13 ms·

Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

149 points by Infomus 16y ago

If so could you recommend any good Server/Channels.

ovi256 16y ago
At my previous workplace, a web devshop, we had a company channel where everyone hanged, even the CEO (when he could). Plus project-channels where we could discuss details of each project, and where we invited clients and partners that used IRC.
JangoSteve 16y ago
There's about 190* of us HN'ers in the #startups channel right now. http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/ http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/ *Maybe we're not all HN'ers, but darn close.
- Infomus 16y ago
  Heading there now!
- BJakopovic 16y ago
  how many are active? IRC is usually full of many decent sized rooms with limited chat and mostly inactive users
  - mechanical_fish 16y ago
    This is a feature. Most of the people on an IRC channel are lurkers. And the channels are very quiet so that people can hear you when you do speak. Believe me, I wish they were quieter, because even as they are they tend to be too distracting for me to lurk there while working. It does seem creepy. Our company's salespeople laugh at the programmers because we really love to gather in one physical room, then sit silently next to each other typing on laptops and communicating largely via Jabber chat and IRC, even though we are two feet away from each other. If you've never tried to concentrate on programming this seems like alien behavior, but it actually makes a lot of sense, for the same reason that it makes sense for all the Drupal devs to sit in one IRC channel but almost never speak. If you crave more chat, join more channels in parallel.
    - _delirium 16y ago
      I guess I don't actually find the 300-lurkers-who-never-talk channels much of a feature. Much prefer the ones with 15-30 or so semi-active users. There can still be large periods of not chatting, but you know who's there, and there's a decent chance that when someone does say something, it's relevant to you. There's a difference between sitting in a room of programmers quietly, and sitting in an auditorium of programmers!
    - city41 16y ago
      The ability to send code snippets and URLs alone makes chatting this way worth it.
      - m_myers 16y ago
        And the ability to store and refer to it later.
    - sophacles 16y ago
      Ive done this, it is amazingly productive. We had jabber server at one place, and all 10 devs were in the same room physically, as well as the chats: #dev #dev_pvt #dev_funny #dev_offtopic #bugs as well as having a dozen side conversations, and talking out loud in the room. Never too much time blocking on conversations, and easily ignorable when working on something deep, but since physical presence is happening, anything super important can trigger an "out loud" interrupt.
  - DTrejo 16y ago
    I always say hello when I join the channel and someone usually says hi back. This is especially good when there's only a few people talking, as fewer people => more interesting conversations (usually).
    - kentnl 16y ago
      Generally, when somebody says "Hi", my reaction is "Oh dear, here comes the dumb question" and I cringe. 9/10 Times I'm right. Generally I tend to /join and then just sit there for a while to discover the norms and protocols of the channel before speaking, unless I have a specific question/problem. If I have a specific question/problem then "Just ask" is the best approach, but sadly, 9/10 times I end up fixing the problem myself, and get roped in to help solve 10 other peoples problems while I'm there!. There's a rare occasion when you'll /join a channel and they'll greet you, but thats part of the 'norms and protocols of the channel' thing, and its usually a hallmark of a small channel, because having 500 users who come and go, if every one said 'hi' , or we greeted each and every one, $topic would never get discussed, and we'd be a 24/7 meet-and-greet channel!
jbooth 16y ago
Whatever OSS projects you use have channels on freenode. Keep those open all day and lurk, you'll be amazed how much you learn from osmosis. If someone comes by with an easy question, answer it and you'll have social karma to get help from others when you need it.
- jasonkester 16y ago
  You mean you actually keep a chat window open all day long? Isn't that ridiculously distracting? I check my email twice a day, and HN the same. Anything else that could potentially distract me from what I'm doing gets turned off. I couldn't imagine giving random strangers the ability to intrude into my train of thought whenever they wanted.
  - w1ntermute 16y ago
    Minimize it to the tray.
  - mst 16y ago
    My irssi remains open all the time I'm in front of the computer - Shadowcat's primary internal co-ordination means is IRC, plus I'm on a dozen or so irc.perl.org channels, plus a handful on freenode. It does not, however, alert me in any way as to whether somebody's tried to contact me or not - so it only gets my attention when I want it to, usually because I'm thinking about something and can type responses on autopilot while I do.
  - eru 16y ago
    Just have the irc window on a separate virtual desktop.
  - mfukar 16y ago
    It's only distracting if you allow it to distract you.
  - Ixiaus 16y ago
    I run ERC in Emacs - background buffers - all day long.
mike-cardwell 16y ago
I use bitlbee to gate all of my IM networks to a single IRC channel which I then point X-Chat at. I also ocassionaly jump onto freenode to get real time support for various open source packages.
- moobot 16y ago
  Another user of Bitlbee here. It goes hand in hand with using irssi and a bouncer to maintain an always-on presence that I can take with me anywhere I go.
1010011010 16y ago
Every day at work. I can't recommend any channels to you though.
spudlyo 16y ago
I hang out on a private IRC server with about 15 folks, mostly old friends of mine working in various parts of the industry. It's primarily a place to talk about geeky topics and complain about work.
- maw 16y ago
  Ditto. We also have a wiki and a tumblr site where we post immature nonsense. We all (except one of us) used to work at the same place, but now we're geographically and employmentologically spread out.
- joezydeco 16y ago
  Same here. We've had a private channel running for over a decade now and as people move to new jobs and shuffle around, the channel is always home. We've even built a bot to capture URLs and tweet them to a private handle so people can check out sites after work or while away from the channel. To the person asking if IRC is distracting, it's a LOT less distracting than the hipster that sits next to me and is constantly checking his smartphone every time an SMS comes in. Pavlov would roll over in his grave.
- sofuture 16y ago
  My group of peers does the same thing. It's a pretty broad cross section of nerds (as broad as that can be) -- the channel is busy 8-5 weekdays and dead outside those hours. Basically, they're my virtual (and one physical) officemates.
jherdman 16y ago
Yup. My company uses it amongst the devs to stay in touch. I also lurk on #nodejs.
mindcrime 16y ago
Yep. Freenode IRC. I lurk on about 25 channels, ranging from the local Linux User's Group channel, to the #startups channel (which draws a lot of HN'ers) to the channels for several programming languages I use, etc. IRC is definitely alive and well, especially on Freenode.
