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IRC is proven. It has kick ass features to deal with abuse, spam etc. (You know, the things you need when you actually have users) It's in use on millions of w
by axod 18y ago
IRC is proven. It has kick ass features to deal with abuse, spam etc. (You know, the things you need when you actually have users)
It's in use on millions of websites. It's the most used groupchat protocol on the internet.
So I'm not quite sure where you get your data from.
Maybe you personally hate IRC for some reason, but to say "I can't imagine why anyone would waste time using it in 2009." Is just idiotic.
- tptacek 18y agoYou're on crack. IRC is not the most used groupchat protocol on the Internet. Most Internet users have never heard of IRC, but the overwhelming majority of them have an IM address somewhere that does group chat. By "in use on millions of websites", I presume you're cheating by saying that any website that mentions IRC is "using" IRC.
- axod 18y agoObviously the big ones - ustream, jtv... Here's a few more. http://www.quantcast.com/p-1as4Vqt4eFyrI/traffic/syndicators http://www.quantcast.com/p-1as4Vqt4eFyrI/traffic/syndicators
- tptacek 18y agoI'm not trying to cast aspersions on your front-end work, but why-oh-why would you use IRC as your backend? Icb is "proven" too.
- axod 18y agoIf you were building a website, would you use HTML, which completely sucks and is an abomination, or would you create a fantastic new system with its own browser?
- tptacek 18y agoI would use HTML, but I really don't think HTML is an abomination. Whereas IRC clearly is, and it's not hard to replace, unlike HTML. You could probably change Mibbit to use the MibbitChat protocol and most of your users would never care.
- axod 18y agoWhy do you assume that's not my longer term plan? I already layer things ontop of IRC such as typing notify, recent chat on channel join etc... IRC is a simple, solid chat protocol. It's about as ugly and broken as HTML IMHO. You don't get users by forcing them to use some swanky new protocol/system off the bat. That's a recipe for quick failure.
- whatusername 18y agoCompared to MSN / Sametime / Facebook Chat / Yahoo Chat / AOL Chat / etc - I don't think ustream or jtv are very big.
- davidw 18y agoI'm doing some IRC stats for langpop.com, and if you want technical help, someplace like Freenode is still the place to be. Where can you get Ruby help on IM?
- tptacek 18y agoIt is certainly true that IRC is the leading group chat system for hackers.