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Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#92
I use IRC every day. I use it to work with others on opensource projects and many of my past interns and I use it to stay in touch daily, creating a very helpful network. My current interns can get help from not only ne, but people who used to work for me. It's a great networking tool.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#94

Earlier 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…

Ive done this, it is amazingly productive. We had jabber server at one place, and all 10 devs were in the same room physically, as well as the chats: #dev #dev_pvt #dev_funny #dev_offtopic #bugs as well as having a dozen side conversations, and talking out loud in the room. Never too much time blocking on conversations, and easily ignorable when working on something deep, but since physical presence is happening, anything super important can trigger an "out loud" interrupt.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#95
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.

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

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#96
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 think we use plain ircd as a server software. As for the authentication, we have shell servers to run irssi with in the same LAN, so we haven't perceived need for any additional auth on the ircd.

edit: we also have invite-only channels on ircnet

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#97
post #67
post #10

People with tiling window managers seem to IRC a lot.

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.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#98
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IRC network actually - irc.perl.org is 6 servers, four of them on Shadowcat's hardware, the others donated by individual members of the perl community.

Yet #perl6 is on freenode.

I assume there is also other perl activity on freenode because it comes high on the IRC stats at http://langpop.com

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#100
I hang out on 3 networks. I am on Freenode for a few different projects I support and associated chat channels that I've been at for years. I am on StarLink, a small network, for the two channels associated with Alpha & Omega Ministries. I am on EFNet for one specific channel of a website.

I also use a local bitlebee server for instant messaging.

All in irssi with screen on a local server in my house.

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