mhd 16y ago
People with tiling window managers seem to IRC a lot.
- there 16y ago
  too many tiles; have to fill them with something...
- ehsanul 16y ago
  A recommendation on a good console-based IRC client that doesn't use the alt-key for any shortcuts (interferes with my XMonad setup)?
  - sophacles 16y ago
    Just curious, why not have the windows key be your primary meta for XMonad? In general I try and use that key for my WM shortcuts since most apps don't use it.
    - wwortiz 16y ago
      I had a toshiba laptop for a while where the windows key was at the top right of the keyboard, probably why I prefer stumpwm/ratpoison.
    - ehsanul 16y ago
      Because it's slightly less convenient for my thumb to reach, and just feels unnatural: it causes an ever-so-slight strain as I try to keep my fingers on the keyboard's home row. Yes, I can be pretty finicky sometimes. I know I'd probably get used to it if I tried, but it's rare for me to need alt for applications.
  - dododo 16y ago
    irssi. <esc># instead of <alt># for window switching.
- kungfooguru 16y ago
  That's me :(
eel 16y ago
I lurk on Freenode on various project and language channels.
agentultra 16y ago
I use IRC all day long. Every day. Freenode. If you're into perl, they have an IRC server of their own. I have been working remotely for the past year or so and we use it to keep the team in touch with one another.
- mst 16y ago
  IRC network actually - irc.perl.org is 6 servers, four of them on Shadowcat's hardware, the others donated by individual members of the perl community.
  - LeonidasXIV 16y ago
    Yet #perl6 is on freenode.
    - draegtun 16y ago
      I assume there is also other perl activity on freenode because it comes high on the IRC stats at http://langpop.com http://langpop.com
ThomPete 16y ago
Freenode, Notably #Startups but also the different subject areas (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Jquery etc)
GeneralMaximus 16y ago
There's a whole bunch of us active on #hackers-india (irc.oftc.net). Drop in sometime :)
kmet 16y ago
#startups on freenode and a small private channel with 10 or so friends on IRCNet. LimeChat powered!
swah 16y ago
I open Colloquy to get help or to see what the cool guys are talking about.
jawee 16y ago
I hang out on 3 networks. I am on Freenode for a few different projects I support and associated chat channels that I've been at for years. I am on StarLink, a small network, for the two channels associated with Alpha & Omega Ministries. I am on EFNet for one specific channel of a website. I also use a local bitlebee server for instant messaging. All in irssi with screen on a local server in my house.
moxiemk1 16y ago
At the company where I work (a web startup with 100 and some odd employees, half of which are the engineers) EVERYONE uses IRC. The engineers, yes, all the teams have their own channels, general channels, etc. But so do the support staff, the business folks, marketing, etc. Its amazing.
- jroes 16y ago
  Where do you work? That's awesome. I've always thought IRC would be a great platform for internal communication. How many times do we open up our typically single person-to-person IM clients to figure out where to eat lunch? How distracting is your IM client compared to IRC? I suspect some of the younger companies with money to burn use Campfire to fill these kinds of needs.
eapen 16y ago
I just got on the #reddit channel @ irc.freenode.net the other day and learnt quite a bit (about profits in the medical marijuana industry) by just hanging out there. I actually got on IRC to see if there really was anyone who still used IRC.
devin 16y ago
Hell yes. If you don't use IRC you're missing out. I hang out wherever I'm learning stuff (#clojure atm), and keep logs of many channels so I can search them later.
johngunderman 16y ago
Freenode is excellent. As far as channels, these are the ones that I particularly like: ##programming ##compsci (a bit quiet of a channel) #emacs #haskell
slashclee 16y ago
Look at all these comments! Clearly the answer is "nope, nobody uses IRC anymore" ;)
jdefr89 16y ago
I am always idle on IRC, still love it
enduser 16y ago
I recommend running http://www.bitlbee.org/ http://www.bitlbee.org/ and using irssi not only for IRC but for IM as well. For IRC I get a lot out of #pocoo on Freenode and use a private company ircd.
treed 16y ago
#kernel-panic on freenode for good Linux and tons of other good discussion. Been there for years. Active right now with 34 people. But pretty much every major FOSS project has an IRC channel, usually on freenode. Every programming language, framework, etc. is represented there. I get tons of good help there and help others as well. IRC is definitely very much alive. I rue the advent of modern one-on-one IM as it really ruins teamwork. A few months ago we threw up our own openfire jabber server and required everyone in the company to be present and it has really boosted awareness of what is going on and replaced the "hallway conversations" we were missing from our distributed development environment.
wiredfutureman 16y ago
Yes, you can find me on #gllug (Greater London Linux User Group), #amahi (Home Server), #greyhole (folder duplication a la WHS but using Samba) all on irc.freenode.net And of course irc.quakenet.org #|HSO| and #fidelitas :)
Goladus 16y ago
irc is very helpful when interacting with people who don't speak English as their first language, or have a very thick, difficult-to-understand accent.
plq 16y ago
irc is still the only way to meet "the guy on the street" online. that's mainly why it still survives, despite its quirks. i don't know what you mean by "good" server/channels, but let me say this: back when irc was _the_ chatting medium, all the low-iq trolls that today are on the web were on irc. so the channels were ruled by a very strict dictatorship. you needed to be very lucky (or meet with real-world friends) to have a decent chat. now that the trolls and other offenders largely moved out to the http space, i think irc has gotten its "underground" status back. this means you'll most probably find whatever you're after inside large networks. for example, if you want to know a quick fact about norway, go to #norway in undernet and shoot. somebody will reply. you need a python tip, #python in freenode is where some python gurus hang out. i personally admire freenode for having managed to establish the "showing op status is not polite" netiquette. you can see channels with hundreds of users where not one op has shown up for ages. that was not easy to imagine not so long ago :)
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
earnubs 16y ago
At my previous company we had an IRC room for the devs (and whoever else wanted to join) which had a bot that reported on updates to certain feeds within the company, it was pretty useful and it's not distracting at all. I used irssi+screen, the bot was a Supybot.
notmyname 16y ago
