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> The barrier to entry's too high I don't understand this statement. One finds IRC clients everywhere. One literally has to know just one command at the beginn

> The barrier to entry's too high I don't understand this statement. One finds IRC clients everywhere. One literally has to know just one command at the beginning: /join. And then if you Google "IRC commands" or something like that, you get the rest of them easily (if your client lacks in the help area). > the feature set's extremely limited I don't understand this mindset. Why should a program have an extra-large set of features? Is the value of a program measured by the number of features it has? > Had IRCv3 managed to get off the ground and made some strides towards creating a modern user experience maybe two years ago, Discord wouldn't have had such a vulnerable market open for it to stroll in and snatch up Apples and oranges. Discord did have serious opponents named Teamspeak, Skype, Mumble and other VOIP clients - but certainly not IRC. And if my memory serves, the first thing they did was to make sure to dislodge those programs from the gamers community.

SOLAR_FIELDS 9y ago
I’ve been a software engineer for several years now and I still have trouble with MiRC and Adium. I tried Irssi and eventually gave up with it. The problem with IRC is that even the “simple” clients never just work. There’s always some little infuriating quirks that you have to dive super deep into configs to figure out if it’s even possible to resolve without some sort of PR to the repository.
- kuschku 9y ago
  Well, quassel for example doesn’t even have configs, everything is done in simple ways via the UI, and everyone, including the devs, uses that. It’s rocksolid, just works, and if you use the core/client split version, you can also connect a webinterface and mobile client to it.
- YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 9y ago
  These kinds of comments almost make me not want to live on this Earth any more.
  - astrobe_ 9y ago
    Most comments really just say: "IRC is like email. An old boring tool that just does its job. I'm not having fun with it, I'm not feeling special when using, so I need a 'modern' alternative."
    - debaserab2 9y ago
      I don't think what these comments are saying at all. IRC didn't do it's job well, that's why it was replaced.
- 0xVi 9y ago
  I"m a big fan of irccloud. It's the simplest client I've found and it's free, aside from subscribing for power-user features.
DiThi 9y ago
> One finds IRC clients everywhere. Yet I find myself using the web interface of Freenode when I need it, instead of installing a client in my Linux machine with a single command, any of the ones I used for a long time. > Is the value of a program measured by the number of features it has? I'd say by the number of features reliably shared by everyone else. This is why XMPP never took off and basically Google killed it. > Apples and oranges. Discord specifically targeted communities that used IRC, at least initially. The main difference with the other chat services is that you can enter a room from a browser, so it's almost friction-less to bring someone. IRC natively doesn't support that but many servers could and did (and I think it's the reason IRC remained somewhat popular). For the record, I don't like Discord for its proprietary and centralized nature (despite calling the communities "servers"). Instead I'll be supporting Matrix and Riot as soon as Riot issue #4488 is fixed.
Linuturk 9y ago
Having setup and attempted to administer an IRC server, I'd say that's where the barrier exists for someone wanting to create a new community outside of the huge Freenode network.
- jiggunjer 9y ago
  Why would you want to go outside freenode? They're run by a charity promoting free communication and have encryption for registered users.
  - lambada 9y ago
    So I want to create a new set of channels on freenode. From the home page (on mobile) I’m presented with the following page https://freenode.net/groupreg https://freenode.net/groupreg Which is a) very wordy. B) appears to essentially say “only certain kinds of groups are welcome”. C) doesn’t have a simple way of doing so instead being “reach out and discuss with us and then maybe we’ll let you set up shop here”
debaserab2 9y ago
> One literally has to know just one command at the beginning: /join. And then if you Google "IRC commands" If your UX requires needing to google for syntax to type into your program in order to use basic features of the app, there is absolutely no way you are going to take off with people that are used to programs like twitter, gchat, skype, and facebook messenger. I grew up on IRC and have a lot of fond memories of it. I don't particularly miss all the constant rolling brown-out connection issues and functionality/syntax that differed depending on what server you were connected to. It's no wonder someone came in and easily stole the thunder out from underneath IRC. Engineer types might have been keen to how transparently most IRC clients exposed the protocol, but I suspect for the vast majority of users IRC was tolerated, not embraced. I don't think Discord deserves all the credit either, I really think it started with slack being adopted within developer communities and open source projects. Discord got the gamers, Slack (initially at least) got the developers.
emmelaich 9y ago
> /join and /password or was that /msg notify something or ??? If you get it wrong, congrats, you've just published your password to the world. IRC wasn't even very good compared to other cli oriented programs such as the Unix shell or muds/moos.

