Ask HN: Anyone still using IRC?

17 pointsby ericzawovor 10 Jahren26 comments

I used to idle for years and years in various sourceforge channels and grew up making friends with some incredibly interesting people. I know this might be with nostalgia glasses on, but are there any active IRC channels or has that largely been replaced by the Reddits and social networks (and HN threads ;) of today?

Do you still use IRC? What for?

27 comments

akulbevor 10 Jahren

Nearly every day for the past 15+ years. Social networks come and go. IRC has remained consistent for me all that time. I'm on to give/get technical help, and socialize. In that order. :)

also, for the curious... irssi is my client of choice. I've tried out so many different clients. I always end up coming back to irssi.

atmosxvor 10 Jahren

weechat is like the netx-gen of irssi, which you didn't like?

akulbevor 10 Jahren

Unfamiliarity, mostly. Already have a solid config I've been using with irssi for years.

Takes time to learn new stuff well. I just prioritized other new stuff higher. ;)

rajinder_yadavvor 10 Jahren

I am getting back into IRC, it's more immediate. I just started to look into ember and I got stuck on their tutorial. I jumped on the IRC channel and someone help me out. It's somewhat hit and miss with the community. I've been on other IRC channels and all you hear are crickets.

danfruvor 10 Jahren

We use it for group chat. We're a bit of dinosaurs, I know.

While there I also join channels of projects I'm interested in, for instance #pcbsd, #fedora, #chef. Obviously we're on freenode.

IRC is free and works on any platform. It's old, but for our needs works great.

jarcanevor 10 Jahren

I wouldn't be without it for programming. Most of my daily languages have active IRC channels on freenode. The only exception seems to be F#, where chat has indeed moved to a slack channel.

Olognvor 10 Jahren

Yes, Freenode has lots of channels for various technologies. It has some more general channels as well.

There are other more specific tech networks like Gimpnet which is Gnome-heavy, OFTC which is Debian heavy, and Mozilla which is Firefox-heavy. But Freenode is the big tech one.

jarcanevor 10 Jahren

Yeah, I keep Moznet running for the awesome #rust channel.

herbstvor 10 Jahren

Sure. Technical Questions are answered and discussed faster on IRC than anywhere else. Nearly all software i regulary work with has active IRC channels as well. (See: Everything Linux to Rails)

Spoomvor 10 Jahren

Yep. Run a network with some friends of mine. We're generally on during the EST work day shooting the shit. Servers on both coasts of the US and one in Europe. irc.binarii.wtf , we tend to be in #binarii but feel free to join your own channels if you prefer. Webchat available here: http://webchat.binarii.wtf/kiwi/

heldridavor 10 Jahren

Yeah, almost every day, to get support on any popular open source library, etc, that's where the community exchange info. If you're on OSX I suggest trying LimeChat (the best irc client I've used but only available on osx), but if that's too much you can use the web client ( http://webchat.freenode.net/ ).

kfullertvor 10 Jahren

Yes, I'm in IRC channels for a LUG (general social chat) and a hosting provider (low-priority support things, plus more technical-based chat), plus I idle and am in the top-10 "idlers" for IdleRPG (#G7 on Slashnet) http://idlerpg.net/

dllthomasvor 10 Jahren

I literally just switched from an IRC window, refreshed HN, and this popped up.

I idle in #snowdrift and #haskell and a few others.

jneumann004vor 10 Jahren

I tried to use IRC in the past, but I never really got involved in any conversations. I now use Slack daily and I have found that I get involved. I don't know if this is a result of the medium being used or the other people on the channels.

eswatvor 10 Jahren

I just hang out in one channel, of an old Half-Life 2 mod where those still left have been there for 15 years. Been cool to still keep in contact and see where people progress in their life throughout those years.

textreadvor 10 Jahren

Tangent: Guys, which channel do you recommend to someone who is knees deep into Algorithms, Correctness Proofs and Discrete Maths self study process.

davidwvor 10 Jahren

There's a #startups on Freenode. And a bunch of other channels. Lots of great stuff if you hit the sweet spot between too small to have anyone, and too big to function properly.

rajinder_yadavvor 10 Jahren

How do I join this channel? I get this error:

00:47] [Channel] Cannot join channel (+r) - you need to be identified with services

rammvor 10 Jahren

You have to register your nick and identify to access some of the channels.

https://freenode.net/faq.shtml#userregistration

kspaansvor 10 Jahren

All day, every day for chatting with friends, and interacting with some FLOSS projects. At work I use Slack, though.

detarovor 10 Jahren

Only recently started using it seriously, mostly for different open-source projects and communities.

Tiksivor 10 Jahren

Yup, even run my own irc server. Don't plan on moving away from irc any time soon.

escapvor 10 Jahren

see http://irclog.whitequark.org/ for a few channels used. This particular selection is around linux on various ARM boards and phones.

mobiuscogvor 10 Jahren

I believe a few people use it on Twitch ;)

tmalyvor 10 Jahren

once in a blue moon. I do not really like the client on the phone, and I do not have access at work to IRC

[deleted]vor 10 Jahren

usermacvor 10 Jahren

I do still use it.