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Why I Live in IRC (2015)

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Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#71

Post by livueta »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #19
swozey wrote: post #14

I was an ircop on efnet for like half my childhood until they figured out I wasn't 18 and desynced my server. I just could never go back to IRC. I stopped using it probably 15 years ago or more after using it for 20ish years. Got my first job on it, learned linux and networking through it, definitely propelled my career. TOO many bots log entire channels out to public html sites. This is prevalent in everything like…

You hit the nail on the head when it comes to why people don't use IRC anymore. Missing messages because you're not online is simply unacceptable to today's audience, and running a bouncer is too technical for most folks. Using a shared bouncer like IRCCloud isn't feasible since they get abused and the entire provider often gets banned. I still use IRC (For nearly 30 years now!) and am in a channel that is still high…

Unreal at least makes it pretty easy to cloak IPs via server config, so there's no window before registering for a vhost where your info is available to normal users: https://www.unrealircd.org/docs/Cloaking

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#72

Post by mysteria »

lmm wrote: post #68
iotku wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Matrix is the modern IRC alternative, not discord. But simultaneously Matrix is not a good enough Discord alternative. Too much friction, too many issues, and still difficult for non-technical users. The reason Discord won out is you can just send a link to somebody and they're already on-boarded.

Even Discord is too hard for non-technical people. My attempt at a family server has dozens of stale accounts belonging to my parents. As much as it infuriates me, I now understand why WhatsApp is phone-only.

If you want a family server you will have to set it up for your non-technical family members if you want them to use it. You have to be the IT person and create the accounts, join the rooms, and so forth. Then you get them to install the app, give them the login, and help them change the password.

Once that's all out of the way they should be able to just click on the app and chat hassle free.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#73

Post by lmm »

mysteria wrote: post #72
lmm wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even Discord is too hard for non-technical people. My attempt at a family server has dozens of stale accounts belonging to my parents. As much as it infuriates me, I now understand why WhatsApp is phone-only.

If you want a family server you will have to set it up for your non-technical family members if you want them to use it. You have to be the IT person and create the accounts, join the rooms, and so forth. Then you get them to install the app, give them the login, and help them change the password. Once that's all out of the way they should be able to just click on the app and chat hassle free.

> You have to be the IT person and create the accounts, join the rooms, and so forth. Then you get them to install the app, give them the login, and help them change the password.

I did all that. It wasn't enough. They kept getting another family member to send them a new invite and then manage to somehow create a new account in the web UI each time. I guess that workflow worked for them so they didn't want to change it.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#74

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

robobro wrote: post #27
bitwize wrote: post #8

All the action is on Discord and Mastodon these days.

Mastodon? Do you mean Fediverse / Activitypub? No one should call IRC "mirc", email "outlook", or the web "chrome", come on bro.

It is routinely called Mastodon. Your response is a fantastic example of why nerd communities suck.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#75

Post by encom »

iotku wrote: post #59
rubinlinux wrote: post #51

Surprised no one even mentioned the matrix protocol yet. Its still very rough around the edges, but for an old school IRC person talk of Discord as an alternative just hurts me. Do I want my community to be completely owned by a corporation, so that all the work we put into the network effect belongs to a company and they can impose/change rules at any moment? Have we learned nothing? Matrix is the modern IRC alterna…

>Matrix is the modern IRC alternative, not discord. But simultaneously Matrix is not a good enough Discord alternative. Too much friction, too many issues, and still difficult for non-technical users. The reason Discord won out is you can just send a link to somebody and they're already on-boarded.

