3 ms·

> I find both IRC and bittorrent to have a superb UX. It's minimal, highly interoperable and programmatically accessible. I agree, but there's no way my mom co

by dvt 5y ago

> I find both IRC and bittorrent to have a superb UX. It's minimal, highly interoperable and programmatically accessible. I agree, but there's no way my mom could figure out IRC on her own. She uses Dropbox daily, though.

zarzavat 5y ago
Before the WWW ordinary people did figure out IRC. It's just that people have got used to a different kind of UX - arguably what we have now is more complicated and harder to understand.
- kalleboo 5y ago
  Yeah when I was in middle school in the late 90's all the normal girls hung out on IRC using mIRC. What killed IRC was more mobile I think, since once you need to set up a bouncer and stuff it actually gets difficult.
quesera 5y ago
Anyone who can use a web browser can use IRC. E.g. https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat:+6697#irc https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat:+6697#irc https://web.libera.chat/?channels=#irc https://web.libera.chat/?channels=#irc There are also mobile apps with better persistence and even simpler interfaces. IRC will never take over the world because: * The protocol is missing some minor but important UX-enhancing features. This is fixable, but there's nothing valuable enough about the existing userbase for a capitalized entity to bother working with the entrenched groups. And non-capitalized entities move relatively slowly. * There is no profit in it -- the corps who want to own messaging want to own messaging. This is a great idea for them, but a terrible idea for users. * IRC networks don't want Eternal September to happen to them. Not that anyone is beating down their door.
- anthk 5y ago
  > IRC networks don't want Eternal September to happen to them. Not that anyone is beating down their door. Too late for that. In late 90's/early 00's, you had web clients for IRC.

3 ms·

> I find both IRC and bittorrent to have a superb UX. It's minimal, highly interoperable and programmatically accessible. I agree, but there's no way my mom co

by dvt 5y ago

zarzavat 5y ago
Before the WWW ordinary people did figure out IRC. It's just that people have got used to a different kind of UX - arguably what we have now is more complicated and harder to understand.
- kalleboo 5y ago
  Yeah when I was in middle school in the late 90's all the normal girls hung out on IRC using mIRC. What killed IRC was more mobile I think, since once you need to set up a bouncer and stuff it actually gets difficult.
quesera 5y ago
Anyone who can use a web browser can use IRC. E.g. https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat:+6697#irc https://kiwiirc.com/nextclient/irc.libera.chat:+6697#irc https://web.libera.chat/?channels=#irc https://web.libera.chat/?channels=#irc There are also mobile apps with better persistence and even simpler interfaces. IRC will never take over the world because: * The protocol is missing some minor but important UX-enhancing features. This is fixable, but there's nothing valuable enough about the existing userbase for a capitalized entity to bother working with the entrenched groups. And non-capitalized entities move relatively slowly. * There is no profit in it -- the corps who want to own messaging want to own messaging. This is a great idea for them, but a terrible idea for users. * IRC networks don't want Eternal September to happen to them. Not that anyone is beating down their door.
- anthk 5y ago
  > IRC networks don't want Eternal September to happen to them. Not that anyone is beating down their door. Too late for that. In late 90's/early 00's, you had web clients for IRC.