SOLAR_FIELDS 9y ago

I’ve been a software engineer for several years now and I still have trouble with MiRC and Adium. I tried Irssi and eventually gave up with it. The problem with IRC is that even the “simple” clients never just work. There’s always some little infuriating quirks that you have to dive super deep into configs to figure out if it’s even possible to resolve without some sort of PR to the repository.

kuschku 9y ago
Well, quassel for example doesn’t even have configs, everything is done in simple ways via the UI, and everyone, including the devs, uses that. It’s rocksolid, just works, and if you use the core/client split version, you can also connect a webinterface and mobile client to it.
YSFEJ4SWJUVU6 9y ago
These kinds of comments almost make me not want to live on this Earth any more.
- astrobe_ 9y ago
  Most comments really just say: "IRC is like email. An old boring tool that just does its job. I'm not having fun with it, I'm not feeling special when using, so I need a 'modern' alternative."
  - debaserab2 9y ago
    I don't think what these comments are saying at all. IRC didn't do it's job well, that's why it was replaced.
0xVi 9y ago
I"m a big fan of irccloud. It's the simplest client I've found and it's free, aside from subscribing for power-user features.

DiThi 9y ago

> One finds IRC clients everywhere. Yet I find myself using the web interface of Freenode when I need it, instead of installing a client in my Linux machine with a single command, any of the ones I used for a long time. > Is the value of a program measured by the number of features it has? I'd say by the number of features reliably shared by everyone else. This is why XMPP never took off and basically Google killed it. > Apples and oranges. Discord specifically targeted communities that used IRC, at least initially. The main difference with the other chat services is that you can enter a room from a browser, so it's almost friction-less to bring someone. IRC natively doesn't support that but many servers could and did (and I think it's the reason IRC remained somewhat popular). For the record, I don't like Discord for its proprietary and centralized nature (despite calling the communities "servers"). Instead I'll be supporting Matrix and Riot as soon as Riot issue #4488 is fixed.

Linuturk 9y ago

Having setup and attempted to administer an IRC server, I'd say that's where the barrier exists for someone wanting to create a new community outside of the huge Freenode network.

jiggunjer 9y ago
Why would you want to go outside freenode? They're run by a charity promoting free communication and have encryption for registered users.
- lambada 9y ago
  So I want to create a new set of channels on freenode. From the home page (on mobile) I’m presented with the following page https://freenode.net/groupreg https://freenode.net/groupreg Which is a) very wordy. B) appears to essentially say “only certain kinds of groups are welcome”. C) doesn’t have a simple way of doing so instead being “reach out and discuss with us and then maybe we’ll let you set up shop here”

debaserab2 9y ago

> One literally has to know just one command at the beginning: /join. And then if you Google "IRC commands" If your UX requires needing to google for syntax to type into your program in order to use basic features of the app, there is absolutely no way you are going to take off with people that are used to programs like twitter, gchat, skype, and facebook messenger. I grew up on IRC and have a lot of fond memories of it. I don't particularly miss all the constant rolling brown-out connection issues and functionality/syntax that differed depending on what server you were connected to. It's no wonder someone came in and easily stole the thunder out from underneath IRC. Engineer types might have been keen to how transparently most IRC clients exposed the protocol, but I suspect for the vast majority of users IRC was tolerated, not embraced. I don't think Discord deserves all the credit either, I really think it started with slack being adopted within developer communities and open source projects. Discord got the gamers, Slack (initially at least) got the developers.

emmelaich 9y ago

> /join and /password or was that /msg notify something or ??? If you get it wrong, congrats, you've just published your password to the world. IRC wasn't even very good compared to other cli oriented programs such as the Unix shell or muds/moos.