IRC is an indispensable part of my work. The team I'm on uses a private server for team discussions (works great when someone is working remotely), and we also are in a few public channels on freenode. On freenode, I'm in #openstack to talk about cloud object storage infrastructure, #eventlet to learn more about it, and #cloudfiles for Rackspace product-specific questions. #openstack has been pretty active in the last couple of weeks (since we released the code) and has been pretty good for helping people who are learning about the systems. Internally, I can't imagine not using IRC. If I choose to work remotely, or if I'm working odd hours, it becomes a very important tool to keep up with what the other devs are doing. To stay in the channel when I'm not online, I use an IRC bouncer (znc running on a slice, for me). When I log back in on my computer, I have the conversation I "missed" played back for me. I know other people that use irssi in a screen session to accomplish something similar.
- cont4gious 16y ago
  we do the same thing. We have a few remote developers, so we set up our own private server. I use XChat on Ubuntu, and it is perfect for my limited usage.
thingie 16y ago
Of course. Mostly for private communication with friends and with BitlBee gateway. But it seems that many OSS project have freenode channels, that are very active, and not only that. There's very active #haskell channel on freenode, #xmonad, there are various fedora channels, there's an unofficial channel for students of the faculty where I study now, even channels like #lgbtreddit. I don't see any decline of IRC use in any foreseeable future.
phicou 16y ago
We (developers and sysadmins) use it at the big corporation where I work. Keeping irssi open in screen (GNU screen) means I can connect remotely from anywhere with a single session, and it doesn't appear when I'm focused on something else in a different screen session. Each project gets its own channel. It's way better for collaboration than having to match schedules for each little question. It's also very helpful for asking specific questions about OSS projects, as mentioned. The people actually developing projects hang out in IRC, not at StackOverflow.
thu 16y ago
Yes, for instance, a lot of haskellers are on #haskell on freenode.
megamark16 16y ago
On Freenode: #django, #startups, #python, etc.
x0t 16y ago
I was pretty active in the suse project with bug testing and whatnot for a while, so that got me on freenode. I lurk about 15 channels there. I'm on two private networks with about 5 channels between them and I lurk on Undernet out of nostalgia. I'll hit up Efnet if I'm looking for security related topics.
philcrissman 16y ago
Yes. #rubymn (Minnesota ftw) #railsbridge (if you're interested in ruby on rails; the http://railsbridge.com http://railsbridge.com community)
phaylon 16y ago
I telecommute, and most of my day-to-day conversations go over IRC. My IRC client has ~50 open windows at the moment, but less than half of them are actual Open Source channels, many of them are direct queries with the user. And thanks to screen, I never log off and don't miss discussions, someone trying to get in touch, commit and release messages to -dev channels, and so on. If it suits one's style, it's an easy and nice way to stay linked to one or more communities.
chuhnk 16y ago
Freenode baby Freenode
zokier 16y ago
imho great deal of IRC's greatness comes from irssi, an awesome client for it. It has a learning curve though, especially if you are not familiar with screen (or tmux). While you can run it locally, it really shines when you run it in a server inside a screen session, connected via ssh. Each phone I have had in the past 5 years has had a ssh client available, so I could just attach to my session and have the exactly same client available wherever I go. I use irc mainly to keep in touch with old friends. I'm also running a small non-profit, and we use irc extensively in internal communications. And occasionally I go to a projects channel on freenode if I happen to have a question or something, the people tend to be quite useful (as long as you ask smart questions and be polite). Lurked some time at ##c++, from which I feel that I learned a lot from.
- sandGorgon 16y ago
  which IRC server do you guys use ? I have long wanted to set up an private IRC server for our workplace, but got lost in the zillions of complicated IRC server setups. Do you use it over VPN .... or have you set it up to use some kind of authentication ? It would be great if you could help.
  - zokier 16y ago
    I think we use plain ircd as a server software. As for the authentication, we have shell servers to run irssi with in the same LAN, so we haven't perceived need for any additional auth on the ircd. edit: we also have invite-only channels on ircnet
  - moe 16y ago
    InspIRCd is pretty nice and a bit less crufty than the older implementations (unreal etc.). But as others have said, depending on your needs, a simple skype groupchat might work just as well.
  - superuser2 16y ago
    I've investigated this possibilty and found that OpenFire (Jabber server) is very easy to work with. You can control user account centrally, and create rooms and assign who can access which rooms, from a web GUI. I've yet to see an IRC server that easy.
dualboot 16y ago
I have run my own irc server and been connected for over 10 years essentially in one way or another. Most of my online friends gather there and idle / jump into chat when it's going on. It's been one of the most pleasant constants in my digital life. An unmatched technology for keeping in touch with geographically challenged friends.
rdoherty 16y ago
irc.mozilla.org, it's a mainstay for most discussions and coordination for all our projects (IT, webdev, firefox, etc). #webdev, #firefox, #amo (addons.mozilla.org), #labs Over half our employees and all our volunteers are remote, so IRC is how we stay in touch for the most part.
wohali 16y ago
Presently I'm in 12 channels on 7 servers. IRC fills a need for "semi-synchronous" communication in group form for me. part crowdsourcing, part water cooler gossip, it's entertaining and educational. It's real-time enough to satisfy the feeling that, as a teleworker, someone else is there, but not so real-time that I must devote my full attention (like a phone or video chat). The big benefit to IRC for me is its ease of setup (apt-get install ircd-hybrid), end-to-end ownership of the communication protocol and infrastructure (ability to ensure privacy and anonymity, if necessary or expected), ease of extension and long-term stability. Or, put another way, "my server, my client, our channel, my friends, our bots." good times. Disclaimer: I'm one of the (former?) long-time ircd-hybrid developers. I started a PhD thesis on education through IRC studying its social dynamics, but am considering dropping the effort.
nphase 16y ago
I am currently idling on: freenode/gearman freenode/memcached freenode/drizzle freenode/mongodb freenode/mysql freenode/phpc freenode/hiphop-php freenode/facebook freenode/twitterapi freenode/jquery YMMV.
lukeqsee 16y ago
I'm in #slicehost on Freenode most of the day. If you want smart people + plenty of humor, come on over.
alnayyir 16y ago
I pretty much live on freenode in all the dev channels, but I keep the terminal on a fairly isolated place so that I don't get distracted. Keep a shell on my linode, /lastlog to check to see if anybody was lookin' for me.
roder 16y ago
I spend most of my time idling in #riak on irc.freenode.net I use an IRC bouncer too.
