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IRC is dead, long live IRC

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Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#101
post #99
post #86

I started an mIRC script site back in 1997. Young developers would email their scripts to me and I would write a very critical review of them. I did this for many months and the site quickly became one of the top IRC sites online. This momentum has carried the site all the way to 2013. While mIRC script traffic has steadily declined over the years there is still a strong community. We still have members posting mIRC…

Your site is barely recognizable now, but thanks to the Wayback machine I remember it now. You're definitely on to something with regards to young developers. I started with IRC when I was about 12, and I still remember how magical it felt. In real life I was just a kid, but on IRC and Usenet I could discuss MTG deckbuilding strategy or C++ programming with adults and they wouldn't know how young I was. And I think t…

Yes, and you've got such a captive audience with something like mIRC. Back in those days you could write a decent script and instantly get users. Today you've really got to do something special to stand out in the development community.

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#102
I'm maybe an exception since I am and have "always" been heavily involved in IRC, but IRC is still a central part of my life. My irssi session is connected to around 120 channels on 16-or-so networks right now.

I've met my fianceé on IRC, got friends for life from all over the world through IRC, got jobs and assignments through IRC and I almost daily solve complex problems with the help of my community and network of friends and contacts through IRC! I've yet to find a tool that comes even remotely close to being as useful for me as IRC.

On QuakeNet we're regularly inviting companies to have developer chats, beta-key giveaways, and we have partnership with events like Dreamhack, for example.

On DALnet we've modernized our webchat (go to http://www.dal.net and give it a shot if you don't have an IRC client installed) using qwebirc (originally written for QuakeNet; but a lot of networks have chosen to use it) and also cooperated with mibbit.com and kiwiirc.com for allowing access.

At work I also run a smaller network with around 50 colleagues more or less actively chatting and using it on a daily basis. Digital office landscape working very well for people both at the office, at home or spread out over other cities.

A lot of applications, websites and services would benefit a lot by not having to reinvent the logic of messaging again by simply writing a frontend to an IRC server and have so so so much for free. Either on their own with an IRC server, or by setting it up towards one of our existing networks. If someone is interested to discuss such ideas, please just ask here or privately!

TL;DR: IRC still kicks ass! :)

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#103

here's a question - if I want to setup a company wide IRC server, which (super easy to install) server should I go for ? Do note that I will be hosting this on EC2, so some semblance of authentication/security would be welcome.

First, consider XMPP instead.

XMPP is good for scale (we built http://www.LiveFanChat.com with it) but for simple install/ease of use IRC still rocks.

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#104
post #86

I started an mIRC script site back in 1997. Young developers would email their scripts to me and I would write a very critical review of them. I did this for many months and the site quickly became one of the top IRC sites online. This momentum has carried the site all the way to 2013. While mIRC script traffic has steadily declined over the years there is still a strong community. We still have members posting mIRC…

Hey dude! You reviewed an mIRC script I wrote around 1997. It was called DynDNS and it was for updating your IP address with dyn.ml.org, that old service that would give dial up users with changing IP addresses a static DNS CNAME.

You liked it and gave it a positive review, and at 15, that was really huge for me and kept me hungry to keep coding.

So, thanks!

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#105
post #63

I work at google campus in london, an office for startups. Many weeks ago, somebody suggested on our yammer (business social network) that we should set up an irc channel for the people who work here. The general response was along the lines of 'that still exists?', 'hey, I heard windows 3.0 is being released', etc. Shame, because I find irc to still be the best chat I've ever used. Their response was also weird, sin…

Try getting them onboard with www.hipchat.com. Even tho I still use IRC at home we use hipchat at work, and it works pretty well. The ability to easily send screengrabs and similar stuff to other users is pretty handy.

Unfortunately Hipchat won't work for my day job because the higher ups have this thing against hosted services (and given the security climate nowadays I can't entirely blame them).

Any idea of something like Hipchat but hostable internally?

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#106
post #86

I started an mIRC script site back in 1997. Young developers would email their scripts to me and I would write a very critical review of them. I did this for many months and the site quickly became one of the top IRC sites online. This momentum has carried the site all the way to 2013. While mIRC script traffic has steadily declined over the years there is still a strong community. We still have members posting mIRC…

Hey dude! You reviewed an mIRC script I wrote around 1997. It was called DynDNS and it was for updating your IP address with dyn.ml.org, that old service that would give dial up users with changing IP addresses a static DNS CNAME. You liked it and gave it a positive review, and at 15, that was really huge for me and kept me hungry to keep coding. So, thanks!

Wow, quite a testimony. Thank you! Is this it? http://www.hawkee.com/view.php?file_id=205

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#107

I work at google campus in london, an office for startups. Many weeks ago, somebody suggested on our yammer (business social network) that we should set up an irc channel for the people who work here. The general response was along the lines of 'that still exists?', 'hey, I heard windows 3.0 is being released', etc. Shame, because I find irc to still be the best chat I've ever used. Their response was also weird, sin…

IRC is nice, but I still like Zephyr, the origonal IM system, better. Except for the little problem with NAT traversal...

NAT traversal barely scratches the surface. The Zephyr protocol is a crime against nature and nature's god. :-P

(I do like the class/instance structure, though, and that's never been duplicated anywhere else as far as I know. A friend and I made a plugin for irssi that allows you to use instances on IRC, but it never caught on.)

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#108
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Today's new tech startups are run by people who missed the time window when IRC was popular. They grew up with web based chats and instant messengers.

Unless I'm old at 25: bullshit. The people who go "into tech" during college because they saw Mark Zuckerberg making dumptrucks full of money probably don't know what IRC is, but the people who had to get into IRC chats to figure out how to make linux work on our hardware (like me, and most of my peers) absolutely grew up with IRC. I grew up having friends that I met solely on IRC, and having it be a staple of the wa…

Actually that would be a good behavioral question for a job interview. "How often do you use IRC" - says alot about the person....

I've taken to using private Skype rooms a lot (which is an underutilized resource and, incidentally, can be monetized for niche markets)

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#109
post #86

I started an mIRC script site back in 1997. Young developers would email their scripts to me and I would write a very critical review of them. I did this for many months and the site quickly became one of the top IRC sites online. This momentum has carried the site all the way to 2013. While mIRC script traffic has steadily declined over the years there is still a strong community. We still have members posting mIRC…

Hey dude! You reviewed an mIRC script I wrote around 1997. It was called DynDNS and it was for updating your IP address with dyn.ml.org, that old service that would give dial up users with changing IP addresses a static DNS CNAME. You liked it and gave it a positive review, and at 15, that was really huge for me and kept me hungry to keep coding. So, thanks!

[deleted]

Re: IRC is dead, long live IRC

#110
post #91
post #70

Everything I know about computers and software is largely due to IRC. This is where I started to love hacking. So many great memories.. mIRC (A popular IRC client on windows) really got me started on programming. I learned "ifs", "for", "functions", "widget dialogs", "@window animations (and a base for game creation!)", "sockets". I remember once I had built a IRC-server running in my mIRC, with all the robots (regis…

I've been running an mIRC script site for 16 years. I wonder if you ever posted. You'd recognize my username if you did.

This nickname indeed rings a bell. I remember going mostly on mircscripts.org and scriptsdb.org toward the end of my time on irc. I spent most of my time on a french server and on undernet.
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