
Ask HN: Favorite mailing lists, IRC channels - MichaelAza
I&#x27;ve recently come to appreciate true veterans of technology hang around mailing lists and IRC channels.<p>What are some of your favorite programming&#x2F;security&#x2F;sysadmin mailing lists and IRC chaneels?
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cjbprime
The liberation-tech list is interesting sometimes:
[https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech](https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech)

The rest of the mailing lists/IRC channels I read are all related to specific
software projects, though.

I feel like I should add something here about how spending a lot of time on
IRC can be inversely correlated with being someone who's doing a lot of work,
in some cases. The veterans you're seeing might be people who now spend more
time talking about technology than creating it, unless they're using IRC to
coordinate their contributions to a project with its other members.

~~~
shiftpgdn
I would love to see some sort of service that logs an IRC channel and
condenses down the most popular topics, keywords, users, etc.

~~~
VaucGiaps
+1

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ipmb
Pycoder's Weekly: [http://pycoders.com/](http://pycoders.com/) Python Weekly:
[http://www.pythonweekly.com/](http://www.pythonweekly.com/)

...and a shameless plug for my Django bi-weekly

Django Round-up: [http://eepurl.com/yZh21](http://eepurl.com/yZh21) (Archive:
[http://us2.campaign-
archive1.com/home/?u=24fce4628ba1d5814de...](http://us2.campaign-
archive1.com/home/?u=24fce4628ba1d5814debef334&id=2d6dd01daf))

------
lvh
#python on Freenode. If you can live with being asked questions when you're
asking something funny long enough to convince regulars you _usually_ know
what you're doing, it's an excellent congregation of some hella smart people.

(Disclaimer: I'm a regular of the channel myself. I also run the official
Python channels on Freenode.)

~~~
the_cat_kittles
thanks for the help getting started! you helped me out a ton 2 years ago!

~~~
lvh
Glad to hear it! What's your nickname?

~~~
the_cat_kittles
neataroni

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suhair
This is my list of favs. [http://suhairhassan.com/2013/04/17/newsletters-for-
hackers.h...](http://suhairhassan.com/2013/04/17/newsletters-for-hackers.html)

~~~
fizzbar
Nice list, thanks for putting it together & sharing.

Slightly OT, for people with email sending experience: I've noticed that some
of these lists require you to confirm an email subscription ("double opt-in"),
which afaik is standard operating practice for any email list these days.

Yet a couple (Bootstrappist, Web Design Weekly to name a couple at random)
don't, they just send a welcome email. Are those two able to avoid the double
opt-in requirement by virtue of being larger/older/more established lists, or
are they assuming their open rates will keep their deliverability % high, w/o
needing the extra confirmation step?

Has the double opt-in requirement become a relic?

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hawk82
NANOG, [http://www.nanog.org/list](http://www.nanog.org/list)

MailOP,
[http://chilli.nosignal.org/mailman/listinfo/mailop](http://chilli.nosignal.org/mailman/listinfo/mailop)

VoiceOPS,
[http://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops](http://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/voiceops)

Full Disclosure, [https://lists.grok.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/full-
disclosure](https://lists.grok.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/full-disclosure)

Outages,
[http://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/outages](http://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/outages)

DNS Operations, [https://lists.dns-oarc.net/mailman/listinfo/dns-
operations](https://lists.dns-oarc.net/mailman/listinfo/dns-operations)

------
justinlilly
Shameless plug, I've written a small piece of software which will send you
daily aggregates of github activity via email. There are also weekly / monthly
options as well.

[http://gitstreams.com/](http://gitstreams.com/)

~~~
tlongren
Cool! I've been searching for something similar to this.

------
LukeHoersten
#haskell on Freenode. Great group of smart hand helpful people.