briandoll 16y ago
We've had a lot of great support requests and chats with customers on IRC (Freenode, #newrelic). Like others have mentioned, it's great to have a few rooms open for projects/services you care about, where you can check in every so often and read the backlog. While some rooms are archived, I've never read them that way, but keeping IRC idling in the background can be a great way to keep tabs on things.
jzawodn 16y ago
Of course.
abstractbill 16y ago
Answering the question directly, enough people still use IRC that axod has built a sustainable business from a web-based IRC client (mibbit.com).
- brianpan 16y ago
  That seems like a pretty indirect answer to me. ;)
melito 16y ago
freenode for channels about opensource projects undernet for goofing off
chanux 16y ago
The habit was fading. Thanks for reminding.
raffi 16y ago
#startups on Freenode. I use IRC for collaborating with my colleagues (we're a distributed company). EFNet. shameless plug: Check out jIRCii. http://jircii.dashnine.org http://jircii.dashnine.org. It runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux. It's (in my opinion) the perfect blend of mIRC and BitchX. It's scriptable too with over 70 scripts contributed.
dannytatom 16y ago
Yeah, but I try to limit it to 10 channels for as to not get overwhelmed (I have a habit of wanting to check every time something new is said, plus I need room for bitlbee sessions). I mostly idle on local user groups and language/framework-specific channels. I rarely say anything, but just keeping an eye on the conversations has taught me a lot of stuff I wouldn't have known otherwise.
wanderr 16y ago
We use Freenode, #grooveshark is an open channel for random techie users who want to talk directly to developers (or each other), and people working on 3rd party extensions/add ons to Grooveshark. We have other internal invite-only channels for coordinating with external developers on internal projects. We also have github spamming a channel now whenever changes to a repo that a lot of people are coordinating on get pushed. The #redis channel saved our asses at least once when Pieter Noordhuis wrote a script to help us with a particular issue we were having. :) And the #facebook channel has been a useful resource as well. I was wondering if anyone here uses IRCcat: http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm I know flickr also uses it and it seems like it would be insanely useful to have notifications about all kinds of things going into various channels. I know flickr also uses it: http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/ http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/ Haven't spent much time working on it but so far the bot gets kicked for flooding immediately. May only be a problem because we're using freenode for testing. Long term want to run our own IRC server, but for testing it was easier to just use freenode...
masomenos 16y ago
I dip my toes into IRC now and again, but keep getting frustrated by the learning curve. Yes, I get the basics of joining channels and chatting. I can see that there's a ton of efficiencies IRC power users have figured out that I haven't. Any good resources out there for climbing the learning curve to journeyman IRCer?
WilliamLP 16y ago
Does World of Warcraft count?:)
hm2k 16y ago
#webdev on EFnet
mufumbo 16y ago
on freenode: #android-dev #webos-internals
hackermom 16y ago
STILL use IRC? IRC is in heavier use today than ever before! Not only has the amount of networks (and servers per network) exploded the past 10 years, but so has also the global amount of users per network and IRC as a whole.
frytaz 16y ago
I run irssi on screen all the time
b14ck 16y ago
If you're looking for a good tech community / channel to hang out in, I can recommend two. These channels are best suited for programmer / coder types who enjoy hanging out and chatting about tech stuff. irc.darkscience.org/#darkscience irc.oftc.net/#neverfear And their respective websites: http://darkscience.org/ http://darkscience.org/ http://neverfear.org/ http://neverfear.org/
danielha 16y ago
Our company uses #disqus on freenode (private) for development and general chatter. I'd like to change the channel for internal chat and use #disqus for public use though.
Sukotto 16y ago
Not on iPhone they aren't :-( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306
- mitjak 16y ago
  Wrong link?
  - Sukotto 16y ago
    yes. I meant to post the one about the Rooms IRC client for iPhone getting approved for the AppStore then getting pulled minutes later. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560753 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560753 Ironic, and possible relevant. Personally I do not use IRC. My work blocks it unless I want to court a reprimand by finding those few servers with non-standard port numbers. At home, I'm too busy with wife and kids, and whatnot to spend any real time chatting. Most of my online activities are batched to only occur once or twice a day which pretty much precludes irc.
    - geoffpado 16y ago
      Uh, there's still Colloquy (http://colloquy.mobi http://colloquy.mobi), a port of the most-popular Mac client to iPhone. So it's not like Apple has banned IRC in general.
wookiehangover 16y ago
freenode #jquery is pretty much the place to be
bphogan 16y ago
I use IRC every day. I use it to work with others on opensource projects and many of my past interns and I use it to stay in touch daily, creating a very helpful network. My current interns can get help from not only ne, but people who used to work for me. It's a great networking tool.
some1else 16y ago
IRCnet used to be fun to spend the teenage days. (late nineties and the beginning of century, hehe) EFNet has tremendous communities devoted to music Freenode is go-to for open-source software chatrooms.
neilk 16y ago
IRC is one of the primary communication tools for Wikipedia and its sister projects. The community is so distributed, coordinating meetings using UTC time becomes second nature. There are dozens and dozens of channels. This page attempts to track just some of them. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels And even the non-technical staffers at the Wikimedia Foundation hold "office hours" on IRC from time to time. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours
barnaby 16y ago
Totally. I help out on the #ubuntu channel, and get help on the #python channel. I avoid #politics
joeyh 16y ago
Another often overlooked use for IRC is as a side channel during events. In conferences, we'll all be in a room, on IRC commenting on talks. During the BP oil spill, a channel (#theoildrum) had 500+ people, including some with oilfield experience, discussing the live ROV feeds, as well as scanning to find lots of ROV feeds that were not visible to the general public.
joelesler 16y ago
Hell yeah. All day every day.
joeycfan 16y ago
IRC: Where men are men, where women are men, and where 13 year old girls looking for someone to talk to are FBI agents....
akulbe 16y ago
IRC is one of the best ways to communicate. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to be taught. Sometimes the best experience can be had by just reading what other people write. For example... Erica Sadun is in #iphonedev and #ipaddev on Freenode. Know who she is? :)

