4 ms·

That's what you get for centralization combined with a couple of decades of poor architecture choices. signed, the wumpus who gave the world EFNET

by wumpus 5y ago

xref 5y ago
Hah, had to look you up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat Brings back memories of tcl/tk eggdrop bots, buying shell accounts to keep your nick held while you were offline, and automating server jumping so you wouldn’t be banned for idling
- wumpus 5y ago
  Good times! I wonder how many people were launched into infosec careers or learned coding or had some other positive result in their lives because of petty fights on IRC. I learned a lot from that era, not only about social skills, but also asynchronous programming from watching msa make the irc server code much more scalable.
  - 1propionyl 5y ago
    Just like Andrew Lee (rasengan)! > Today, I'm strong. Today, I'm confident. Today, I am social. Today, I am patient. Today, I am accepting. Today, I have a cause. This would not be the case, if yesterday, for me, was not IRC. Do you also agree that "IRC, is a transcended level of humanity, that values you for all the other genes and experiences that make you, you - unlike the "real" world which is utterly focused on nothing"? Source: https://www.irc.com/lets-take-irc-further https://www.irc.com/lets-take-irc-further (Yes, he bought irc.com too.)
    - wumpus 5y ago
      Well, and then there are some people that I don't exactly want to consider how IRC "improved" them.
    - wayvey 5y ago
      Ironic how the very front page of irc.com mentions "No vendor lock in".
  - enriquto 5y ago
    > Good times! I wonder how many people were launched into infosec careers or learned coding or had some other positive result in their lives because of petty fights on IRC. I certainly did! After spending a couple of years (at 16-17) idling on IRC and picking stupid teenage fights, out of boredom I learned to code... in the mircScript language, to write silly bots and stuff. This is what motivated me to learn programming seriously.
    - wumpus 5y ago
      IRC bots are really a fascinating category of software, because you can inject them into situations where people didn't necessarily agree to use them :-D much easier to attract users of your code if it's not totally... voluntary.
      - enriquto 5y ago
        Have you ever seen a child using a telephone or a tablet? Its the same thing, but a thousand times over! They have software injected into them and they unwillingly suffer the effects of said software. Or any adult browsing a website with uncalled-for javascript for that matter.
        wumpus 5y ago
        That wasn't what I was getting at, sorry to have been unclear. What I was saying is that you can write an IRC bot and then show it to your friends (on IRC) without your friends having to do anything in advance (like downloading an app.)
sanqui 5y ago
Do you have an opinion on any particular technological successor to IRC?
- wumpus 5y ago
  As those of you who frequent alt.irc.recovery recall, I quit IRC cold turkey a long time ago. But I'm fascinated by what Slack has done with the IRC concept -- it can be an amazingly positive cultural transition for a tech company to switch from mostly email to nearly 100% slack.
  - bhaak 5y ago
    Yes, Slack works for a company environment (where you only have one community open). But how does it feel if you have several different communities open? In an IRC client, there is no difference between two channels on the same server and two channels on different server. Switching between channels is seamlessly. Discord fails there pretty hard.
    - scrollaway 5y ago
      I'm really hoping matrix is the long term solution to this, and the general vacuum of an open source base for communication protocols.
    - croon 5y ago
      As someone who has been on IRC since ~95 and still uses it, I view Discord as several self-hosted IRC servers (with voice/video features on top), and in that way it compares more favorably. I wont speak to the privacy issues/data issues, but as a user, Discord has honestly been fantastic and beyond my expectations. Its' API for making integrations has been great too.
      - bhaak 5y ago
        How do you handle the plethora of channels every Discord server has? Like, I usually are only interested in a few channels on a given Discord server but by default, I get everything. How do you switch between different servers or different channels? In my IRC setup, I can switch to the next channel with activity with the press of a key. Or get a list of channels with a search input to jump to.
feb 5y ago
Out of curiosity, what do you consider the worst architecture choices in IRC ? And what would be better solutions ?

