
Ask HN: Curious to know if people still use IRC? - pyeu
What channel do you hang out? What do you use it for?
======
dijit
Every day,

It's become a social network of sorts for geeks, despite the age of the
protocol I still find it the least "invasive" and most friendly experience,
but that's probably because I spent the time configuring a client that's nice
for me. (preview: [http://imgs.fyi/img/9ve2.png](http://imgs.fyi/img/9ve2.png)
)

I run a network even, called darkscience and it's available at
irc.darkscience.net (TLS only on port 6697) the lobby is #darkscience

ircs://irc.darkscience.net:6697/#darkscience (for those that can parse the
url!).

Everyone here is welcome to join us of course, but we put a high emphasis on
civility.

~~~
olah_1
> I still find it the least "invasive"

Doesn't it just broadcast your IP address pretty plainly?

~~~
_-___________-_
Many of the IRC networks offer a "cloak" if you register your nickname, and of
course it's trivial to connect via a VPN or via Tor (if your network allows
it).

~~~
Doxin
Side-note on the cloak: You'll want to make sure you're identified before you
join any channels, or everyone will still see your IP. The best way to do this
on networks that support it is to use SASL.

~~~
dijit
There are vanity vhosts and there are cloaks.

Cloaks apply uniformally but will not mask the last bit of your reversed
hostname. So it might leak info about your ISP or region but not your full IP.

What you stated is true of vanity vhosts though. Which will mask the whole
record only if you’re logged in. :)

~~~
beefhash
I think this is a split in terminology, actually.

IRCds such as InspIRCd and UnrealIRCd speak of cloaks in the sense of user
mode +x, commonly set on connection, which scrambles an incoming user's
hostname/IP address to e.g. hidden-5npgt1.iinet.net.au or hidden-
qjia2j.ncp0.j4h4.014d.2804.IP.

Freenode, nota bene the largest IRC network right now, uses cloaks to instead
refers to a special format of vHost[1]. It does _not_ offer Unreal-style
cloaking.

I imagine this difference in terminology is what's prompted this exchange.

[1]
[https://freenode.net/kb/answer/cloaks](https://freenode.net/kb/answer/cloaks)

~~~
netwanderer3
Back in the days I had to pay extra for a bnc/bouncer service (similar to a
proxy), now most IRC networks offer vhost automatically, but I assume it's a
bit less secured since the IRC networks themselves still know your real IP
address.

~~~
dijit
It's not really possible for a server not to know the clients IP address
though, so I think this is fair.

I do see what IP you're connecting from, but that information is limited to me
only, and it's not like I care unless you're doing something very harmful to
the service in which case I would ban you based on IP most likely.

------
swozey
I started using IRC around age, I dunno, 10-12 (30s now), lots of efnet then
freenode, at one point I was an ircop until our childish antics got our server
desynced. I don't use it anymore. Between the insular cliques and the fact
that I can look up archives of 20-25 year old messages I wrote on there
because you never know who or where someone is writing logs really turned me
off as I got older. I'm in a few community slacks and discords nowadays but
I'm not a frequent user there either.

I dealt with a lot of user drama as an ircop on a large network. I really
started to turn negative toward it (especially efnet/dalnet) when I started
noticing that toxic users would basically create profiles of other users to
use for trolling, blackmail or whatever else was on their imagination at the
time.

You can think you're fairly anonymous but when you start having the casual
conversations that IRC can lead to and a lurker is logging each users text
into separate buckets they'll eventually be able to infer quite a bit about
you over the 5+ years you're around casually chatting.

I'm just not comfortable entering rooms that have 50 active users and 900
lurkers anymore. This is probably a fairly paranoid outtake since I've seen
these things happen, but they do or have happened and it really wasn't that
infrequent back then (early 2ks).

~~~
swalls
This is what terrifies me about Discord, as well as the fact they store all
their logs in plaintext. AFAIK it is impossible to delete logs in Discord and
any new user joining a channel gets access to _all_ the back history of chat,
so it's even worse than IRC.

~~~
zzo38computer
I actually think that is fine; private messages and private channels should
not have public logs, but public channels should have public logs in
plaintext. However, I think IRC is better than Discord, and it is possible in
IRC to have server-side logging if the server software implements this (as far
as I know, mine is the only one that does), without altering the protocol. But
making logs with a special client is also possible (also without altering the
protocol) and seems to be much more common in my experience.

------
lkramer
I'm in a couple of tiny communities on IRC. There seems to be no growth
potential, and when I've suggested switching to IRC in a work setting people
look at me as if I'm mad, and starts hugging their webbased monstrocities
filled with emojis and memory leaks, but I think I will always prefer IRC.