~~~
lelf
\+ haskell café maillist

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davidw
Some of us are on #startups on Freenode.

~~~
petercooper
There are a lot of good channels on Freenode generally, but it's a bit like
saying one's circle of friends are good.. they're not so great until you know
them, etc. #startups is probably one of the better ones for strangers, but
it's certainly worth branching out into several at a time, particular
technology specific ones where newcomers are expected and frequent (e.g.
#redis, #rubinius, #ruby-lang). You can then get invited or drawn into the
more cliquey but interesting channels that no-one talks about as much.

~~~
epochwolf
The best channels are the invisible ones no one talks about.

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joren
I really like the Ruby Rogues Parley
[http://rubyrogues.com/parley/](http://rubyrogues.com/parley/) and ruby weekly
[http://rubyweekly.com](http://rubyweekly.com) One is great just to get up to
date and the other has really great discussions with all kind of people
involved with Ruby in one or the other way.

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lowglow
#Techendo ([http://techendo.co](http://techendo.co)) on freenode -- a lot of
good people there from the SF tech scene, but I'm biased because I started the
channel.

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usaopp
IRC: Freenode: #security, ##freebsd, ##hardware, #debian - all good Rizon:
#baot As for mailing lists, Full Disclosure for sure, Bugtraq, all the big
name security ones have really interesting posts.

------
davidbrent
#slicehost on freenode. I know the company doesn't exist anymore, but I
learned so much about setting up my first debain box from these guys/gals. It
is still going strong 6 years later.

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Sealy
I'm a fan of digital currencies so I frequently visit Freenode channels:
#bitcoin #litecoin #bitcoin-dev #mtgox

Its interesting to observe the growth of the channels during bitcoin's hype
cycles.

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TamDenholm
I run a small IRC channel for webby types, mainly UK based and theres not many
of us but anyone's welcome. irc.chatwebdev.com #chatwebdev

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joshbaptiste
#python #bash #awk #go-nuts on Freenode...

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soapdog
irc.mozilla.org and then #webdev #webapi #b2g #developer and others. Keeping
the web free and open to all ;-)

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octo_t
I'm a fan of scala-lang/scala-internals both of which are very interesting.

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uzqlbrm
##c on Freenode. If there's one channel to visit, it's that one.

~~~
Kelet
Last time that I tried being a regular in ##c, regulars over-zealously
referred people away (That's GNU C, go away!) and most often responded by
using a bot to deliver an automated message. People scolded me for answering
questions sincerely. Maybe just a one off experience, but not a big fan.

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GeneRoddenberry
#ebooks on irchighway.net

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Sephr
#oftn on freenode is a great open source programming channel.

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the_cat_kittles
aside from all the obvious #<language>, #scikit-learn is really good for
general ML and obviously good for more specific questions about scikits.learn
machine learning libs

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beat
My favorite mailing list is closed and private (no, I'm not inviting you), and
has been running since the 1990s.

~~~
pi18n
This added nothing but arrogance to the conversation.

~~~
beat
Not arrogance, practicality. Closed groups are a fantastic way to maintain
quality. No need for moderation, no newbies, no stupid questions, very high
signal/noise ratio, comraderie of many years together.

There's a great deal to be said about the value of exclusive clubs. That's why
they're so popular.

~~~
nullymcnull
Maybe there's an interesting discussion to be had about that. But OP asked:

> What are some of your favorite programming/security/sysadmin mailing lists
> and IRC chaneels?

He is looking for open channels, and you leave a pointless comment about some
elite closed channel you're a part of. Then you further crapped up the thread
trying to rationalize this with some chin-stroking about the 'tragedy of the
commons'. That being the case I think it's totally fair (if not charitable) to
characterize your response as arrogant.

~~~
beat
The OP didn't say "open". And frankly, the closed ones are often the best
sources. Getting involved in a really high-quality closed list can solve a lot
of problems.

Downrating my response? I can see that. Bitching about how "arrogant" it is?
So WHO crapped up the thread, exactly? You're not exactly being fair here. I
don't think it's unreasonable for me to respond to getting flamed.

Or alternately, you can view this whole unfortunate affair as the sort of
tragedy of the commons that undermines the quality of discussion in public
forums. You can close your mind to the point, or you can open it. Your call.

