IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
koshka.love
IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
1–10 of 446 posts
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#2I haven't used IRC in a long time, but I'd be open to it, especially if it gave that "old internet" feel that I haven't been able to get from the tildaverse.
I dream of having my company use IRC for chat, and I used to fake it by using Slack through the awesome Emacs modes, but now that we're on Teams all hope is dead.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#3> Even if you have full-on Stockholm syndrome in regard to advertisers data-mining your life to sell you garbage, who knows where else your data could be going? Considering the horrific epidemic of sexual abuse being abetted and covered up in the workplace, is it really too difficult to imagine malicious actors at Discord (or any other technology company) illegitimately accessing the data of their business' users and using it for stalking or other nefarious purposes?
Maybe the author could write something based in fact, rather than their dogmatic authoritarian fan fiction?
IRC isn't viable for the pretty simple and obvious reason - it lacks features users expect. It's telling that things like Signal and Telegram have built IRC-like services (large chat rooms) not on top of IRC.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#4[deleted]
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#5I haven't used IRC in a long time, but I'd be open to it, especially if it gave that "old internet" feel that I haven't been able to get from the tildaverse. I dream of having my company use IRC for chat, and I used to fake it by using Slack through the awesome Emacs modes, but now that we're on Teams all hope is dead.
I occasionally connect to IRC on an Apple SE over wifi using an original ethernet card and a raspberry pi. Fun project.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#6I haven't used IRC in a long time, but I'd be open to it, especially if it gave that "old internet" feel that I haven't been able to get from the tildaverse. I dream of having my company use IRC for chat, and I used to fake it by using Slack through the awesome Emacs modes, but now that we're on Teams all hope is dead.
I occasionally connect to IRC on an Apple SE over wifi using an original ethernet card and a raspberry pi. Fun project.
Which client do you use? Back in the day i first loved Homer and then ircle
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#7At its core, I agree that the bare-bones nature of IRC can be wonderful. But all of the modern services like Teams, Slack and Discord, have seamlessness between client devices as their first priority. People leave their laptop, go to the bathroom, get their phone out and go on typing.
I used IRC for a brief period even after we began to have multiple devices. It was always through some kind of proxy, or basically an ssh connection through GNU screen, just so that basic functionality like asynchronous messaging worked, and so that my setup would carry over. The whole protocol you would have to build around IRC to achieve client agnosticity would arguably be more complex than IRC itself. To a point where any of the big players could introduce IRC-style channels as a fun retro feature. I'd bet more money on that feature becoming popular than on an IRC resurgence.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#8> The reliability and lack of bloat that are inherent to IRC ultimately also means that there are a number of fancy modern features that Discord has that IRC lacks, a big one being the inability to view backlogs of conversations that transpired while one was not connected to an IRC server. Although IRC does not itself provide this functionality, the extremely simple nature of IRC allows for a couple of lightweight options for reliably remaining on IRC around the clock and not missing out on a word that anyone says.
The article brushes over this, but IMO the lack of built-in backlog support is the main reason why IRC is essentially doomed. Logging isn't a "fancy" feature and telling people to just run an always-on logging service on top doesn't cut it.
Especially when there are open, federated chat protocols that don't have this problem.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#9A lot of the original ircd/ircII devs and I are on Signal these days, we had a private channel on efnet for about 25 years. Open e2e with history is pretty compelling, and decent mobile clients on top. But we still love irc.
Re: IRC is the only viable chat protocol (2022)
#10One thing I miss about IRC is the lack of a typing indicator.