~~~
minxomat
Even terminal based weechat is perfectly capable of rendering emojis.

~~~
kkarakk
emojis are old school, i don't use anything unless it has full gif support
now.

Gotta have a way of putting up baby yoda sipping gifs when people ask how i'm
doing

~~~
crankylinuxuser
And posting gifs for some reaction is more rage inducing on my end. 99.999% of
the time, a gif is absolutely unneeded and unwanted.

~~~
sli
Does rage not seem like a bit of an overreaction to things like gifs and
emoji?

~~~
peruvian
Check their username.

------
croon
Clocking in at 23 years on IRC, with likely very few days of missing coverage.

Mostly channels that started with mutual interest (gaming, music, movies,
programming) and almost exclusively evolved into personal groupings rather
than the initial interest.

I can grep things I remember talking about fairly quickly. And check back on
what was going on at a certain point in my life (irclogs/[year]/[net]/# __
__*.[date].log).

The same can't be said for Slack, Messenger, etc. And it's all quite tiny
gzipped.

------
rhoyerboat
I bumped into a guy I had just met on freenode, playing WoW Classic. He was
using the same handle and starting the same conversations.. really I probably
could have guessed who it was without the handle, lol- guy just has a certain
tone and range of topics. It was nice to see someone IRC culture pushing
moderated discussion in /trade, but it also illustrates why I don't spend much
time on IRC anymore. So many people going in loosely predictable circles, and
I'd be one of them, until some angry and drunk incel or political sock-puppet
shows up to try out whatever misanthropic chat script. As if getting booted
for being annoying and disingenuous is some kind of gold-star accolade. And
for that to be the interesting part - ugh. I enjoyed IRC a lot more when I
would have had a tall glass of whisky to go along with it. IMHO its still the
best social network on the internet, too bad that isn't saying much. It's
great for languages including the non-programming ones still, for sure. And
reading that one russian guy tell stories about being a kid among the
intelligentsia and politburo of the late CCCP era - wow I don't know where
else I was going to get any related personal experience about that. Pretty
cool.

------
kyrra
Google uses it internally for incident management.

[https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/chapters/managing-
in...](https://landing.google.com/sre/sre-book/chapters/managing-incidents/)

It's a lightweight server and client that can stay up even when most of
Googles core tech is down. You can easily log data from channels, and it just
works.

~~~
goosehonk
Googlers also use it for the daily chat, not just incident response.

~~~
chaosite
Very specific Googlers, mostly SREs, use IRC.

~~~
goosehonk
After I switched from SRE-SWE to just SWE, my team (of six SWEs) used IRC and
it wasn't because of my influence, either.

~~~
nv-vn
In my experience most SWE teams just use the hangouts chat nowadays

------
lrvick
I could not do my job as a security engineer without Freenode and
irc.hashbang.sh

Honestly IRC is better now than it ever was.

All the skiddies and people that chase the latest hot centralized proprietary
web based gif machines are gone leaving only thousands of highly experienced
folks who understand how computers work at a low level, maintain their own
personal and server operating systems, and love a good problem to dig into and
solve.

We also love the random curious new-world person that wanders in wanting to
learn our ways ;)

If you are wondering where all the maintainers to your favorite FOSS software
are... They never left IRC because they largely prefer to keep the internet
decentralized and support open standards.

About the only thing competing with IRC is matrix.org which even has a fancy
GUI if you are into that... And it bridges to IRC so you can join those
channels too.

------
carrozo
Perhaps only of passing interest to others here but in 1990s Portugal, IRC was
the only way for gay people to chat and meet up outside of bars, before sites
like Gaydar took hold and then of course apps like Grindr. I feel like
something was lost along the way in the move to dating sites and apps; a
general forum (channels) to participate in, rather than just one-to-one
messaging which doubled down on the meat market aspects at the expense of any
attempt at community building.

~~~
fimdomeio
Last time I checked ptnet (a few years ago) I think it was still one of the
few channels with some people in it.

I was very much on local and punk channels. I guess at some point half the
people I knew / hangout with in meat space were from IRC.

Also had one of my most successful websites at that time (2001)... I guess
only 3 years ago starting working on something with as many pageviews.

------
Xamayon
I'm a big fan of IRC, and I'm primarily active in small channels on Rizon.
From my experience, the kind of people who stick around long term tend to be
extremely capable and fun to interact with. I find small IRC channels have a
very high signal to noise ratio, possibly due to what many people see as a
high barrier to entry. I won't lie, I was intimidated when I first used IRC
all those years ago, but it quickly became second nature. It's so incredibly
easy to use and the client stays open 24x7 in the background without needing
to pin browser tabs or otherwise getting in the way. With proper alerts set
up, you don't even need to check it until something interesting happens. Works
fantastically, as it has for decades~

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Also, you can implement an IRC client and/or server in about an hour in any
decently high-level programming language.

