Ask HN: What IRC channels does everyone find interesting? - chunky1994
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prezjordan
#haskell on freenode is always a very humbling experience. Everyone in there
is extremely intelligent and helpful.

I've recently learned to stay away from #python. #rubyonrails is okay.

~~~
danellis
If you think #python is bad, you definitely want to stay away from #django.

~~~
philtar
#django is awesome. Everyone is helpful. Shout out to FunkyBob and mattmcc.

Only issue is that there's a bunch of people whose answers could be solved by
a quick search but still flood the channel with their questions.

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Daegalus
#haskell #dart #go-nuts #phabricator #redis #postgresql #grails #clojure #rust

Pretty much a good chunk of open-source and language channels. always
something to learn there. Especially the Functional programming channels like
Haskell and Clojure

I use ot idle in #nodejs and #javascript, but that got septic pretty fast.

I also idle in #litecoin because I actively mine litecoins and feathercoins.

~~~
VeejayRampay
#go-nuts is a great experience. I've been on IRC for many many years for
dozens of different technologies and those first few years when everyone is
just centered on the technology itself, where the egos are still in check are
just a joy.

#go-nuts is just like that, helpful and healthy people, a sane pace for
everyone, none of the inbred humor that older channels tend to promote, just
simple flow and sharing of information.

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D9u
I used to frequent #anapnea, but after it shut down I lost all my data on the
sever, and the newly resurrected anapnea seems to be less interesting the few
times I've accessed it, so I haven't gone back.

It seems that most of the *nix related channels have been over run by 12 year
old "h4x0rz."

The best channels are "Invite Only," and I'm not allowed to share their
addresses.

~~~
mh-
_The best channels are "Invite Only," and I'm not allowed to share their
addresses._

thought i was OG since i'd been on EFnet since before the Split, but this guy
is in channels that are _obscure_.

 _we've probably never heard of them_.

~~~
wink
Think I've only ever been in one invite-only channel and that's not a
technical one.

So far I've probably had luck with choosing my channels in the last 12 years,
nearly all official or semi-official project channels have been inviting and
helpful.

Recent examples include #clojure #leiningen and #topaz on Freenode.

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flebron
I idle and answer/ask on FreeNode's ##math. #haskell is also pretty chill,
people are always willing to explain stuff. Yes, this includes monads for the
kth time, forall k >= 1 :).

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davidw
#startups on free node, plus a rotating list depending on what I'm working on.

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bifrost
EFNet: #unix, #freebsd, #metal GIMPNet: #dnalounge FreeNode: #startups,
#bhyve, #postgresql, and if you're interested in the adventures of
derpyhackerspacedrama try out #noisebridge.

I've noticed that there are WAY more channels that attempt to take themselves
seriously (and fail on the seriousness or accuracy quota) on FreeNode so stay
alert. EFNet is generally the best chat network :)

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eqyiel
#emacs, there are lots of really smart people there.

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gurraman
#erlang on Freenode. They're friendly and knowledgable folk.

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atoponce
I'm surprised no one mentioned #bitcoin-market on Freenode.

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alexeston
#laravel-offtopic on Freenode is full of awesome (and intelligent) people.

It's an offtopic chat for the Laravel PHP framework, however the offtopic can
contain a variety of languages - usually we talk pretty much everything, from
Python to Go, C++ to CSS (and weird life, or rather the no-life related
topics). As far as trolls go, I personally haven't seen any yet.

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niggler
#node.js on freenode is pretty solid and, for such an active channel with many
noobs, essentially troll-free.

~~~
tomphoolery
This has always fascinated me. I love hanging out in #node.js because I almost
never see trolls lurking.

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mvkel
Reading this list, I'm honestly blown away that the IRC culture has evolved
from "RTFM"

Pretty cool that there are people willing to "waste" their time explaining
stuff now.

Is this just a product of there being large masses of programmers out there
before, where it was pretty specialized a decade ago?

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Kaivo
Recently, I found #archlinux to be very interesting as long as it concerns
Arch.

~~~
klodolph
Really? Whenever I've been there people have been very rude, pedantic,
sarcastic, and in general acting like /b/ rejects. Maybe I've been unlucky?

~~~
Kaivo
Maybe it's only I who's been lucky. I think on every channel it depends when
you go there. I haven't spent that much time there anyway but the little time
I spent was useful and interesting.

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gary4gar
I find these interesting:

#archlinux #rvm #wordpress #jquery #rubyonrails #ruby

Lastly, don't venture in #cakephp. you will get trolled or be called a n00b
for not knowing some silly cake specific stuff.

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georgemcbay
+hack and +Amiga! (later #hack and #Amiga!) on the only irc2 network and later
efnet (after the split) circa 1990-1995

... haven't connected to an IRC channel in a very, very long time.

~~~
eru
#nethack on freenode is also worth attending. Though probably not very related
to #hack.

~~~
georgemcbay
Quite different, though I did also enjoy playing nethack a lot back in those
days.

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lucb1e
I'm very surprised how popular Freenode is. Any idea how come?

~~~
VeejayRampay
freenode is and has been for long the natural go-to network for anything
programming-related. As to the reasons I wouldn't know, most likely mass
dynamics :)

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jstrate
#clojure on freenode

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dfc
I used to like #p2p-hackers but the channel is normally quiet now. I miss
firing up irssi and seeing lively discussions from the channel.

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quanticle
##proggit on Freenode is a pretty good channel.

~~~
shuzchen
eh, prepared to be trolled to no end in ##proggit. Also, the ops there are
elitists and do whatever they want without consideration of the members
wishes.

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johndarrah
In addition to the usual open source freenode channels, I often go to #baot on
irc.rizon.net

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mindcrime
Freenode:

#fogcutter

#startups

#fedora

#centos

#trilug

#ai

#swig

#machinelearning

#grails

#opencog

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MrXxXxXxXhue
#/g/tracker on p2p-net Bunch of great funny guise on there

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dsl
Freenode: #go-nuts #metasploit #phabricator #puppet #riak

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joshbaptiste
Freenode: #bash #python #go-nuts #awk

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middle8media
#meteor is a very helpful community.

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BudVVeezer
#llvm on OFTC

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hijinks
+1 for #linux-support on Efnet.

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sgringwe
#elementary-dev, #vala

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the1
on freenode, #swhack ##math #rest #bitcoin ##ats

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kyrias
#xkcd@foonetic

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jaryd
irc.smashthestack.org #social, #twits

