Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#101

Post by moxiemk1 » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 9:34 PM UTC

At the company where I work (a web startup with 100 and some odd employees, half of which are the engineers) EVERYONE uses IRC. The engineers, yes, all the teams have their own channels, general channels, etc.

But so do the support staff, the business folks, marketing, etc. Its amazing.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#102

Post by akkartik » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 9:35 PM UTC

uggedal wrote: post #57

notmyname wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use an IRC bouncer to stay logged in to the IRC servers. I connect to the bouncer, which replays anything I missed on the IRC server while I'm not logged in to the bouncer.

If you have a shell account or a vps you could just keep running irssi or weechat inside screen or tmux.

I do this. But I have a really hard time segmenting conversations. So I end up with large logs and no way to read them.

I wish there was a way to say, "show me everything from the current conversation alone". Maybe by tracking @replies or something.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#103

Post by eapen » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 9:57 PM UTC

I just got on the #reddit channel @ irc.freenode.net the other day and learnt quite a bit (about profits in the medical marijuana industry) by just hanging out there. I actually got on IRC to see if there really was anyone who still used IRC.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#104

Post by devin » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 9:58 PM UTC

Hell yes. If you don't use IRC you're missing out.

I hang out wherever I'm learning stuff (#clojure atm), and keep logs of many channels so I can search them later.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#105

Post by johngunderman » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:04 PM UTC

Freenode is excellent. As far as channels, these are the ones that I particularly like:

  ##programming
  ##compsci (a bit quiet of a channel)
  #emacs
  #haskell

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#106

Post by slashclee » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:13 PM UTC

Look at all these comments! Clearly the answer is "nope, nobody uses IRC anymore" ;)

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#107

Post by jroes » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:21 PM UTC

moxiemk1 wrote: post #101

At the company where I work (a web startup with 100 and some odd employees, half of which are the engineers) EVERYONE uses IRC. The engineers, yes, all the teams have their own channels, general channels, etc. But so do the support staff, the business folks, marketing, etc. Its amazing.

Where do you work? That's awesome.

I've always thought IRC would be a great platform for internal communication.

How many times do we open up our typically single person-to-person IM clients to figure out where to eat lunch?

How distracting is your IM client compared to IRC?

I suspect some of the younger companies with money to burn use Campfire to fill these kinds of needs.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#108

Post by jdefr89 » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:25 PM UTC

I am always idle on IRC, still love it

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#109

Post by enduser » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:31 PM UTC

I recommend running http://www.bitlbee.org/ and using irssi not only for IRC but for IM as well. For IRC I get a lot out of #pocoo on Freenode and use a private company ircd.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

#110

Post by wwortiz » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 10:32 PM UTC

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.

I had a toshiba laptop for a while where the windows key was at the top right of the keyboard, probably why I prefer stumpwm/ratpoison.