>just send a link to somebody and they're already on-boarded

Yes, after you give Discord Inc. your phone number.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#76

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

I kind of miss IRC, but it was probably for a different ‘me’. I ran my own network, with lots of people on it, when I was like…13! Nobody should’ve let me do that. But it was what had me cut my teeth on FreeBSD and Linux. I wrote my own weird UnrealIRCd configuration generator with Perl. IRC bots! Again, with Perl. For all IRC’s downsides vs modern IM services, it sure was easy to start with socket programming and get a bot together quickly. “Scrolling” ASCII images! mIRC colour codes! PP4L! I remember getting help with installing Gentoo on Freenode #gentoo (or was it ##gentoo?), also as a 14 year old. I’d at times love to say that all that knowledge has exited me, but for better or worse some of it remains.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#77

Post by cqqxo4zV46cp »

dangus wrote: post #20

No mention was ever made of why anyone would want their life filled with so many damn notifications. Half of these seem more appropriate for email, and email is already set up to handle them with zero configuration (like GitHub). Twitter, who cares, that’s a time waster. Home surveillance stuff is also a waste of time. It is basically entirely ineffective, every petty criminal knows to wear a mask and clearance rates…

Thank God that you’re here to make sure that people don’t enjoy the wrong things.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#78

Post by gaws »

swozey wrote: post #14

I was an ircop on efnet for like half my childhood until they figured out I wasn't 18 and desynced my server. I just could never go back to IRC. I stopped using it probably 15 years ago or more after using it for 20ish years. Got my first job on it, learned linux and networking through it, definitely propelled my career. TOO many bots log entire channels out to public html sites. This is prevalent in everything like…

> TOO many bots log entire channels out to public html sites

These sites exist? Examples?

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#79

Post by zeamp »

Back in the late 90s, my IRC server was rejected for linking on EFnet because my uplink was known to host rather shady suspects. Some IRC folks would go on to make the FBI's most wanted list for DDoSing satellites. My equipment was seized and never returned even though I was only being housed in the building, unrelated to the case itself. The data center owner and I are friends and he ran an amazing network, one of the best colocation facilities of its time in such limited space.

I ended up getting back "in" with irc.home .com (@Home Cable), on their re-linking efforts. Around these times, we still had big names on IRC, universities, America Online even.

I would go on to be linked to HybNet (Hey, Dianora, Hardy, everyone I'm forgetting) testing ircd-hybrid, the IRC server software that powered much of EFnet at the time. Since EFnet had no services, the server's software and its ircops were extremely important to the network. I would later mess with TCM and other auto-regulators, leading into my interest of bot making. Everyone's hailing ChatGPT when we'd write our own SmarterChild, and it could connect to AIM -AND- IRC -AND- Web.

20....25... nearing 30 years later, I'm still on EFnet. My channel is still active, and yes I have quite a few bots. I also still talk to a few friends, some who are still IRC only for privacy or other reasons. We've lost over 100,000+ users, but I still enjoy randomly typing /list thinking I'm going to crash myself with the upcoming flood of activity. Not quite, but it feels good.

Also, DALnet services banned me for hacking them and I think I'm still banned.

Thanks for listening to my IRC Talk.

Re: Why I Live in IRC (2015)

#80

Post by Al-Khwarizmi »

lmm wrote: post #68
iotku wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Matrix is the modern IRC alternative, not discord. But simultaneously Matrix is not a good enough Discord alternative. Too much friction, too many issues, and still difficult for non-technical users. The reason Discord won out is you can just send a link to somebody and they're already on-boarded.

Even Discord is too hard for non-technical people. My attempt at a family server has dozens of stale accounts belonging to my parents. As much as it infuriates me, I now understand why WhatsApp is phone-only.

I don't think being phone-only is the key there. Telegram is not phone-only and I'd say it's as easy to use as WhatsApp. In fact, for non-technical people it essentially behaves as a blue WhatsApp and I've heard it described exactly like that, but if you want to go beyond that, the functionality is there. This kind of software that can accommodate several "levels" of users is sadly becoming rarer and rarer.

Discord is IMO quite a mess. I am definitely a technical user (also lived in IRC for years, that's why I'm on this thread) and as someone who just uses Discord from time to time, I regularly get confused by it and find a nontrivial amount of friction to get things done there. No wonder your parents struggle with it.

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