6 ms·

As a big fan of IRC, I would have to say that it doesn't "work" at all when compared to Slack or Discord. You have to be online to receive messages, making it p

As a big fan of IRC, I would have to say that it doesn't "work" at all when compared to Slack or Discord. You have to be online to receive messages, making it pretty much useless for any serious communication needs. Yes, I am aware of, and run, an IRC bouncer, this is not a real solution for 99% of users.

xfitm3 8y ago
Only receiving messages while online is a feature. Want to work async? Email.
- RHSeeger 8y ago
  Except some people can be having a conversation while I'm offline. When I get back on, I can catch up or have someone link me to an important part of it. It's handy.
- zamalek 8y ago
  In some teams, IM+history is the email killer that happened by the mistake.
- hombre_fatal 8y ago
  A feature to the small handful of people who still use IRC. Look around though. Everyone else expects basic features like being able to send someone a message even though that person went through a tunnel.
- jacobsenscott 8y ago
  I work with a bunch of people in oakland, where comcast flickers on and off like a light bulb during a wind storm in the 1920's. So the only way to have a quick chat is over email?
jandrese 8y ago
It's also limited to straight text. People may say it's frivolous, but sending pictures and other media is expected now.
- Washuu 8y ago
  IRC is not limited to plain text. Discord, Slack, and IRC all handle media the same way. Someone sends an URL and the client decides to how to handle displaying it. Textual shows me images and videos all the time from URLs sent.
  - civilian 8y ago
    I guess then technically IRC servers need a way to have images uploaded and re-serve them. When I share an image on slack I'm usually just uploading it directly to slack, rather than using imgur or another uploader.
  - jandrese 8y ago
    I thought they stored the graphics on the server with Discord. I know there is that out-of-band file protocol that some IRC clients support, but it was always a terrible hack that hated firewalls.
  - jjeaff 8y ago
    That's not how I use the feature at all. The vast majority of images and files I send are created locally. I can then upload or paste then into the chat client, they get stored on the server and shown to the other users. With IRC, I would need to use a separate service like imgur to first upload the images. And or a file hosting service like Dropbox for the files.
    - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
      A robust IRC client could include integrated image hosting. Or ask you to plug in your Dropbox account, and then upload there automatically when you drag and drop a file or image.
    - StreamBright 8y ago
      Have you seen irccloud?
- okasaki 8y ago
okasaki 8y ago
Many IRC servers provide a service that allows users to send messages to offline users, which are then relayed to the user when they come online.
- hombre_fatal 8y ago
  Kind of a toothless "many" when this isn't even built into Freenode. I have to wonder if any IRC server I've ever connected to supported it and why I've never seen this feature.
  - smolder 8y ago
    It's a common IRC bot feature. Typically there's a command like: .tell <user> <message>
  - okasaki 8y ago
    Freenode does support it. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- ***** MemoServ Help ***** -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- MemoServ allows users to send memos to registered users. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- For more information on a command, type: -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- /msg MemoServ help <command> -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- The following commands are available: -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- DEL Alias for DELETE -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- DELETE Deletes memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- FORWARD Forwards a memo. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- HELP Displays contextual help information. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- IGNORE Ignores memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- LIST Lists all of your memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- READ Reads a memo. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- SEND Sends a memo to a user. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- SENDOPS Sends a memo to all ops on a channel. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- ***** End of Help *****

xfitm3 8y ago

Only receiving messages while online is a feature. Want to work async? Email.

RHSeeger 8y ago
Except some people can be having a conversation while I'm offline. When I get back on, I can catch up or have someone link me to an important part of it. It's handy.
zamalek 8y ago
In some teams, IM+history is the email killer that happened by the mistake.
hombre_fatal 8y ago
A feature to the small handful of people who still use IRC. Look around though. Everyone else expects basic features like being able to send someone a message even though that person went through a tunnel.
jacobsenscott 8y ago
I work with a bunch of people in oakland, where comcast flickers on and off like a light bulb during a wind storm in the 1920's. So the only way to have a quick chat is over email?

jandrese 8y ago

It's also limited to straight text. People may say it's frivolous, but sending pictures and other media is expected now.

Washuu 8y ago
IRC is not limited to plain text. Discord, Slack, and IRC all handle media the same way. Someone sends an URL and the client decides to how to handle displaying it. Textual shows me images and videos all the time from URLs sent.
- civilian 8y ago
  I guess then technically IRC servers need a way to have images uploaded and re-serve them. When I share an image on slack I'm usually just uploading it directly to slack, rather than using imgur or another uploader.
- jandrese 8y ago
  I thought they stored the graphics on the server with Discord. I know there is that out-of-band file protocol that some IRC clients support, but it was always a terrible hack that hated firewalls.
- jjeaff 8y ago
  That's not how I use the feature at all. The vast majority of images and files I send are created locally. I can then upload or paste then into the chat client, they get stored on the server and shown to the other users. With IRC, I would need to use a separate service like imgur to first upload the images. And or a file hosting service like Dropbox for the files.
  - Wowfunhappy 8y ago
    A robust IRC client could include integrated image hosting. Or ask you to plug in your Dropbox account, and then upload there automatically when you drag and drop a file or image.
  - StreamBright 8y ago
    Have you seen irccloud?
okasaki 8y ago

okasaki 8y ago

Many IRC servers provide a service that allows users to send messages to offline users, which are then relayed to the user when they come online.

hombre_fatal 8y ago
Kind of a toothless "many" when this isn't even built into Freenode. I have to wonder if any IRC server I've ever connected to supported it and why I've never seen this feature.
- smolder 8y ago
  It's a common IRC bot feature. Typically there's a command like: .tell <user> <message>
- okasaki 8y ago
  Freenode does support it. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- ***** MemoServ Help ***** -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- MemoServ allows users to send memos to registered users. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- For more information on a command, type: -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- /msg MemoServ help <command> -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- The following commands are available: -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- DEL Alias for DELETE -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- DELETE Deletes memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- FORWARD Forwards a memo. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- HELP Displays contextual help information. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- IGNORE Ignores memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- LIST Lists all of your memos. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- READ Reads a memo. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- SEND Sends a memo to a user. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- SENDOPS Sends a memo to all ops on a channel. -MemoServ(MemoServ@services.)- ***** End of Help *****