149 points by Infomus 16y ago

If so could you recommend any good Server/Channels.

At my previous workplace, a web devshop, we had a company channel where everyone hanged, even the CEO (when he could). Plus project-channels where we could discuss details of each project, and where we invited clients and partners that used IRC.

JangoSteve 16y ago

There's about 190* of us HN'ers in the #startups channel right now. http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/ http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/ *Maybe we're not all HN'ers, but darn close.

Infomus 16y ago
Heading there now!
BJakopovic 16y ago
how many are active? IRC is usually full of many decent sized rooms with limited chat and mostly inactive users
- mechanical_fish 16y ago
  This is a feature. Most of the people on an IRC channel are lurkers. And the channels are very quiet so that people can hear you when you do speak. Believe me, I wish they were quieter, because even as they are they tend to be too distracting for me to lurk there while working. It does seem creepy. Our company's salespeople laugh at the programmers because we really love to gather in one physical room, then sit silently next to each other typing on laptops and communicating largely via Jabber chat and IRC, even though we are two feet away from each other. If you've never tried to concentrate on programming this seems like alien behavior, but it actually makes a lot of sense, for the same reason that it makes sense for all the Drupal devs to sit in one IRC channel but almost never speak. If you crave more chat, join more channels in parallel.
  - _delirium 16y ago
    I guess I don't actually find the 300-lurkers-who-never-talk channels much of a feature. Much prefer the ones with 15-30 or so semi-active users. There can still be large periods of not chatting, but you know who's there, and there's a decent chance that when someone does say something, it's relevant to you. There's a difference between sitting in a room of programmers quietly, and sitting in an auditorium of programmers!
  - city41 16y ago
    The ability to send code snippets and URLs alone makes chatting this way worth it.
    - m_myers 16y ago
      And the ability to store and refer to it later.
  - sophacles 16y ago
    Ive done this, it is amazingly productive. We had jabber server at one place, and all 10 devs were in the same room physically, as well as the chats: #dev #dev_pvt #dev_funny #dev_offtopic #bugs as well as having a dozen side conversations, and talking out loud in the room. Never too much time blocking on conversations, and easily ignorable when working on something deep, but since physical presence is happening, anything super important can trigger an "out loud" interrupt.
- DTrejo 16y ago
  I always say hello when I join the channel and someone usually says hi back. This is especially good when there's only a few people talking, as fewer people => more interesting conversations (usually).
  - kentnl 16y ago
    Generally, when somebody says "Hi", my reaction is "Oh dear, here comes the dumb question" and I cringe. 9/10 Times I'm right. Generally I tend to /join and then just sit there for a while to discover the norms and protocols of the channel before speaking, unless I have a specific question/problem. If I have a specific question/problem then "Just ask" is the best approach, but sadly, 9/10 times I end up fixing the problem myself, and get roped in to help solve 10 other peoples problems while I'm there!. There's a rare occasion when you'll /join a channel and they'll greet you, but thats part of the 'norms and protocols of the channel' thing, and its usually a hallmark of a small channel, because having 500 users who come and go, if every one said 'hi' , or we greeted each and every one, $topic would never get discussed, and we'd be a 24/7 meet-and-greet channel!

jbooth 16y ago

Whatever OSS projects you use have channels on freenode. Keep those open all day and lurk, you'll be amazed how much you learn from osmosis. If someone comes by with an easy question, answer it and you'll have social karma to get help from others when you need it.

jasonkester 16y ago
You mean you actually keep a chat window open all day long? Isn't that ridiculously distracting? I check my email twice a day, and HN the same. Anything else that could potentially distract me from what I'm doing gets turned off. I couldn't imagine giving random strangers the ability to intrude into my train of thought whenever they wanted.
- w1ntermute 16y ago
  Minimize it to the tray.
- mst 16y ago
  My irssi remains open all the time I'm in front of the computer - Shadowcat's primary internal co-ordination means is IRC, plus I'm on a dozen or so irc.perl.org channels, plus a handful on freenode. It does not, however, alert me in any way as to whether somebody's tried to contact me or not - so it only gets my attention when I want it to, usually because I'm thinking about something and can type responses on autopilot while I do.
- eru 16y ago
  Just have the irc window on a separate virtual desktop.
- mfukar 16y ago
  It's only distracting if you allow it to distract you.
- Ixiaus 16y ago
  I run ERC in Emacs - background buffers - all day long.

mike-cardwell 16y ago

I use bitlbee to gate all of my IM networks to a single IRC channel which I then point X-Chat at. I also ocassionaly jump onto freenode to get real time support for various open source packages.

moobot 16y ago
Another user of Bitlbee here. It goes hand in hand with using irssi and a bouncer to maintain an always-on presence that I can take with me anywhere I go.

1010011010 16y ago

Every day at work. I can't recommend any channels to you though.

spudlyo 16y ago

I hang out on a private IRC server with about 15 folks, mostly old friends of mine working in various parts of the industry. It's primarily a place to talk about geeky topics and complain about work.

maw 16y ago
Ditto. We also have a wiki and a tumblr site where we post immature nonsense. We all (except one of us) used to work at the same place, but now we're geographically and employmentologically spread out.
joezydeco 16y ago
Same here. We've had a private channel running for over a decade now and as people move to new jobs and shuffle around, the channel is always home. We've even built a bot to capture URLs and tweet them to a private handle so people can check out sites after work or while away from the channel. To the person asking if IRC is distracting, it's a LOT less distracting than the hipster that sits next to me and is constantly checking his smartphone every time an SMS comes in. Pavlov would roll over in his grave.
sofuture 16y ago
My group of peers does the same thing. It's a pretty broad cross section of nerds (as broad as that can be) -- the channel is busy 8-5 weekdays and dead outside those hours. Basically, they're my virtual (and one physical) officemates.

jherdman 16y ago

Yup. My company uses it amongst the devs to stay in touch. I also lurk on #nodejs.

mindcrime 16y ago

Yep. Freenode IRC. I lurk on about 25 channels, ranging from the local Linux User's Group channel, to the #startups channel (which draws a lot of HN'ers) to the channels for several programming languages I use, etc. IRC is definitely alive and well, especially on Freenode.

