5 ms·

Survival Guide:IRC

45 points by googletron 15y ago

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
googletron 15y ago
I honestly wish, I had read this when started helping people or asking for help. would have saved me alot of nerd raging.
bitops 15y ago
Nice writeup. Sometimes I feel like there should be a canonical reference for novice programmers with links to all this stuff. E.g. Want to know what Netiquette is? Read this RFC. Curious about HTTP? Here's the RFC and some other good materials. I think there are many "perma threads" that all beginners eventually end up asking, it would cool if they were all easily accessible from one place.
- googletron 15y ago
  I might just do that. https://github.com/myusuf3/Programmers-Survival-Guide https://github.com/myusuf3/Programmers-Survival-Guide
chipsy 15y ago
How to learn things quickly, without trying: 1. Find a large number of technical IRC channels. 2. Idle in all of them.
- nik_0_0 15y ago
  I've used specific IRC channels in the past, for downloads or manga, what are some good 'technical IRC channels'?
  - alextp 15y ago
    You can look for #<programming language> or #<library> on freenode, for example.
paulgerhardt 15y ago
This post is too closely plagiarized from Eric Raymond's "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way". http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
- googletron 15y ago
  The format of the idiocy is showcased in the same way, and general idea is the same, humility. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was plagiarized though. Thanks for the constructive input though :)
  - peterwwillis 15y ago
    Some similarly useful tips in How To Report Bugs Effectively also apply to IRC http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
    - googletron 15y ago
      nice find peter!
baby 15y ago
wow a survival guide about something that's been around here for ages. Also a cheap survival guide, I've seen better resources about IRC... This is the kind of blog post that lands on the frontpage of HN thanks to I don't know what miracle. Also for developers, tendency is to leave IRC. See the new chat system of metastack. As for the video of numb3rs. Who haven't seen that also...
- bitops 15y ago
  Though I know it's bad policy to feed the trolls...I hadn't seen the numbers video. And I enjoyed it.
  - baby 15y ago
    Oh yeah I'm a troll now. I've been using IRC since 2001... Feels also like HN shouldn't be a place to post videos like the numb3rs' one, also I enjoy it on reddit.
johnpaulett 15y ago
Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619721 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619721
j45 15y ago
Where was this guide in 1993? So many bot wars.. could have been avoided. It's nice to see it though in IRC terms, though. The point about being able to post, and then wait for an answer is important. Sometimes we want a quick answer and can't get it on IRC. Each channel has it's own activity level and culture and it's important to know how different channels work.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
- avb_wkyhu 15y ago
  I'm interested, what OS are you running and what don't you like about irssi? I have irssi running on a Micro Instance of EC2 with very little added to the config and not only do I love it, but when I'm AFK and someone privatemessages me it opens up in another window and saves it, if someone highlights me it gives me a signal in the terminal, etc. I find irssi + urxvt amazingly amazing for IRC.
  - cturner 15y ago
    sorry - I sometimes delete comments minutes after posting them if I subsequently decide they're low value. Your post came in as I deleted. Thanks for response, I'll pick it up. > what OS are you running and what don't you like > about irssi? I use linux console via putty. The way I have it configured I have a window at the top that traps comments from any channel directed to me, and then the chat in the bottom. Things I'm not thrilled about - the way it's set up, by default it loads new chat windows over the top of my hilight buffer. I couldn't find a way to isolate that window, and have it create down the bottom. > when I'm AFK and someone privatemessages Ah not quite. I'm not talking about that kind of directed messages. Rather - when someone says "cturner:" in channel (a public directed message). In that case I'd like to know that I'll get their message. Also, I fiddled quite a bit trying to get autologin to freenode and channel join to work without luck. Irssi is the best I've found, and I try to stick to console apps so that's a plus and it mostly works for me. But I thought my needs were quite simple and hence thought it wouldn't be too much to think that there'd be something that worked my way out of the box.
    - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
      You might be interested to set up an IRC bouncer, like ZNC, instead of running Irssi on your server. ZNC will maintain a constant connection and presence to the IRC server, and then you can use any IRC client to connect to your ZNC server. When you connect to ZNC, you'll get a playback of recent conversation, any PM's you may have missed, etc. You can even connect multiple IRC clients to your ZNC server; eg, I run Irssi on my server, XChat on my home machine, and can also connect from my phone using Andchat. I've actually written a module for ZNC [1] that will send push notifications to your computer or mobile phone, using a variety of services, whenever you get mentioned or private messaged. The conditions for sending a push notification can be customized to your heart's content, and you don't have to worry about missing replies to your questions. If you want more details about the setup, I wrote an article [2] describing my entire IRC stack; you can get as simple or as complicated as you want. [1] http://noswap.com/projects/znc-push/ http://noswap.com/projects/znc-push/ [2] http://noswap.com/articles/irc/ http://noswap.com/articles/irc/
michaelbuckbee 15y ago
What's interesting to me is the extent to which IRC support and discussion of technical (programming) topics has been taken over by StackOverflow. This is admittedly anecdotal, but I often see people refer questioners to SO entries as the answer to something and I've had more success getting answers to things by posting a SO question and then throwing the URL for that into an IRC channel than trying to establish everything in the channel itself. Maybe SO is just acting like a pastie.org that you can also get answers to.
d0mine 15y ago
http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml http://freenode.net/catalysts.shtml http://freenode.net/catalysts.shtml to sum up: be nice
rogerclark 15y ago
this guide isn't even necessary in 2012. people on irc aren't even mean to new people anymore. everyone is boring and nice