That's what you get for centralization combined with a couple of decades of poor architecture choices. signed, the wumpus who gave the world EFNET

by wumpus 5y ago

That's what you get for centralization combined with a couple of decades of poor architecture choices. signed, the wumpus who gave the world EFNET

xref 5y ago

Hah, had to look you up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Chat Brings back memories of tcl/tk eggdrop bots, buying shell accounts to keep your nick held while you were offline, and automating server jumping so you wouldn’t be banned for idling

wumpus 5y ago
Good times! I wonder how many people were launched into infosec careers or learned coding or had some other positive result in their lives because of petty fights on IRC. I learned a lot from that era, not only about social skills, but also asynchronous programming from watching msa make the irc server code much more scalable.
- 1propionyl 5y ago
  Just like Andrew Lee (rasengan)! > Today, I'm strong. Today, I'm confident. Today, I am social. Today, I am patient. Today, I am accepting. Today, I have a cause. This would not be the case, if yesterday, for me, was not IRC. Do you also agree that "IRC, is a transcended level of humanity, that values you for all the other genes and experiences that make you, you - unlike the "real" world which is utterly focused on nothing"? Source: https://www.irc.com/lets-take-irc-further https://www.irc.com/lets-take-irc-further (Yes, he bought irc.com too.)
  - wumpus 5y ago
    Well, and then there are some people that I don't exactly want to consider how IRC "improved" them.
  - wayvey 5y ago
    Ironic how the very front page of irc.com mentions "No vendor lock in".
- enriquto 5y ago
  > Good times! I wonder how many people were launched into infosec careers or learned coding or had some other positive result in their lives because of petty fights on IRC. I certainly did! After spending a couple of years (at 16-17) idling on IRC and picking stupid teenage fights, out of boredom I learned to code... in the mircScript language, to write silly bots and stuff. This is what motivated me to learn programming seriously.
  - wumpus 5y ago
    IRC bots are really a fascinating category of software, because you can inject them into situations where people didn't necessarily agree to use them :-D much easier to attract users of your code if it's not totally... voluntary.
    - enriquto 5y ago
      Have you ever seen a child using a telephone or a tablet? Its the same thing, but a thousand times over! They have software injected into them and they unwillingly suffer the effects of said software. Or any adult browsing a website with uncalled-for javascript for that matter.
      - wumpus 5y ago
        That wasn't what I was getting at, sorry to have been unclear. What I was saying is that you can write an IRC bot and then show it to your friends (on IRC) without your friends having to do anything in advance (like downloading an app.)

sanqui 5y ago

Do you have an opinion on any particular technological successor to IRC?

wumpus 5y ago
As those of you who frequent alt.irc.recovery recall, I quit IRC cold turkey a long time ago. But I'm fascinated by what Slack has done with the IRC concept -- it can be an amazingly positive cultural transition for a tech company to switch from mostly email to nearly 100% slack.
- bhaak 5y ago
  Yes, Slack works for a company environment (where you only have one community open). But how does it feel if you have several different communities open? In an IRC client, there is no difference between two channels on the same server and two channels on different server. Switching between channels is seamlessly. Discord fails there pretty hard.
  - scrollaway 5y ago
    I'm really hoping matrix is the long term solution to this, and the general vacuum of an open source base for communication protocols.
  - croon 5y ago
    As someone who has been on IRC since ~95 and still uses it, I view Discord as several self-hosted IRC servers (with voice/video features on top), and in that way it compares more favorably. I wont speak to the privacy issues/data issues, but as a user, Discord has honestly been fantastic and beyond my expectations. Its' API for making integrations has been great too.
    - bhaak 5y ago
      How do you handle the plethora of channels every Discord server has? Like, I usually are only interested in a few channels on a given Discord server but by default, I get everything. How do you switch between different servers or different channels? In my IRC setup, I can switch to the next channel with activity with the press of a key. Or get a list of channels with a search input to jump to.

feb 5y ago

Out of curiosity, what do you consider the worst architecture choices in IRC ? And what would be better solutions ?