4 ms·

Cool, but is anyone using IRC day to day in 2021? Not trying to be snarky, I'd love to, just don't know where I'd be.

by tldrthelaw 5y ago

progval 5y ago
https://netsplit.de/ https://netsplit.de/ keeps some stats and a channel directory
ekianjo 5y ago
Yup still using because its dead simple to self host.
- techrat 5y ago
  For shits and giggles, I dug up an old IBM K6-2/300 Mhz motherboard I had in the shed, maxed out the ram (256MB) on the board and used a CDRom to install the latest Debian (Squeeze) I could on the SD Card/IDE Adapter. Just so I could try to run an IRC server off of it. Took about 3 hours to compile UnrealIRCD for it, but it worked. From what i could see of the resource usage, it should have been fine with 128MB Ram. The biggest issue I encountered was finding a distro old enough for a CPU without CMOV instructions that still had backported packages that were required to build the IRCD.
- mickael-kerjean 5y ago
  same, plus being able to telnet your way through is refreshing
fallat 5y ago
Lots of people use IRC still. Libera being probably the biggest.
- spacemanmatt 5y ago
  The overwhelming majority of F/OSS project communities I enjoy are on Libera or OFTC. IRC has real staying power among tool users.
danieloaks 5y ago
It depends. There's a lot of people on/around IRC who really like it (see libera and all the other networks), and yeah there definitely are people spinning up new smaller networks. Especially with things like https://sr.ht/~emersion/gamja/ https://sr.ht/~emersion/gamja/ and self-hosted https://kiwiirc.com/ https://kiwiirc.com/ , as well as really polished client experiences like irccloud, it's easier to convince people to join in. Right now I'm working with a dev from libera on a client that aims to replicate a lot of things experience-wise from newer chat services. Hoping that with that, smaller self-contained servers can become more of a norm~ But for now, your best bets for finding activity are probably Libera and a couple of the other larger networks.
MaxLeiter 5y ago
If I need javascript help, I can join ##javascript on Libera. C? ##c. There are active channels and networks for the majority of topics HN is interested in.
slingamn 5y ago
We're listed on ircstats.org (under our old name of Oragono) as having 84 deployments on the public Internet last year: <https://www.ircstats.org/servers/oragono https://www.ircstats.org/servers/oragono> From pseudonymous support requests I've received in our IRC channel and on GitHub, I know of more deployments that are either private (requiring authentication to connect) or on the darknet (we have specific support for running as a Tor onion service). So I think that's our niche right now: small communities who want full autonomy in moderation and control of their data. I've taken a lot of inspiration from Darius Kazemi's runyourown.social: <https://runyourown.social/ https://runyourown.social/>
bsagdiyev 5y ago
I run an IRC server off my Raspberry Pi which has a bunch of different bots giving me news, weather, git updates, etc. You really don’t need heavyweight stuff to keep track of everything.
bityard 5y ago
Yes, there are dozens of us
jerojero 5y ago
Isn't twitch chat built on IRC? At least it was a couple of years ago. I remember connecting to twitch chat from weechat with no issues whatsoever.

Cool, but is anyone using IRC day to day in 2021? Not trying to be snarky, I'd love to, just don't know where I'd be.

progval 5y ago

https://netsplit.de/ https://netsplit.de/ keeps some stats and a channel directory

ekianjo 5y ago

Yup still using because its dead simple to self host.

techrat 5y ago
For shits and giggles, I dug up an old IBM K6-2/300 Mhz motherboard I had in the shed, maxed out the ram (256MB) on the board and used a CDRom to install the latest Debian (Squeeze) I could on the SD Card/IDE Adapter. Just so I could try to run an IRC server off of it. Took about 3 hours to compile UnrealIRCD for it, but it worked. From what i could see of the resource usage, it should have been fine with 128MB Ram. The biggest issue I encountered was finding a distro old enough for a CPU without CMOV instructions that still had backported packages that were required to build the IRCD.
mickael-kerjean 5y ago
same, plus being able to telnet your way through is refreshing

fallat 5y ago

Lots of people use IRC still. Libera being probably the biggest.

spacemanmatt 5y ago
The overwhelming majority of F/OSS project communities I enjoy are on Libera or OFTC. IRC has real staying power among tool users.

danieloaks 5y ago

It depends. There's a lot of people on/around IRC who really like it (see libera and all the other networks), and yeah there definitely are people spinning up new smaller networks. Especially with things like https://sr.ht/~emersion/gamja/ https://sr.ht/~emersion/gamja/ and self-hosted https://kiwiirc.com/ https://kiwiirc.com/ , as well as really polished client experiences like irccloud, it's easier to convince people to join in. Right now I'm working with a dev from libera on a client that aims to replicate a lot of things experience-wise from newer chat services. Hoping that with that, smaller self-contained servers can become more of a norm~ But for now, your best bets for finding activity are probably Libera and a couple of the other larger networks.

MaxLeiter 5y ago

If I need javascript help, I can join ##javascript on Libera. C? ##c. There are active channels and networks for the majority of topics HN is interested in.

slingamn 5y ago

We're listed on ircstats.org (under our old name of Oragono) as having 84 deployments on the public Internet last year: <https://www.ircstats.org/servers/oragono https://www.ircstats.org/servers/oragono> From pseudonymous support requests I've received in our IRC channel and on GitHub, I know of more deployments that are either private (requiring authentication to connect) or on the darknet (we have specific support for running as a Tor onion service). So I think that's our niche right now: small communities who want full autonomy in moderation and control of their data. I've taken a lot of inspiration from Darius Kazemi's runyourown.social: <https://runyourown.social/ https://runyourown.social/>

bsagdiyev 5y ago

I run an IRC server off my Raspberry Pi which has a bunch of different bots giving me news, weather, git updates, etc. You really don’t need heavyweight stuff to keep track of everything.

bityard 5y ago

Yes, there are dozens of us

jerojero 5y ago

Isn't twitch chat built on IRC? At least it was a couple of years ago. I remember connecting to twitch chat from weechat with no issues whatsoever.