mhd 16y ago

People with tiling window managers seem to IRC a lot.

there 16y ago
too many tiles; have to fill them with something...
ehsanul 16y ago
A recommendation on a good console-based IRC client that doesn't use the alt-key for any shortcuts (interferes with my XMonad setup)?
- sophacles 16y ago
  Just curious, why not have the windows key be your primary meta for XMonad? In general I try and use that key for my WM shortcuts since most apps don't use it.
  - wwortiz 16y ago
    I had a toshiba laptop for a while where the windows key was at the top right of the keyboard, probably why I prefer stumpwm/ratpoison.
  - ehsanul 16y ago
    Because it's slightly less convenient for my thumb to reach, and just feels unnatural: it causes an ever-so-slight strain as I try to keep my fingers on the keyboard's home row. Yes, I can be pretty finicky sometimes. I know I'd probably get used to it if I tried, but it's rare for me to need alt for applications.
- dododo 16y ago
  irssi. <esc># instead of <alt># for window switching.
kungfooguru 16y ago
That's me :(

eel 16y ago

I lurk on Freenode on various project and language channels.

agentultra 16y ago

I use IRC all day long. Every day. Freenode. If you're into perl, they have an IRC server of their own. I have been working remotely for the past year or so and we use it to keep the team in touch with one another.

mst 16y ago
IRC network actually - irc.perl.org is 6 servers, four of them on Shadowcat's hardware, the others donated by individual members of the perl community.
- LeonidasXIV 16y ago
  Yet #perl6 is on freenode.
  - draegtun 16y ago
    I assume there is also other perl activity on freenode because it comes high on the IRC stats at http://langpop.com http://langpop.com

ThomPete 16y ago

Freenode, Notably #Startups but also the different subject areas (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Jquery etc)

GeneralMaximus 16y ago

There's a whole bunch of us active on #hackers-india (irc.oftc.net). Drop in sometime :)

kmet 16y ago

#startups on freenode and a small private channel with 10 or so friends on IRCNet. LimeChat powered!

swah 16y ago

I open Colloquy to get help or to see what the cool guys are talking about.

jawee 16y ago

I hang out on 3 networks. I am on Freenode for a few different projects I support and associated chat channels that I've been at for years. I am on StarLink, a small network, for the two channels associated with Alpha & Omega Ministries. I am on EFNet for one specific channel of a website. I also use a local bitlebee server for instant messaging. All in irssi with screen on a local server in my house.

moxiemk1 16y ago

At the company where I work (a web startup with 100 and some odd employees, half of which are the engineers) EVERYONE uses IRC. The engineers, yes, all the teams have their own channels, general channels, etc. But so do the support staff, the business folks, marketing, etc. Its amazing.

jroes 16y ago
Where do you work? That's awesome. I've always thought IRC would be a great platform for internal communication. How many times do we open up our typically single person-to-person IM clients to figure out where to eat lunch? How distracting is your IM client compared to IRC? I suspect some of the younger companies with money to burn use Campfire to fill these kinds of needs.

eapen 16y ago

I just got on the #reddit channel @ irc.freenode.net the other day and learnt quite a bit (about profits in the medical marijuana industry) by just hanging out there. I actually got on IRC to see if there really was anyone who still used IRC.

devin 16y ago

Hell yes. If you don't use IRC you're missing out. I hang out wherever I'm learning stuff (#clojure atm), and keep logs of many channels so I can search them later.

johngunderman 16y ago

Freenode is excellent. As far as channels, these are the ones that I particularly like: ##programming ##compsci (a bit quiet of a channel) #emacs #haskell

slashclee 16y ago

Look at all these comments! Clearly the answer is "nope, nobody uses IRC anymore" ;)

jdefr89 16y ago

I am always idle on IRC, still love it

enduser 16y ago

I recommend running http://www.bitlbee.org/ http://www.bitlbee.org/ and using irssi not only for IRC but for IM as well. For IRC I get a lot out of #pocoo on Freenode and use a private company ircd.

treed 16y ago

#kernel-panic on freenode for good Linux and tons of other good discussion. Been there for years. Active right now with 34 people. But pretty much every major FOSS project has an IRC channel, usually on freenode. Every programming language, framework, etc. is represented there. I get tons of good help there and help others as well. IRC is definitely very much alive. I rue the advent of modern one-on-one IM as it really ruins teamwork. A few months ago we threw up our own openfire jabber server and required everyone in the company to be present and it has really boosted awareness of what is going on and replaced the "hallway conversations" we were missing from our distributed development environment.

wiredfutureman 16y ago

Yes, you can find me on #gllug (Greater London Linux User Group), #amahi (Home Server), #greyhole (folder duplication a la WHS but using Samba) all on irc.freenode.net And of course irc.quakenet.org #|HSO| and #fidelitas :)

Goladus 16y ago

irc is very helpful when interacting with people who don't speak English as their first language, or have a very thick, difficult-to-understand accent.

plq 16y ago

irc is still the only way to meet "the guy on the street" online. that's mainly why it still survives, despite its quirks. i don't know what you mean by "good" server/channels, but let me say this: back when irc was _the_ chatting medium, all the low-iq trolls that today are on the web were on irc. so the channels were ruled by a very strict dictatorship. you needed to be very lucky (or meet with real-world friends) to have a decent chat. now that the trolls and other offenders largely moved out to the http space, i think irc has gotten its "underground" status back. this means you'll most probably find whatever you're after inside large networks. for example, if you want to know a quick fact about norway, go to #norway in undernet and shoot. somebody will reply. you need a python tip, #python in freenode is where some python gurus hang out. i personally admire freenode for having managed to establish the "showing op status is not polite" netiquette. you can see channels with hundreds of users where not one op has shown up for ages. that was not easy to imagine not so long ago :)

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

earnubs 16y ago

At my previous company we had an IRC room for the devs (and whoever else wanted to join) which had a bot that reported on updates to certain feeds within the company, it was pretty useful and it's not distracting at all. I used irssi+screen, the bot was a Supybot.

