3 ms·

While self-hosting sounds fun, I think part of made for example freenode so fruitful is the concentration of projects. It's easy to pop over in a different chan

While self-hosting sounds fun, I think part of made for example freenode so fruitful is the concentration of projects. It's easy to pop over in a different channel when you're already on the network, and concentrating similar projects makes it likely that you find something interesting.

J-Kuhn 5y ago
Yes, networks have a networking effect (duh). First, its about discoverability - on many networks you can see in what channels someone is in by simply /whois'ing them - allowing you to find other channels you might be interested in. Second, if you want to create your own channel - you will most likely choose a network where your target audience already is. Creating a channel there is usually easy - /join a channel that does not exist yet, and often register it with the services with /cs register. Setting up your own IRC Network is not that hard - but you need a server you can run IRC on, pick one of the many IRCds, pick a services package (Atheme and Anope are the most popular). And then you need to administer that network. (Which often means NOT doing anything.) Creating your own IRC Network can be fun, and you can learn a lot of interesting things. But it is also time consuming. Creating a channel on an existing network is usually 2 commands away.
- inter_netuser 5y ago
  how much effort it was to administer Freenode? They seem to have lots of volunteers doing something.
  - Doxin 5y ago
    I think it's one of those things where 99% of the time there's not much going on, but you need enough volunteers for that 1% when things go sideways.
pmlnr 5y ago
> It's easy to pop over in a different channel when you're already on the network Most of the current irc clients make it possible to have multiple server connections simultaneously, so jumping between servers isn't a problem either.

3 ms·

While self-hosting sounds fun, I think part of made for example freenode so fruitful is the concentration of projects. It's easy to pop over in a different chan

by kzrdude 5y ago

J-Kuhn 5y ago
Yes, networks have a networking effect (duh). First, its about discoverability - on many networks you can see in what channels someone is in by simply /whois'ing them - allowing you to find other channels you might be interested in. Second, if you want to create your own channel - you will most likely choose a network where your target audience already is. Creating a channel there is usually easy - /join a channel that does not exist yet, and often register it with the services with /cs register. Setting up your own IRC Network is not that hard - but you need a server you can run IRC on, pick one of the many IRCds, pick a services package (Atheme and Anope are the most popular). And then you need to administer that network. (Which often means NOT doing anything.) Creating your own IRC Network can be fun, and you can learn a lot of interesting things. But it is also time consuming. Creating a channel on an existing network is usually 2 commands away.
- inter_netuser 5y ago
  how much effort it was to administer Freenode? They seem to have lots of volunteers doing something.
  - Doxin 5y ago
    I think it's one of those things where 99% of the time there's not much going on, but you need enough volunteers for that 1% when things go sideways.
pmlnr 5y ago
> It's easy to pop over in a different channel when you're already on the network Most of the current irc clients make it possible to have multiple server connections simultaneously, so jumping between servers isn't a problem either.