Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 109 posts

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#61

Post by claudiawerner »

brozaman wrote: post #15

I was born in the 90s so I never used IRC outside work. I used it for work on a daily basis until a couple weeks ago, and I hate it with passion. The vpn drops and you miss messages. You are offline you miss messages, don't want to miss messages? set up a relay (seriously?!). Now I'm on a team which uses slack, and I miss how lightweight hexchat is, but in terms of being able to use it my phone and having something t…

>You are offline you miss messages, don't want to miss messages? set up a relay (seriously?!).

...Yeah. From installing znc from your favourite package manager to having it set up and running in your client is all of ten minutes, with SSL, auto-joins, channel history and all. Is it a barrier? Yeah. Is it so much of a barrier that it would push someone concerned about centralized services and proprietary software to just give up and use Slack? I don't think so.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#62

Post by bdd »

I miss the kind strangers who genuinely cared about helping others without being abrasive jerks. I learned a lot on IRC; made many new friends. This was back in 1994–98 when I was growing up in Turkey. The scene was rather small yet still full of kind enthusiasts. Sure there was some passingly “oh you’re a n00b” messing but it wasn’t toxic. EFNet and DalNet were a bit more different. Maybe less kind but still full of helpful people. If you weren’t grossly stepping out of boundaries of netiquette, you’d get treated with reciprocal dignity.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#63

Post by taborj »

rimunroe wrote: post #13
hlandau wrote: post #5

This experience still exists, but you have to find smaller channels where people come to know one another as regulars. The smaller networks and channels still exist and they have a good community vibe. Of course, it's hard to find out about these channels. IME it takes time to find the small channels (or the small networks, there are many networks tiny enough for nobody to know about unless they've been invited). Try…

I met my partner in one such channel about five years ago. We’re getting married this October. A lot of the guest list for our wedding is made of folks we met on IRC.

Now this takes me back. Stories like this were relatively common back in the 90s.

Congrats!

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#64

Post by qplex »

sidek wrote: post #33

I miss IRC deeply. We had an internet with an amazing, people-run, free, chat network. And we replaced it with corporate things like facebook messenger/discord where you're the product.

I find the modern (free) alternatives are more reliable.

No more netsplits. I can't remember the last time I couldn't send a message because of a technical reason.

But I do miss the culture of the old net and IRC. These days only small islands of it remain.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#66

Post by procinct »

chapium wrote: post #53
brozaman wrote: post #15

I was born in the 90s so I never used IRC outside work. I used it for work on a daily basis until a couple weeks ago, and I hate it with passion. The vpn drops and you miss messages. You are offline you miss messages, don't want to miss messages? set up a relay (seriously?!). Now I'm on a team which uses slack, and I miss how lightweight hexchat is, but in terms of being able to use it my phone and having something t…

Many people use gnu screen to connect to a session and never log out.

Until you turn your computer off I suppose. Could always set up a server running screen or tmux and ssh into it each time I suppose.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#67

Post by WnZ39p0Dgydaz1 »

You can find very similar communities on Discord today. You may argue that Discord is a totally different vibe, full of kids, spam, memes, and rude people. And you would right, but that's pretty much what most IRC channels, especially those related to gaming, were in the early days as well. You have to go around and look hard to find channels that are different, but they exist.

So, maybe the reason that you don't feel it's the same vibe is not only because technology has changed, but also because you have changed. I also have fond memories of my IRC time in the 90s, but I believe I'm looking at them with rose-colored glasses and not everything was as amazing as I remember it to be.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#68

Post by tbrock »

ibotty wrote: post #24
brozaman wrote: post #15

I was born in the 90s so I never used IRC outside work. I used it for work on a daily basis until a couple weeks ago, and I hate it with passion. The vpn drops and you miss messages. You are offline you miss messages, don't want to miss messages? set up a relay (seriously?!). Now I'm on a team which uses slack, and I miss how lightweight hexchat is, but in terms of being able to use it my phone and having something t…

You can use slack via weechat. It works pretty reliable. Better not use slack though but an open protocol.

It’s pretty bad, I tried but it was awful.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#69

Post by tehlike »

bdd wrote: post #62

I miss the kind strangers who genuinely cared about helping others without being abrasive jerks. I learned a lot on IRC; made many new friends. This was back in 1994–98 when I was growing up in Turkey. The scene was rather small yet still full of kind enthusiasts. Sure there was some passingly “oh you’re a n00b” messing but it wasn’t toxic. EFNet and DalNet were a bit more different. Maybe less kind but still full of…

Once something goes from niche to mainstream, the quality of the community drops, almost by definition.

Internet was a fun place when enthusiasts had their own websites written in cgi/perl/asp back in the day, and sharing was caring.

I think this is why people praise ham radio community because it never went mainstream. Pick any sport that is niche, it is similar.

Re: Ask HN: Do You Miss IRC?

#70

Post by pmoriarty »

bdd wrote: post #62

I miss the kind strangers who genuinely cared about helping others without being abrasive jerks. I learned a lot on IRC; made many new friends. This was back in 1994–98 when I was growing up in Turkey. The scene was rather small yet still full of kind enthusiasts. Sure there was some passingly “oh you’re a n00b” messing but it wasn’t toxic. EFNet and DalNet were a bit more different. Maybe less kind but still full of…

Honestly, I used to see a lot more abrasive jerks on the IRC of old.

Lots of RTFM and refusing to answer direct technical questions because "why would you want to do that?"

Some channels, like #politics on efnet were true cesspools.

In contrast, my later experience with FreeNode has been consistently helpful on virtually every channel I've been to, except for #paludis, which really was full of jerks. I've seen trolls maybe once every year or two on FreeNode and they've been swiftly dealt with, rarely to be seen again.

I guess your mileage will vary depending on which channels and networks you visit, though.

Post reply on HN