5 ms·

IRC is back and I love it

ssl-3 2y ago
Discord is fun and useful, but it's doesn't feel the same way that IRC did 30 years ago. Gone are the days when the "owner" of a channel or name was the person who got there first (or the person who was friends with a server admin), and DCC chats and file transfers, clever customizable scripts that would alter the entire interface to be closer to one's liking, a wide choice of clients, alternate nicks to use today because someone else was using yours (maybe deliberately, maybe not), and with netsplits just adding an element of chaos to the mix, and a seemingly-universal avoidance of getting money involved in the game at all. (And maybe we're better without some of those aspects, but it's still not the same.)
- futureduck 2y ago
  i feel the same for now matrix seems to be the closest to this experience (but still not quite)
- dartos 2y ago
  > Gone are the days when the "owner" of a channel or name was the person who got there first (or the person who was friends with a server admin) That’s exactly how discord servers are made > clever customizable scripts that would alter the entire interface to be closer to one's liking, a wide choice of clients While not official, discord has several third party clients. The discord client is an electron app, so it’s just using discords api. Not to say discord is perfect or the be all end all, but it shows a strong trend back towards real time interaction and away from posts. I hope matrix picks up when discord starts playing ads.
  - ssl-3 2y ago
    >That’s exactly how discord servers are made But Discord "servers" are completely different things compared to either IRC servers or IRC channels. "Apples and oranges have similarities" is a cool story and all, but they're still apples and they're still oranges. >While not official, discord has several third party clients. The discord client is an electron app, so it’s just using discords api. IRC never really had this "official" or "first-party" problem to contend with at all. After it escaped the University of Oulu, people all over were creating their own incarnations of both clients and servers -- and running them independently, without centralized control. (This happened over the span of only a few months.) >Not to say discord is perfect or the be all end all, but it shows a strong trend back towards [...] ...something that is useful and fun, and that is not like IRC.
    - dartos 2y ago
      That’s all well and good, but I never said anything about discord being like IRC, just that it’s popularity demonstrates the return of internet chat rooms
whoopdedo 2y ago
Discord isn't IRC. Discord is AIM.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- 0xEF 2y ago
  I'd argue it's far closer unstructured to IRC than AIM. I don't recall being invited to different AIM servers, etc. To me, Discord is like packaging IRC functionality in an ICQ box, which, for some reason, everyone seems to have forgotten about in these discussions.
  - 0xEF 2y ago
    Correction: closer in structure, not "unstructured." Auto-correct is still nobody's friend after all these years.
pjc50 2y ago
Discord in 2024 is perceptually slower than an IRC client running in 2000 on hardware with 1000x fewer MIPS. Socially it's OK, as a piece of software it's dire.
- dartos 2y ago
  The backend is pretty good (and getting worse.) The frontend is awful

Discord is fun and useful, but it's doesn't feel the same way that IRC did 30 years ago. Gone are the days when the "owner" of a channel or name was the person who got there first (or the person who was friends with a server admin), and DCC chats and file transfers, clever customizable scripts that would alter the entire interface to be closer to one's liking, a wide choice of clients, alternate nicks to use today because someone else was using yours (maybe deliberately, maybe not), and with netsplits just adding an element of chaos to the mix, and a seemingly-universal avoidance of getting money involved in the game at all. (And maybe we're better without some of those aspects, but it's still not the same.)

futureduck 2y ago
i feel the same for now matrix seems to be the closest to this experience (but still not quite)
dartos 2y ago
> Gone are the days when the "owner" of a channel or name was the person who got there first (or the person who was friends with a server admin) That’s exactly how discord servers are made > clever customizable scripts that would alter the entire interface to be closer to one's liking, a wide choice of clients While not official, discord has several third party clients. The discord client is an electron app, so it’s just using discords api. Not to say discord is perfect or the be all end all, but it shows a strong trend back towards real time interaction and away from posts. I hope matrix picks up when discord starts playing ads.
- ssl-3 2y ago
  >That’s exactly how discord servers are made But Discord "servers" are completely different things compared to either IRC servers or IRC channels. "Apples and oranges have similarities" is a cool story and all, but they're still apples and they're still oranges. >While not official, discord has several third party clients. The discord client is an electron app, so it’s just using discords api. IRC never really had this "official" or "first-party" problem to contend with at all. After it escaped the University of Oulu, people all over were creating their own incarnations of both clients and servers -- and running them independently, without centralized control. (This happened over the span of only a few months.) >Not to say discord is perfect or the be all end all, but it shows a strong trend back towards [...] ...something that is useful and fun, and that is not like IRC.
  - dartos 2y ago
    That’s all well and good, but I never said anything about discord being like IRC, just that it’s popularity demonstrates the return of internet chat rooms

whoopdedo 2y ago

Discord isn't IRC. Discord is AIM.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
0xEF 2y ago
I'd argue it's far closer unstructured to IRC than AIM. I don't recall being invited to different AIM servers, etc. To me, Discord is like packaging IRC functionality in an ICQ box, which, for some reason, everyone seems to have forgotten about in these discussions.
- 0xEF 2y ago
  Correction: closer in structure, not "unstructured." Auto-correct is still nobody's friend after all these years.

pjc50 2y ago

Discord in 2024 is perceptually slower than an IRC client running in 2000 on hardware with 1000x fewer MIPS. Socially it's OK, as a piece of software it's dire.

dartos 2y ago
The backend is pretty good (and getting worse.) The frontend is awful