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

Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

blog.mibbit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 178 posts

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#101

Post by ankhmoop »

Jem wrote: post #74
ankhmoop wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally, I'd prefer to see reasoned responses to sho's comments, rather than sniping remarks ("elitist cack"), and downvoting into oblivion. I tend to agree with sho, and alternative, reasoned viewpoints would be enlightening.

Right, because insinuating anyone who uses mibbit is incapable of installing an IRC client is not a sniping remark? I have no problem with basic aptitude tests. I have no problem with restricting a community to the technically literate. What I have a problem with is the assumption that anyone choosing to use X over Y is some kind of moron.

Right, because insinuating anyone who uses mibbit is incapable of installing an IRC client is not a sniping remark?

No, simply that as an initial barrier to entry for a technical community, "browsing to a web page" isn't very difficult and serves poorly as a first-pass filter.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#103

Post by stcredzero »

sho wrote: post #16
ankhmoop wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who has been placed in the position of semi-regularly banning mibbit from freenode OSS project channels due to abusive users, I can't see how this is a bad thing. The quality of user was exceptionally low, and "easy webchat" simply doesn't seem like a strong value proposition for the technical users that frequent the network.

Agreed. Maybe it's not very nice, but I kind of think that anyone incapable of installing a proper IRC client probably shouldn't be using IRC in the first place. The situation on, say, the ruby-talk mailing list is analogous; whenever you see a really, really stupid question, check out the submitter - chances are it's through one of the web interfaces to the ML. The necessity of installing and configuring an IRC clie…

The necessity of installing and configuring an IRC client to use freenode is an example of a good barrier to entry.

Doesn't strike me as good enough of a barrier. Then you still get a lot of idiots who think they are elite just because they can set up a client. Not sure that's improved the situation that much.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#104

Post by pygy »

abstractbill wrote: post #59
froo wrote: post #20

I know the "official" reason, but I'm curious if there's any correlation between the blocking of mibbit and axod's post about how much revenue mibbit was making here ( http://axod.blogspot.com/2009/06/revenue-browser.html ) - the timing is awfully suspicious. I mean, a day after the post they "magically" have their own web client up that they would rather you use. I had a look at the qwebirc client they implemented,…

assistance with ban evasion in exchange for money That is absurd.

I'd say paranoid.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#105

Post by stcredzero »

sho wrote: post #39
Jem wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elitist cack. I can think of several times I've used mibbit to pop in to #startups (or another channel on another network) because installing an IRC client just isn't possible (lack of admin rights, on someone else's computer, etc).

"Elitist cack" Not at all. It's like a short, basic aptitude test before you're able to join a recreational sports team, or maybe a driving test. Just shows that you know the ropes at least a bit, you have at least basic competence. Remove that and people can just bomb in on anyone's conversation in real time, from any browser, no consequences, nothing. Is that really what you want? I object to your use of the word "…

Someone's basic technical competence, and the effort they've put in to do something, is a pretty reliable guide to the quality of their contribution, whatever it might be. When I see someone has a free blog on wordpress.com or what not, I instantly assume they either do not care or do not know how to set up their own system.

What about actually looking at their contribution and judging it on its own merits?

Isn't this just like judging someone's talk by how they look or judging a book by its cover? Isn't this the same principle as racial profiling? You take a factor which seems to have a correlation but which is incidental to what you're really trying to determine?

For that matter, isn't it like, "that new VM can't be that much better. Aren't our VM guys really smart?"

The really annoying thing about the Pointy Haired Bosses is their constant use of such heuristics in evaluating technology. It's when we see how their heuristics are maddeningly wrong when they dismay us the most.

I propose that we techies would be better served by eschewing such sloppy heuristics and actually evaluating technology and technical expertise. We have big brains, so we can just reserve judgment on the rest until we have actual evidence.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#107

Post by simonw »

ankhmoop wrote: post #96
swombat wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your honour, I thought he might object to being shot, but after I did it, he never ever raised the question! If that's not silent agreement, I don't know what is!"

If a project developer, active user, or someone else with genuine stake in the project community complained, we'd pay attention ... but nobody has, despite the numerous venues available to them to do so. Your honour. It's not our responsibility to account for, be accountable to, or be concerned for outliers.

I'm a project developer (Django + other things), IRC has been blocked at my last two places of work and I've often used mibbit, which I found to be an excellent client - better than many desktop clients in fact. Please consider this a complaint.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#108

Post by randallsquared »

JeremyChase wrote: post #65

If freenode is really having that much difficulty with Mibbit clients, why not allow individual channels to allow/deny Mibbit clients.

Well, just from the threads here, apparently they're not really having any difficulty with Mibbit; they just saw an opportunity to bring that traffic in-house.

Re: Freenode has blocked the Mibbit client permanently.

#109

Post by ankhmoop »

simonw wrote: post #107
ankhmoop wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a project developer, active user, or someone else with genuine stake in the project community complained, we'd pay attention ... but nobody has, despite the numerous venues available to them to do so. Your honour. It's not our responsibility to account for, be accountable to, or be concerned for outliers.

I'm a project developer (Django + other things), IRC has been blocked at my last two places of work and I've often used mibbit, which I found to be an excellent client - better than many desktop clients in fact. Please consider this a complaint.

Then if the Django IRC channel has banned Mibbit, I suggest you speak with them -- assuming Freenode decides that expending volunteer services to support a commercial service is a worthwhile venture.

Otherwise, there's the freenode web IRC interface.

Post reply on HN