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That was the fun thing about Usenet back then - lots of open exchange between key people and anyone could join in (which eventually was its undoing).

bigdict 3y ago
IRC is still like that.
- pitched 3y ago
  I’ve wanted to get back on IRC for a while but don’t really know where people live in it these days. Are there any specific channels/servers that are still popular where I can start?
  - narag 3y ago
    It's been three years for me. Last time it was in Freenode, but there was some drama more recently and if I'm not mistaken, people migrated to a new net called libera.chat. Chanels, depending on what you're looking for, but there used to be a lot of them, just look number of users.
    - pmarreck 3y ago
      some saudi dude apparently bought freenode and immediately tried to monetize it (not 100% sure of these details) and that was that apparently
      - imglorp 3y ago
        https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-been-taken-over-by-the-crown-prince-of-korea/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-bee...
  - bigdict 3y ago
    Libera is the biggest server (inheriting from Freenode), join any channel that looks interesting.
  - ranieuwe 3y ago
    IRCnet and EFnet still have some activity. Especially #worldchat on IRCnet for generic chat still has fair amount of activity.
  - badsectoracula 3y ago
    I also tried to "get back" on IRC a couple of times but even on Libera pretty much everyone is idling and nobody seems to actually use it aside from having a client sit there "just in case". In practice Discord seems to be where everyone is nowadays and while Discord is little more than a proprietary IRC with built-in history and images, people are active there. It basically feels the same as when i used mIRC back in the 90s and early 2000s - including the part where some channels/servers were so full of people i could barely keep up. If anything it is more than i ever saw on IRC as i am in 25 "servers"[0] with various channels in each (though like with IRC i only participate in a handful of them and i only occasionally browse the rest). Fortunately Discord works via the web and i have the web interface pinned on Firefox all the time so i don't have to use their client. [0] i really dislike the name as they aren't really servers, just groups of channels - everything is on Discord's proprietary server
    - TJSomething 3y ago
      I prefer the name for them that they use in the API, which is "guild".
  - brabel 3y ago
    The Zig team seems to use IRC. I was in there a few times and was able to discuss things with the key team members directly. The fact not a lot of people are on IRC these days probably allows them to let anyone join in :D.
  - javier_e06 3y ago
    https://lobste.rs https://lobste.rs still at it. If you want to become a member you are asked to join their irc bot and ask to be invited. https://lobste.rs/chat https://lobste.rs/chat
kazinator 3y ago
Massive sharing of illegal binaries and consequently ISPs dropping Usenet support was the "undoing". Usenet started as a relatively low-volume medium connecting ivory towers. It became huge with the opening of the Internet to the public, with ISPs everywhere hosting NNTP servers. Usenet ended up being used for massive file sharing, which was probably a big reason for ISPs, in turn, dropping NNTP servers. They didn't want the administrative overhead of providing all that storage, and plus most of the content was copyright infringing. So, Usenet is just back to the way it was in some ways. You will find some people that qualify as key people in the comp newsgroups. The original key people from the 1980's or 1990's aren't coming back; they are deceased or retired. By the way, the same person, John Levine, has been moderating comp.compilers for well over thirty years, since January 1986. Someone will have to pick that up sooner or later.
- mcv 3y ago
  Weren't those binaries only in the alt.* hierarchy though? There were plenty of servers that decided not to carry alt.*.
  - narag 3y ago
    Yeah, the infamous September was really a thing, more than sharing. Another factor was that maintaining a news server was a PITA for the ISPs.
    - glenngillen 3y ago
      Eternal September for those curious to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
      - pmarreck 3y ago
        I was not aware of this phenomenon and I was there... lol. (My first email address was in 1990, from my college)
krupan 3y ago
"which eventually was it's undoing" Eternal September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
xupybd 3y ago
There was an interesting thread on Usenet https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679#:~:text=The%20result%20was%20a%20death,even%20evolved%20alongside%20the%20web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679#:~:text=The%20r....

bigdict 3y ago

IRC is still like that.

pitched 3y ago
I’ve wanted to get back on IRC for a while but don’t really know where people live in it these days. Are there any specific channels/servers that are still popular where I can start?
- narag 3y ago
  It's been three years for me. Last time it was in Freenode, but there was some drama more recently and if I'm not mistaken, people migrated to a new net called libera.chat. Chanels, depending on what you're looking for, but there used to be a lot of them, just look number of users.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    some saudi dude apparently bought freenode and immediately tried to monetize it (not 100% sure of these details) and that was that apparently
    - imglorp 3y ago
      https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-been-taken-over-by-the-crown-prince-of-korea/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/05/freenode-irc-has-bee...
- bigdict 3y ago
  Libera is the biggest server (inheriting from Freenode), join any channel that looks interesting.
- ranieuwe 3y ago
  IRCnet and EFnet still have some activity. Especially #worldchat on IRCnet for generic chat still has fair amount of activity.
- badsectoracula 3y ago
  I also tried to "get back" on IRC a couple of times but even on Libera pretty much everyone is idling and nobody seems to actually use it aside from having a client sit there "just in case". In practice Discord seems to be where everyone is nowadays and while Discord is little more than a proprietary IRC with built-in history and images, people are active there. It basically feels the same as when i used mIRC back in the 90s and early 2000s - including the part where some channels/servers were so full of people i could barely keep up. If anything it is more than i ever saw on IRC as i am in 25 "servers"[0] with various channels in each (though like with IRC i only participate in a handful of them and i only occasionally browse the rest). Fortunately Discord works via the web and i have the web interface pinned on Firefox all the time so i don't have to use their client. [0] i really dislike the name as they aren't really servers, just groups of channels - everything is on Discord's proprietary server
  - TJSomething 3y ago
    I prefer the name for them that they use in the API, which is "guild".
- brabel 3y ago
  The Zig team seems to use IRC. I was in there a few times and was able to discuss things with the key team members directly. The fact not a lot of people are on IRC these days probably allows them to let anyone join in :D.
- javier_e06 3y ago
  https://lobste.rs https://lobste.rs still at it. If you want to become a member you are asked to join their irc bot and ask to be invited. https://lobste.rs/chat https://lobste.rs/chat

kazinator 3y ago

Massive sharing of illegal binaries and consequently ISPs dropping Usenet support was the "undoing". Usenet started as a relatively low-volume medium connecting ivory towers. It became huge with the opening of the Internet to the public, with ISPs everywhere hosting NNTP servers. Usenet ended up being used for massive file sharing, which was probably a big reason for ISPs, in turn, dropping NNTP servers. They didn't want the administrative overhead of providing all that storage, and plus most of the content was copyright infringing. So, Usenet is just back to the way it was in some ways. You will find some people that qualify as key people in the comp newsgroups. The original key people from the 1980's or 1990's aren't coming back; they are deceased or retired. By the way, the same person, John Levine, has been moderating comp.compilers for well over thirty years, since January 1986. Someone will have to pick that up sooner or later.

mcv 3y ago
Weren't those binaries only in the alt.* hierarchy though? There were plenty of servers that decided not to carry alt.*.
- narag 3y ago
  Yeah, the infamous September was really a thing, more than sharing. Another factor was that maintaining a news server was a PITA for the ISPs.
  - glenngillen 3y ago
    Eternal September for those curious to learn more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
    - pmarreck 3y ago
      I was not aware of this phenomenon and I was there... lol. (My first email address was in 1990, from my college)

krupan 3y ago

"which eventually was it's undoing" Eternal September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

xupybd 3y ago

There was an interesting thread on Usenet https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679#:~:text=The%20result%20was%20a%20death,even%20evolved%20alongside%20the%20web https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9987679#:~:text=The%20r....