notmyname 16y ago

IRC is an indispensable part of my work. The team I'm on uses a private server for team discussions (works great when someone is working remotely), and we also are in a few public channels on freenode. On freenode, I'm in #openstack to talk about cloud object storage infrastructure, #eventlet to learn more about it, and #cloudfiles for Rackspace product-specific questions. #openstack has been pretty active in the last couple of weeks (since we released the code) and has been pretty good for helping people who are learning about the systems. Internally, I can't imagine not using IRC. If I choose to work remotely, or if I'm working odd hours, it becomes a very important tool to keep up with what the other devs are doing. To stay in the channel when I'm not online, I use an IRC bouncer (znc running on a slice, for me). When I log back in on my computer, I have the conversation I "missed" played back for me. I know other people that use irssi in a screen session to accomplish something similar.

cont4gious 16y ago
we do the same thing. We have a few remote developers, so we set up our own private server. I use XChat on Ubuntu, and it is perfect for my limited usage.

thingie 16y ago

Of course. Mostly for private communication with friends and with BitlBee gateway. But it seems that many OSS project have freenode channels, that are very active, and not only that. There's very active #haskell channel on freenode, #xmonad, there are various fedora channels, there's an unofficial channel for students of the faculty where I study now, even channels like #lgbtreddit. I don't see any decline of IRC use in any foreseeable future.

phicou 16y ago

We (developers and sysadmins) use it at the big corporation where I work. Keeping irssi open in screen (GNU screen) means I can connect remotely from anywhere with a single session, and it doesn't appear when I'm focused on something else in a different screen session. Each project gets its own channel. It's way better for collaboration than having to match schedules for each little question. It's also very helpful for asking specific questions about OSS projects, as mentioned. The people actually developing projects hang out in IRC, not at StackOverflow.

thu 16y ago

Yes, for instance, a lot of haskellers are on #haskell on freenode.

megamark16 16y ago

On Freenode: #django, #startups, #python, etc.

x0t 16y ago

I was pretty active in the suse project with bug testing and whatnot for a while, so that got me on freenode. I lurk about 15 channels there. I'm on two private networks with about 5 channels between them and I lurk on Undernet out of nostalgia. I'll hit up Efnet if I'm looking for security related topics.

philcrissman 16y ago

Yes. #rubymn (Minnesota ftw) #railsbridge (if you're interested in ruby on rails; the http://railsbridge.com http://railsbridge.com community)

phaylon 16y ago

I telecommute, and most of my day-to-day conversations go over IRC. My IRC client has ~50 open windows at the moment, but less than half of them are actual Open Source channels, many of them are direct queries with the user. And thanks to screen, I never log off and don't miss discussions, someone trying to get in touch, commit and release messages to -dev channels, and so on. If it suits one's style, it's an easy and nice way to stay linked to one or more communities.

chuhnk 16y ago

Freenode baby Freenode

zokier 16y ago

imho great deal of IRC's greatness comes from irssi, an awesome client for it. It has a learning curve though, especially if you are not familiar with screen (or tmux). While you can run it locally, it really shines when you run it in a server inside a screen session, connected via ssh. Each phone I have had in the past 5 years has had a ssh client available, so I could just attach to my session and have the exactly same client available wherever I go. I use irc mainly to keep in touch with old friends. I'm also running a small non-profit, and we use irc extensively in internal communications. And occasionally I go to a projects channel on freenode if I happen to have a question or something, the people tend to be quite useful (as long as you ask smart questions and be polite). Lurked some time at ##c++, from which I feel that I learned a lot from.

sandGorgon 16y ago
which IRC server do you guys use ? I have long wanted to set up an private IRC server for our workplace, but got lost in the zillions of complicated IRC server setups. Do you use it over VPN .... or have you set it up to use some kind of authentication ? It would be great if you could help.
- zokier 16y ago
  I think we use plain ircd as a server software. As for the authentication, we have shell servers to run irssi with in the same LAN, so we haven't perceived need for any additional auth on the ircd. edit: we also have invite-only channels on ircnet
- moe 16y ago
  InspIRCd is pretty nice and a bit less crufty than the older implementations (unreal etc.). But as others have said, depending on your needs, a simple skype groupchat might work just as well.
- superuser2 16y ago
  I've investigated this possibilty and found that OpenFire (Jabber server) is very easy to work with. You can control user account centrally, and create rooms and assign who can access which rooms, from a web GUI. I've yet to see an IRC server that easy.

dualboot 16y ago

I have run my own irc server and been connected for over 10 years essentially in one way or another. Most of my online friends gather there and idle / jump into chat when it's going on. It's been one of the most pleasant constants in my digital life. An unmatched technology for keeping in touch with geographically challenged friends.

rdoherty 16y ago

irc.mozilla.org, it's a mainstay for most discussions and coordination for all our projects (IT, webdev, firefox, etc). #webdev, #firefox, #amo (addons.mozilla.org), #labs Over half our employees and all our volunteers are remote, so IRC is how we stay in touch for the most part.

wohali 16y ago

Presently I'm in 12 channels on 7 servers. IRC fills a need for "semi-synchronous" communication in group form for me. part crowdsourcing, part water cooler gossip, it's entertaining and educational. It's real-time enough to satisfy the feeling that, as a teleworker, someone else is there, but not so real-time that I must devote my full attention (like a phone or video chat). The big benefit to IRC for me is its ease of setup (apt-get install ircd-hybrid), end-to-end ownership of the communication protocol and infrastructure (ability to ensure privacy and anonymity, if necessary or expected), ease of extension and long-term stability. Or, put another way, "my server, my client, our channel, my friends, our bots." good times. Disclaimer: I'm one of the (former?) long-time ircd-hybrid developers. I started a PhD thesis on education through IRC studying its social dynamics, but am considering dropping the effort.

nphase 16y ago

I am currently idling on: freenode/gearman freenode/memcached freenode/drizzle freenode/mongodb freenode/mysql freenode/phpc freenode/hiphop-php freenode/facebook freenode/twitterapi freenode/jquery YMMV.

lukeqsee 16y ago

I'm in #slicehost on Freenode most of the day. If you want smart people + plenty of humor, come on over.

alnayyir 16y ago

I pretty much live on freenode in all the dev channels, but I keep the terminal on a fairly isolated place so that I don't get distracted. Keep a shell on my linode, /lastlog to check to see if anybody was lookin' for me.

