
Ask HN: Anyone still using IRC? - ericzawo
I used to idle for years and years in various sourceforge channels and grew up making friends with some incredibly interesting people. I know this might be with nostalgia glasses on, but are there any active IRC channels or has that largely been replaced by the Reddits and social networks (and HN threads ;) of today?<p>Do you still use IRC? What for?
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akulbe
Nearly every day for the past 15+ years. Social networks come and go. IRC has
remained consistent for me all that time. I'm on to give/get technical help,
and socialize. In that order. :)

also, for the curious... irssi is my client of choice. I've tried out so many
different clients. I _always_ end up coming back to irssi.

~~~
atmosx
weechat is like the netx-gen of irssi, which you didn't like?

~~~
akulbe
Unfamiliarity, mostly. Already have a solid config I've been using with irssi
for years.

Takes time to learn new stuff well. I just prioritized other new stuff higher.
;)

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rajinder_yadav
I am getting back into IRC, it's more immediate. I just started to look into
ember and I got stuck on their tutorial. I jumped on the IRC channel and
someone help me out. It's somewhat hit and miss with the community. I've been
on other IRC channels and all you hear are crickets.

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danfru
We use it for group chat. We're a bit of dinosaurs, I know.

While there I also join channels of projects I'm interested in, for instance
#pcbsd, #fedora, #chef. Obviously we're on freenode.

IRC is free and works on any platform. It's old, but for our needs works
great.

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jarcane
I wouldn't be without it for programming. Most of my daily languages have
active IRC channels on freenode. The only exception seems to be F#, where chat
has indeed moved to a slack channel.

~~~
Ologn
Yes, Freenode has lots of channels for various technologies. It has some more
general channels as well.

There are other more specific tech networks like Gimpnet which is Gnome-heavy,
OFTC which is Debian heavy, and Mozilla which is Firefox-heavy. But Freenode
is the big tech one.

~~~
jarcane
Yeah, I keep Moznet running for the awesome #rust channel.

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herbst
Sure. Technical Questions are answered and discussed faster on IRC than
anywhere else. Nearly all software i regulary work with has active IRC
channels as well. (See: Everything Linux to Rails)

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Spoom
Yep. Run a network with some friends of mine. We're generally on during the
EST work day shooting the shit. Servers on both coasts of the US and one in
Europe. irc.binarii.wtf , we tend to be in #binarii but feel free to join your
own channels if you prefer. Webchat available here:
[http://webchat.binarii.wtf/kiwi/](http://webchat.binarii.wtf/kiwi/)

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heldrida
Yeah, almost every day, to get support on any popular open source library,
etc, that's where the community exchange info. If you're on OSX I suggest
trying LimeChat (the best irc client I've used but only available on osx), but
if that's too much you can use the web client (
[http://webchat.freenode.net/](http://webchat.freenode.net/) ).

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kfullert
Yes, I'm in IRC channels for a LUG (general social chat) and a hosting
provider (low-priority support things, plus more technical-based chat), plus I
idle and am in the top-10 "idlers" for IdleRPG (#G7 on Slashnet)
[http://idlerpg.net/](http://idlerpg.net/)

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dllthomas
I literally just switched from an IRC window, refreshed HN, and this popped
up.

I idle in #snowdrift and #haskell and a few others.

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jneumann004
I tried to use IRC in the past, but I never really got involved in any
conversations. I now use Slack daily and I have found that I get involved. I
don't know if this is a result of the medium being used or the other people on
the channels.

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eswat
I just hang out in one channel, of an old Half-Life 2 mod where those still
left have been there for 15 years. Been cool to still keep in contact and see
where people progress in their life throughout those years.

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textread
Tangent: Guys, which channel do you recommend to someone who is knees deep
into Algorithms, Correctness Proofs and Discrete Maths self study process.

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davidw
There's a #startups on Freenode. And a bunch of other channels. Lots of great
stuff if you hit the sweet spot between too small to have anyone, and too big
to function properly.

~~~
rajinder_yadav
How do I join this channel? I get this error:

00:47] [Channel] Cannot join channel (+r) - you need to be identified with
services

~~~
ramm
You have to register your nick and identify to access some of the channels.

[https://freenode.net/faq.shtml#userregistration](https://freenode.net/faq.shtml#userregistration)

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kspaans
All day, every day for chatting with friends, and interacting with some FLOSS
projects. At work I use Slack, though.

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detaro
Only recently started using it seriously, mostly for different open-source
projects and communities.

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Tiksi
Yup, even run my own irc server. Don't plan on moving away from irc any time
soon.

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escap
see [http://irclog.whitequark.org/](http://irclog.whitequark.org/) for a few
channels used. This particular selection is around linux on various ARM boards
and phones.

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mobiuscog
I believe a few people use it on Twitch ;)

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tmaly
once in a blue moon. I do not really like the client on the phone, and I do
not have access at work to IRC

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usermac
I do still use it.

