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Many open source projects use IRC as a main communication channel. I've heard that newcomers find IRC hard - they are used to Skype, Hangouts, chat apps, etc. H

Many open source projects use IRC as a main communication channel. I've heard that newcomers find IRC hard - they are used to Skype, Hangouts, chat apps, etc. How is this barrier overcome?

x0x0 12y ago
the ability to download a client that is widely available for all platforms and follow simple instructions to join a channel is a useful filter at least for potential code contributions
bane 12y ago
Abstract over the outdated IRC cruft, but use IRC as the communication medium. Some ideas: - Process all user-input so that they can't run commands or do other crazyness in the channel. - All commands and actions other than chatting are to be handled by the client. This also allows for "IRC2" type commands that aren't part of the IRC spec to be handled "in-band" in the channel, but not seen by any users. - Channels have a built in admin bot that handles client commands, sets restrictions on channel content, manages mods, channel ownership, names etc. This should be invisible to most users. - The client should enable end-to-end encryption. Maybe public-key so that user identities can also be verified. - a user using a normal IRC client and logging into one of these "IRC2" channels would basically just see a bunch of users communicating in encrypted gibberish and not be able to participate - the client should let people post and view links to images, videos, etc. and automatically embed them in the chat client. Embedded media should stay collapsed until the user clicks it, but then they'll see a resized image or an embedded youtube video, or a player around a soundcloud song or whatever. - people should be able to nominate awesome quotes to "archive" into a subset of the logged channel. - channels should be listed on an entry page. Let's get rid of stupid sigils like # and other nonsense. Just show the channel name. - people can establish private group channels (like a hangout) or 1-1 channels, access is controlled by the default channel bot. - video or voice chat would be handled outside of the IRC server, but setting up the communications could be handled in-band. Feel free to knock any of these down as bad ideas.
- e15ctr0n 12y ago
  Is there any user-friendly IRC client out there?
  - bane 12y ago
    That's the problem. Most of the IRC clients I'm aware try to bury as much IRC stuff as possible in the GUI rather than simplifying and abstracting the experience away. I think there's probably a big opening here.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Kerrick 12y ago
  This is basically Slack, which we use at work. https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/
daxelrod 12y ago
The simplest approach I've seen to address this is to embed an IRC chat widget on the project website. Now there's no software to install or configure in order to chat with project members. This doesn't address some of the cultural expectations in IRC (don't ask to ask, use something like pastebin, stick around because it may take several hours for someone to answer you) but it at least gets over the initial hurdle.
_delirium 12y ago
A lot of the chat apps have IRC support. I was part of a channel where the majority of people were using Adium (Mac) or Trillian (Windows). It was pretty easy to get people to join if they were already using one of these IM clients for AIM/MSN/etc. For people who don't already use a multiprotocol IM client like that, I often point them to Mibbit as a quick web-based way of getting on: http://mibbit.com/ http://mibbit.com/. But the people already using an IM client were more likely to become regulars.
theflagbug 12y ago
For projects hosted on Github, take a look at https://gitter.im https://gitter.im I'm a maintainer of a reasonably big open source project and it works great for us, since you can link issues/PRs directly and get a Github activity log right next to the chat. It also preserves the chat history, which was one of the big reasons to switch over from IRC.
gaius 12y ago
If you want to be accepted by ANY community, on or offline, it is on you to adopt their customs. This has been true since time began.

Many open source projects use IRC as a main communication channel. I've heard that newcomers find IRC hard - they are used to Skype, Hangouts, chat apps, etc. How is this barrier overcome?

x0x0 12y ago

the ability to download a client that is widely available for all platforms and follow simple instructions to join a channel is a useful filter at least for potential code contributions

bane 12y ago

Abstract over the outdated IRC cruft, but use IRC as the communication medium. Some ideas: - Process all user-input so that they can't run commands or do other crazyness in the channel. - All commands and actions other than chatting are to be handled by the client. This also allows for "IRC2" type commands that aren't part of the IRC spec to be handled "in-band" in the channel, but not seen by any users. - Channels have a built in admin bot that handles client commands, sets restrictions on channel content, manages mods, channel ownership, names etc. This should be invisible to most users. - The client should enable end-to-end encryption. Maybe public-key so that user identities can also be verified. - a user using a normal IRC client and logging into one of these "IRC2" channels would basically just see a bunch of users communicating in encrypted gibberish and not be able to participate - the client should let people post and view links to images, videos, etc. and automatically embed them in the chat client. Embedded media should stay collapsed until the user clicks it, but then they'll see a resized image or an embedded youtube video, or a player around a soundcloud song or whatever. - people should be able to nominate awesome quotes to "archive" into a subset of the logged channel. - channels should be listed on an entry page. Let's get rid of stupid sigils like # and other nonsense. Just show the channel name. - people can establish private group channels (like a hangout) or 1-1 channels, access is controlled by the default channel bot. - video or voice chat would be handled outside of the IRC server, but setting up the communications could be handled in-band. Feel free to knock any of these down as bad ideas.

e15ctr0n 12y ago
Is there any user-friendly IRC client out there?
- bane 12y ago
  That's the problem. Most of the IRC clients I'm aware try to bury as much IRC stuff as possible in the GUI rather than simplifying and abstracting the experience away. I think there's probably a big opening here.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Kerrick 12y ago
This is basically Slack, which we use at work. https://slack.com/ https://slack.com/

daxelrod 12y ago

The simplest approach I've seen to address this is to embed an IRC chat widget on the project website. Now there's no software to install or configure in order to chat with project members. This doesn't address some of the cultural expectations in IRC (don't ask to ask, use something like pastebin, stick around because it may take several hours for someone to answer you) but it at least gets over the initial hurdle.

_delirium 12y ago

A lot of the chat apps have IRC support. I was part of a channel where the majority of people were using Adium (Mac) or Trillian (Windows). It was pretty easy to get people to join if they were already using one of these IM clients for AIM/MSN/etc. For people who don't already use a multiprotocol IM client like that, I often point them to Mibbit as a quick web-based way of getting on: http://mibbit.com/ http://mibbit.com/. But the people already using an IM client were more likely to become regulars.

theflagbug 12y ago

For projects hosted on Github, take a look at https://gitter.im https://gitter.im I'm a maintainer of a reasonably big open source project and it works great for us, since you can link issues/PRs directly and get a Github activity log right next to the chat. It also preserves the chat history, which was one of the big reasons to switch over from IRC.

gaius 12y ago

If you want to be accepted by ANY community, on or offline, it is on you to adopt their customs. This has been true since time began.