roder 16y ago

I spend most of my time idling in #riak on irc.freenode.net I use an IRC bouncer too.

briandoll 16y ago

We've had a lot of great support requests and chats with customers on IRC (Freenode, #newrelic). Like others have mentioned, it's great to have a few rooms open for projects/services you care about, where you can check in every so often and read the backlog. While some rooms are archived, I've never read them that way, but keeping IRC idling in the background can be a great way to keep tabs on things.

jzawodn 16y ago

Of course.

abstractbill 16y ago

Answering the question directly, enough people still use IRC that axod has built a sustainable business from a web-based IRC client (mibbit.com).

brianpan 16y ago
That seems like a pretty indirect answer to me. ;)

melito 16y ago

freenode for channels about opensource projects undernet for goofing off

chanux 16y ago

The habit was fading. Thanks for reminding.

raffi 16y ago

#startups on Freenode. I use IRC for collaborating with my colleagues (we're a distributed company). EFNet. shameless plug: Check out jIRCii. http://jircii.dashnine.org http://jircii.dashnine.org. It runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux. It's (in my opinion) the perfect blend of mIRC and BitchX. It's scriptable too with over 70 scripts contributed.

dannytatom 16y ago

Yeah, but I try to limit it to 10 channels for as to not get overwhelmed (I have a habit of wanting to check every time something new is said, plus I need room for bitlbee sessions). I mostly idle on local user groups and language/framework-specific channels. I rarely say anything, but just keeping an eye on the conversations has taught me a lot of stuff I wouldn't have known otherwise.

wanderr 16y ago

We use Freenode, #grooveshark is an open channel for random techie users who want to talk directly to developers (or each other), and people working on 3rd party extensions/add ons to Grooveshark. We have other internal invite-only channels for coordinating with external developers on internal projects. We also have github spamming a channel now whenever changes to a repo that a lot of people are coordinating on get pushed. The #redis channel saved our asses at least once when Pieter Noordhuis wrote a script to help us with a particular issue we were having. :) And the #facebook channel has been a useful resource as well. I was wondering if anyone here uses IRCcat: http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm I know flickr also uses it and it seems like it would be insanely useful to have notifications about all kinds of things going into various channels. I know flickr also uses it: http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/ http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/ Haven't spent much time working on it but so far the bot gets kicked for flooding immediately. May only be a problem because we're using freenode for testing. Long term want to run our own IRC server, but for testing it was easier to just use freenode...

masomenos 16y ago

I dip my toes into IRC now and again, but keep getting frustrated by the learning curve. Yes, I get the basics of joining channels and chatting. I can see that there's a ton of efficiencies IRC power users have figured out that I haven't. Any good resources out there for climbing the learning curve to journeyman IRCer?

WilliamLP 16y ago

Does World of Warcraft count?:)

hm2k 16y ago

#webdev on EFnet

mufumbo 16y ago

on freenode: #android-dev #webos-internals

hackermom 16y ago

STILL use IRC? IRC is in heavier use today than ever before! Not only has the amount of networks (and servers per network) exploded the past 10 years, but so has also the global amount of users per network and IRC as a whole.

frytaz 16y ago

I run irssi on screen all the time

b14ck 16y ago

If you're looking for a good tech community / channel to hang out in, I can recommend two. These channels are best suited for programmer / coder types who enjoy hanging out and chatting about tech stuff. irc.darkscience.org/#darkscience irc.oftc.net/#neverfear And their respective websites: http://darkscience.org/ http://darkscience.org/ http://neverfear.org/ http://neverfear.org/

danielha 16y ago

Our company uses #disqus on freenode (private) for development and general chatter. I'd like to change the channel for internal chat and use #disqus for public use though.

Sukotto 16y ago

Not on iPhone they aren't :-( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306

mitjak 16y ago
Wrong link?
- Sukotto 16y ago
  yes. I meant to post the one about the Rooms IRC client for iPhone getting approved for the AppStore then getting pulled minutes later. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560753 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1560753 Ironic, and possible relevant. Personally I do not use IRC. My work blocks it unless I want to court a reprimand by finding those few servers with non-standard port numbers. At home, I'm too busy with wife and kids, and whatnot to spend any real time chatting. Most of my online activities are batched to only occur once or twice a day which pretty much precludes irc.
  - geoffpado 16y ago
    Uh, there's still Colloquy (http://colloquy.mobi http://colloquy.mobi), a port of the most-popular Mac client to iPhone. So it's not like Apple has banned IRC in general.

wookiehangover 16y ago

freenode #jquery is pretty much the place to be

bphogan 16y ago

I use IRC every day. I use it to work with others on opensource projects and many of my past interns and I use it to stay in touch daily, creating a very helpful network. My current interns can get help from not only ne, but people who used to work for me. It's a great networking tool.

some1else 16y ago

IRCnet used to be fun to spend the teenage days. (late nineties and the beginning of century, hehe) EFNet has tremendous communities devoted to music Freenode is go-to for open-source software chatrooms.

neilk 16y ago

IRC is one of the primary communication tools for Wikipedia and its sister projects. The community is so distributed, coordinating meetings using UTC time becomes second nature. There are dozens and dozens of channels. This page attempts to track just some of them. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels And even the non-technical staffers at the Wikimedia Foundation hold "office hours" on IRC from time to time. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours

barnaby 16y ago

Totally. I help out on the #ubuntu channel, and get help on the #python channel. I avoid #politics

joeyh 16y ago

Another often overlooked use for IRC is as a side channel during events. In conferences, we'll all be in a room, on IRC commenting on talks. During the BP oil spill, a channel (#theoildrum) had 500+ people, including some with oilfield experience, discussing the live ROV feeds, as well as scanning to find lots of ROV feeds that were not visible to the general public.

joelesler 16y ago

Hell yeah. All day every day.

joeycfan 16y ago

IRC: Where men are men, where women are men, and where 13 year old girls looking for someone to talk to are FBI agents....

akulbe 16y ago

IRC is one of the best ways to communicate. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to be taught. Sometimes the best experience can be had by just reading what other people write. For example... Erica Sadun is in #iphonedev and #ipaddev on Freenode. Know who she is? :)