#kernel-panic on freenode for good Linux and tons of other good discussion. Been there for years. Active right now with 34 people. But pretty much every major FOSS project has an IRC channel, usually on freenode. Every programming language, framework, etc. is represented there. I get tons of good help there and help others as well. IRC is definitely very much alive. I rue the advent of modern one-on-one IM as it really ruins teamwork. A few months ago we threw up our own openfire jabber server and required everyone in the company to be present and it has really boosted awareness of what is going on and replaced the "hallway conversations" we were missing from our distributed development environment.
Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
111–120 of 138 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 message…
I think you may be to blame for some of this growth ;) Not that I mind...I've used IRC for ages and I'm glad to see that people are gaining interest in it again.
I started using irc in january of 2008, about the time I started using linux.
I'm on foonetic and subluminal (a new network, about 6 or 7 months old). foonetic is host to the various #xkcd- channels, as well as the main #xkcd channel. subluminal is just something some friends of mine put together. the average user count is in the twenties.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#113Yes, you can find me on #gllug (Greater London Linux User Group), #amahi (Home Server), #greyhole (folder duplication a la WHS but using Samba) all on irc.freenode.net
And of course irc.quakenet.org #|HSO| and #fidelitas :)
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#114Whatever 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.
Absolutely this. Freenode is a tremendous resource. I adore the fact that for just about any project I can tab over to IRC, /join #projectname, and have a channel full of people who can answer the big blocking question that I can't find an answer for on Google.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#115irc is very helpful when interacting with people who don't speak English as their first language, or have a very thick, difficult-to-understand accent.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#116Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#117imho 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.
InspIRCd is pretty nice and a bit less crufty than the older implementations (unreal etc.). But as others have said, depending on your needs, a simple skype groupchat might work just as well.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#118irc is still the only way to meet "the guy on the street" online. that's mainly why it still survives, despite its quirks.
i don't know what you mean by "good" server/channels, but let me say this:
back when irc was _the_ chatting medium, all the low-iq trolls that today are on the web were on irc. so the channels were ruled by a very strict dictatorship. you needed to be very lucky (or meet with real-world friends) to have a decent chat.
now that the trolls and other offenders largely moved out to the http space, i think irc has gotten its "underground" status back. this means you'll most probably find whatever you're after inside large networks. for example, if you want to know a quick fact about norway, go to #norway in undernet and shoot. somebody will reply. you need a python tip, #python in freenode is where some python gurus hang out.
i personally admire freenode for having managed to establish the "showing op status is not polite" netiquette. you can see channels with hundreds of users where not one op has shown up for ages. that was not easy to imagine not so long ago :)
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#119Earlier 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"?
Slice = virtual server at http://www.slicehost.com/
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?
#120Whatever 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.
I run ERC in Emacs - background buffers - all day long.