Nowadays, I mainly hang out on irc because of the #lesswrong channel on freenode. There is plenty of intelligent discussion, HN readers and no real topic.
Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
21–30 of 95 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#22I have always found a bunch of nice people with a lot of knowledge in the various programming and tech channels on Freenode, like #twisted and #pocoo
#debian on EFNet also has a great bunch of people.
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#23The #postgresql community on freenode has won me over many times for being mature, and absolutely competent over their domain. Solid stuff.
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#24I've found #bash to be full of very helpful people. They don't get tired at all of being asked common bash questions. On most channels, if you ask a common question, they tell you to RTFM. But not on #bash. They still tell you to RTFM, but nicely, and usually after they give you an actual answer. Especially that greybot guy.
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#25#marketmakers
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#26just connect to some popular network like freenode, and retrieve the channel list, and sort by users.
#ubuntu 1701 #archlinux 1695 #bitcoin 1602 #debian 1492 ##linux 1360 #python 1349 #freenode 1304 #haskell 1200 #Node.js 1186 #dogecoin 1120 #gentoo 1091 #git 1047 #puppet 956 ##javascript 941 #vim 936 #python-unregistered #go-nuts 893 #android 889 #bash 858 #ruby 847 #jquery 750 #postgresql 747 #litecoin 711 ##math 701 #bitcoin-otc 700 #emacs 700 #openstack 697 #docker 693 #clojure 679 #perl 653 #mysql 646 ##networking 642 #angularjs 621 ##security 611 #defocus 599 ##php 596 ##electronics 595 #nginx 584 #cisco 582 #digitalocean 569
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#27This is going to be borderline off-topic as it's not general for developers. I have to mention #clojure on freenode for being an incredibly welcoming IRC channel. The discussions you will see can be very interesting, and the community is more than often willing to help. Living in Japan, I was worried about the timezones being an issue, but there seems to be people from different parts of the world on the channel, mak…
Second on #clojure. Although I've noticed it got a bit 'crowded' the last couple of months. It sucks for me since now my questions often get drowned. :P
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#28The #postgresql community on freenode has won me over many times for being mature, and absolutely competent over their domain. Solid stuff.
Agreed. One can learn a lot of practical postgres from camping out in there.
It's also where I found out about a handy tool for demystifying EXPLAIN output: http://explain.depesz.com/
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#29just connect to some popular network like freenode, and retrieve the channel list, and sort by users. #ubuntu 1701 #archlinux 1695 #bitcoin 1602 #debian 1492 ##linux 1360 #python 1349 #freenode 1304 #haskell 1200 #Node.js 1186 #dogecoin 1120 #gentoo 1091 #git 1047 #puppet 956 ##javascript 941 #vim 936 #python-unregistered #go-nuts 893 #android 889 #bash 858 #ruby 847 #jquery 750 #postgresql 747 #litecoin 711 ##math 7…
And then pick the channels with the least users.
Re: Ask HN: Best IRC channels?
#30I have always found a bunch of nice people with a lot of knowledge in the various programming and tech channels on Freenode, like #twisted and #pocoo #debian on EFNet also has a great bunch of people.
I would head over to #debian on OFTC, since EFNet blocks Tor :( Perhaps not the same people, but still typically a sizeable room.