active users. There can still be large periods of not chatting, but you know who's there, and there's a decent chance that when someone does say something, it's relevant to you. There's a difference between sitting in a room of programmers quietly, and sitting in an auditorium of programmers!
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#77People with tiling window managers seem to IRC a lot.
That's me :(
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#78imho 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.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#79Whatever OSS projects you use have channels on freenode. Keep those open all day and lurk, you'll be amazed how much you learn from osmosis. If someone comes by with an easy question, answer it and you'll have social karma to get help from others when you need it.
I much prefer this to posting a question on a forum/stackoverflow etc type site. Probably my own impatience, but I want an answer now.
IRC is actually growing a load. It's pretty widely used. The fun thing is, I don't think anyone really realizes it, and it's still considered 'old stuff' by many.
If you look at the numbers, twitter usage is about the same as one of the tiny IRC networks in terms of volume of messages. Of course it's apples vs frogs comparison, but still... More communication is done on IRC than twitter and all the other "hot" new things.
#startups is good on freenode (If you can stand freenode and their 'ways')
#linode on oftc is great
#googleajaxapis is cool on geekshed
#mibbit is great on irc.mibbit.net :)
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#80Whatever OSS projects you use have channels on freenode. Keep those open all day and lurk, you'll be amazed how much you learn from osmosis. If someone comes by with an easy question, answer it and you'll have social karma to get help from others when you need it.
You mean you actually keep a chat window open all day long? Isn't that ridiculously distracting? I check my email twice a day, and HN the same. Anything else that could potentially distract me from what I'm doing gets turned off. I couldn't imagine giving random strangers the ability to intrude into my train of thought whenever they wanted.
Where I work we use IRC as the main way to communicate (we all telecommute) and I have a window open all day long. The secret? Tell your IRC client to make a noise whenever someone mentions your IRC nick and then ignore the IRC window until it makes the noise. Works like a charm and allows me to focus on the task at hand.