4 ms·

IRC isn't "dying off." Many (many) projects still use it as their main communication channel for developers/users.

keithnz 8y ago
sure.... I still use it. But now IRC is much much more fringe, somewhat like usenet, ftp, telnet, etc is very fringe these days. It used to be like THE social networking tool. Somewhat like facebook. Maybe one day facebook too will be used by developers to communicate while everyone else is in virtual worlds
- walrus01 8y ago
  ftp is fringe because it's unencrypted and deals very poorly with NAT, and has performance/scaling issues for huge file transfers and transfers with huge numbers of discrete files. telnet is fringe because it's totally plaintext and has obviously been replaced by ssh2 everywhere. whereas irc daemons can easily be linked together by TLS1.2 and irc clients can also talk to servers over TLS.
  - peatmoss 8y ago
    Yeah, it’s easy to get nostalgic about old stuff, particularly when the old stuff was legit good. But man, FTP and telnet needed to die in a fire.
    - berti 8y ago
      What do you think of TFTP then? All things have their uses. Outside of the valley, a ton of things don't live on untrusted networks.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
      Someday when there's a universal way to share files between people on a network without passwords FTP might die. So far it is the least painful way of having a place people can just dump files to and grab files from without authentication.
      - jenscow 8y ago
        Unfortunately, as of today, the majority of "computer operators" struggle to share a file if it requires more than a single operation of "drag/drop".
        walrus01 8y ago
        In 2018 teaching totally non-technical users to effectively use Dropbox and OneDrive is even a challenge, and those companies have a great many staff positions between them whose full time job is UI design and usability.
        AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Why are you so condescending towards users? Maybe pretending that everyone who uses a computer and isn't a gerybeard is a drooling moron is part of why computers suck so much in 2018.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- craftyguy 8y ago
  > somewhat like usenet, ftp, telnet, etc Don't conflate protocols that are terrible with protocols that aren't 'hip'. ftp and telnet have been replaced (thankfully) and should die in a fire. Usenet is still cool though.
  - keithnz 8y ago
    It's not really anything to do with the protocols, they don't really matter. The protocols represented the tools you could use to consume the internet, usenet allowed you to follow special interest groups, ftp allowed you to get files ( back in the day of public domain and shareware ), telnet let you into other systems, either for another shell or to play MUDs :) IRC allowed you to chat, Gopher allowed you to find information and resources, and of course there was email. Other than email ( which is a super crappy system ), all the others are fringe tools these days.
  - taborj 8y ago
    And speaking of Usenet... https://www.eternal-september.org/ https://www.eternal-september.org/
- jiggunjer 8y ago
  In my opinion the reasons for loss of userbase & mindshare: 1 Spam and noise -> No proper authentication and moderating system for channels. It's hard to keep bad agents out of channels. 2 Competition -> Forums had more features (including a solution for point 1, also https) and didn't require a special client. If you could easily send cat gifs in chats IRC would have been great.
  - keithnz 8y ago
    there was comic chat :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat
    - traviscj 8y ago
      Oh man, so many hours in my teens on this. It was my tumblr, I think.
  - crtasm 8y ago
    If your network runs services you can set your channel to require being authed with nickserv to join. Sure people can make a new account if you ban them but they can on a web forum too. Or you can set channel so only voiced nicks can speak and de-voice a nick to moderate. Or even make an access list so only specific authed nicks can join. None of this is ideal though I agree.
  - WilliamEdward 8y ago
    Why is the biggest loss of userbase not attributed to really bad barrier of entry and UI? As a layperson it's much easier and friendlier to join Discord/related software which has a ton more features.

sure.... I still use it. But now IRC is much much more fringe, somewhat like usenet, ftp, telnet, etc is very fringe these days. It used to be like THE social networking tool. Somewhat like facebook. Maybe one day facebook too will be used by developers to communicate while everyone else is in virtual worlds

walrus01 8y ago
ftp is fringe because it's unencrypted and deals very poorly with NAT, and has performance/scaling issues for huge file transfers and transfers with huge numbers of discrete files. telnet is fringe because it's totally plaintext and has obviously been replaced by ssh2 everywhere. whereas irc daemons can easily be linked together by TLS1.2 and irc clients can also talk to servers over TLS.
- peatmoss 8y ago
  Yeah, it’s easy to get nostalgic about old stuff, particularly when the old stuff was legit good. But man, FTP and telnet needed to die in a fire.
  - berti 8y ago
    What do you think of TFTP then? All things have their uses. Outside of the valley, a ton of things don't live on untrusted networks.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
    Someday when there's a universal way to share files between people on a network without passwords FTP might die. So far it is the least painful way of having a place people can just dump files to and grab files from without authentication.
    - jenscow 8y ago
      Unfortunately, as of today, the majority of "computer operators" struggle to share a file if it requires more than a single operation of "drag/drop".
      - walrus01 8y ago
        In 2018 teaching totally non-technical users to effectively use Dropbox and OneDrive is even a challenge, and those companies have a great many staff positions between them whose full time job is UI design and usability.
      - AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y ago
        Why are you so condescending towards users? Maybe pretending that everyone who uses a computer and isn't a gerybeard is a drooling moron is part of why computers suck so much in 2018.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
craftyguy 8y ago
> somewhat like usenet, ftp, telnet, etc Don't conflate protocols that are terrible with protocols that aren't 'hip'. ftp and telnet have been replaced (thankfully) and should die in a fire. Usenet is still cool though.
- keithnz 8y ago
  It's not really anything to do with the protocols, they don't really matter. The protocols represented the tools you could use to consume the internet, usenet allowed you to follow special interest groups, ftp allowed you to get files ( back in the day of public domain and shareware ), telnet let you into other systems, either for another shell or to play MUDs :) IRC allowed you to chat, Gopher allowed you to find information and resources, and of course there was email. Other than email ( which is a super crappy system ), all the others are fringe tools these days.
- taborj 8y ago
  And speaking of Usenet... https://www.eternal-september.org/ https://www.eternal-september.org/
jiggunjer 8y ago
In my opinion the reasons for loss of userbase & mindshare: 1 Spam and noise -> No proper authentication and moderating system for channels. It's hard to keep bad agents out of channels. 2 Competition -> Forums had more features (including a solution for point 1, also https) and didn't require a special client. If you could easily send cat gifs in chats IRC would have been great.
- keithnz 8y ago
  there was comic chat :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Comic_Chat
  - traviscj 8y ago
    Oh man, so many hours in my teens on this. It was my tumblr, I think.
- crtasm 8y ago
  If your network runs services you can set your channel to require being authed with nickserv to join. Sure people can make a new account if you ban them but they can on a web forum too. Or you can set channel so only voiced nicks can speak and de-voice a nick to moderate. Or even make an access list so only specific authed nicks can join. None of this is ideal though I agree.
- WilliamEdward 8y ago
  Why is the biggest loss of userbase not attributed to really bad barrier of entry and UI? As a layperson it's much easier and friendlier to join Discord/related software which has a ton more features.