Survival Guide:IRC

45 points by googletron 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

googletron 15y ago

I honestly wish, I had read this when started helping people or asking for help. would have saved me alot of nerd raging.

bitops 15y ago

Nice writeup. Sometimes I feel like there should be a canonical reference for novice programmers with links to all this stuff. E.g. Want to know what Netiquette is? Read this RFC. Curious about HTTP? Here's the RFC and some other good materials. I think there are many "perma threads" that all beginners eventually end up asking, it would cool if they were all easily accessible from one place.

googletron 15y ago
I might just do that. https://github.com/myusuf3/Programmers-Survival-Guide https://github.com/myusuf3/Programmers-Survival-Guide

chipsy 15y ago

How to learn things quickly, without trying: 1. Find a large number of technical IRC channels. 2. Idle in all of them.

nik_0_0 15y ago
I've used specific IRC channels in the past, for downloads or manga, what are some good 'technical IRC channels'?
- alextp 15y ago
  You can look for #<programming language> or #<library> on freenode, for example.

paulgerhardt 15y ago

This post is too closely plagiarized from Eric Raymond's "How to Ask Questions the Smart Way". http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

googletron 15y ago
The format of the idiocy is showcased in the same way, and general idea is the same, humility. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was plagiarized though. Thanks for the constructive input though :)
- peterwwillis 15y ago
  Some similarly useful tips in How To Report Bugs Effectively also apply to IRC http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html
  - googletron 15y ago
    nice find peter!

baby 15y ago

wow a survival guide about something that's been around here for ages. Also a cheap survival guide, I've seen better resources about IRC... This is the kind of blog post that lands on the frontpage of HN thanks to I don't know what miracle. Also for developers, tendency is to leave IRC. See the new chat system of metastack. As for the video of numb3rs. Who haven't seen that also...

bitops 15y ago
Though I know it's bad policy to feed the trolls...I hadn't seen the numbers video. And I enjoyed it.
- baby 15y ago
  Oh yeah I'm a troll now. I've been using IRC since 2001... Feels also like HN shouldn't be a place to post videos like the numb3rs' one, also I enjoy it on reddit.

johnpaulett 15y ago

Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619721 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2619721

j45 15y ago

Where was this guide in 1993? So many bot wars.. could have been avoided. It's nice to see it though in IRC terms, though. The point about being able to post, and then wait for an answer is important. Sometimes we want a quick answer and can't get it on IRC. Each channel has it's own activity level and culture and it's important to know how different channels work.

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

avb_wkyhu 15y ago
I'm interested, what OS are you running and what don't you like about irssi? I have irssi running on a Micro Instance of EC2 with very little added to the config and not only do I love it, but when I'm AFK and someone privatemessages me it opens up in another window and saves it, if someone highlights me it gives me a signal in the terminal, etc. I find irssi + urxvt amazingly amazing for IRC.
- cturner 15y ago
  sorry - I sometimes delete comments minutes after posting them if I subsequently decide they're low value. Your post came in as I deleted. Thanks for response, I'll pick it up. > what OS are you running and what don't you like > about irssi? I use linux console via putty. The way I have it configured I have a window at the top that traps comments from any channel directed to me, and then the chat in the bottom. Things I'm not thrilled about - the way it's set up, by default it loads new chat windows over the top of my hilight buffer. I couldn't find a way to isolate that window, and have it create down the bottom. > when I'm AFK and someone privatemessages Ah not quite. I'm not talking about that kind of directed messages. Rather - when someone says "cturner:" in channel (a public directed message). In that case I'd like to know that I'll get their message. Also, I fiddled quite a bit trying to get autologin to freenode and channel join to work without luck. Irssi is the best I've found, and I try to stick to console apps so that's a plus and it mostly works for me. But I thought my needs were quite simple and hence thought it wouldn't be too much to think that there'd be something that worked my way out of the box.
  - nuclear_eclipse 15y ago
    You might be interested to set up an IRC bouncer, like ZNC, instead of running Irssi on your server. ZNC will maintain a constant connection and presence to the IRC server, and then you can use any IRC client to connect to your ZNC server. When you connect to ZNC, you'll get a playback of recent conversation, any PM's you may have missed, etc. You can even connect multiple IRC clients to your ZNC server; eg, I run Irssi on my server, XChat on my home machine, and can also connect from my phone using Andchat. I've actually written a module for ZNC [1] that will send push notifications to your computer or mobile phone, using a variety of services, whenever you get mentioned or private messaged. The conditions for sending a push notification can be customized to your heart's content, and you don't have to worry about missing replies to your questions. If you want more details about the setup, I wrote an article [2] describing my entire IRC stack; you can get as simple or as complicated as you want. [1] http://noswap.com/projects/znc-push/ http://noswap.com/projects/znc-push/ [2] http://noswap.com/articles/irc/ http://noswap.com/articles/irc/

michaelbuckbee 15y ago

What's interesting to me is the extent to which IRC support and discussion of technical (programming) topics has been taken over by StackOverflow. This is admittedly anecdotal, but I often see people refer questioners to SO entries as the answer to something and I've had more success getting answers to things by posting a SO question and then throwing the URL for that into an IRC channel than trying to establish everything in the channel itself. Maybe SO is just acting like a pastie.org that you can also get answers to.

d0mine 15y ago

http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml http://freenode.net/channel_guidelines.shtml http://freenode.net/catalysts.shtml http://freenode.net/catalysts.shtml to sum up: be nice

rogerclark 15y ago

this guide isn't even necessary in 2012. people on irc aren't even mean to new people anymore. everyone is boring and nice