~~~
reeves23423
Are you saying literally or figuratively. You mean it is possible to implement
a working python3 client in one hour ? I would love to see someone do a live
stream .

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Yeah. Well, maybe. It might be a slight exaggeration but IRC is ludicrously
simple. It's just sending text strings back and forth on a TCP socket. You can
literally use telnet as an IRC client.

------
throwaway8291
We use IRC at work and it's just as useful and fun as ever, there are IRC
clients that consume a few megabytes (hello Slack). SET autolog ON, then keep
all your chat history grep-able in your home folder (again, only consuming
megabytes - oh hello Slack, again).

~~~
dijit
wee_slack.py (if you can create application tokens) works wonderfully for the
same purpose.

Since everyone is really pushing slack it makes my life easier to have it
natively in my favourite IRC client.

~~~
haolez
How does it manage Slack threads?

~~~
grumple
Can't be worse than how Slack manages Slack threads.

------
tjpnz
I used to use Freenode a lot but in recent years have gone elsewhere.

The community just isn't what it was before and a lot of that comes down to
numbers. It wasn't long ago that Freenode was _the_ place to go for help with
open source projects but I've noticed more and more an exodus to Slack,
Discord et cetera. It's fairly common now to be greeted with a channel topic
about this and by that point you're not going to get much help from the
lurkers that remain.

I'm not sure what drove that but I do recall there being a fair amount of
drama in some channels (more discussion around moderation than the project the
channel was about), ban happy ops, flooding and various network related
technical issues.

~~~
hombre_fatal
To put some numbers on the board, you'd think #node.js and #javascript
channels on Freenode would be massive given the ubiquity and low entry barrier
of the technologies. But there are probably 10 regulars across both channels.
I hang out in both daily and it's always the same people. Of course, they also
suffer from the toxic personality of veterans that tend to scare away normal
people.

Now compare that to Elm's Slack community. A much more niche technology yet an
absolutely bustling chat community. And I can repeat this for all sorts of
Slack/Discord communities I'm part of. Even my MUD Developer group on Discord
is more active than any Freenode channel I'm part of.

Things like "always online" and offline messaging are essential for community
building.

IRC never solved this because it requires everyone to have a sufficiently
capable client (like paying for IRCCloud or using weechat in tmux on your
VPS). Even if you solve it for yourself, you haven't solved it for anyone you
talk to who will likely be logged out when they close their laptop.

~~~
parliament32
>you'd think #node.js and #javascript channels on Freenode would be massive

The entire point of still hanging out on IRC is to avoid node and js-wielding
hipsters, so no, I wouldn't expect those channels to be massive. IRC is still
the definitive resource for anything related to sysadmin/sre/netops/mailops.

>Things like "always online" and offline messaging

That's also kinda the point. I _don 't_ want anyone who joins to be able to
search everything I've said in that channel over the last 5 years. Some users
may keep personal records, sure, but the history doesn't need to be highly
available. Likewise with offline messaging -- if I'm saying something on IRC,
I want to talk to "the room". If I want to contact someone specific I could PM
them, sure, but I could also just email them like a normal person. IRC is
meant to be ephemeral -- and that's what makes it so great compared to
Slack/Discord.

------
lukego
I have started using IRC again since I bought a subscription to irccloud.com.
Before that I had stopped because I found the clients too annoying, especially
lacking support for using multiple devices concurrently and buffering up
messages while disconnected.

~~~
coldpie
> especially lacking support for using multiple devices concurrently and
> buffering up messages while disconnected.

Yup, this is why IRC is dying. Unfortunately the vacuum has let proprietary
services like Discord and Slack take over, just like GitHub now owns open
source infrastructure. We'll come to rue the day we let this happen (see:
SourceForge). Hopefully Matrix and GitLab will be ready and waiting when that
happens.

------
coldpie
Yup. We use it for chat internally at work, with a gateway to our internal
Matrix server, which about half of our folks use. It's also used for most
programming communities. I work on Wine, where we use IRC, and have gotten
help from systemd, KDE, Gnome/mutter, etc channels. It's very much alive in
techy circles. I kind of prefer this, it keeps the low-content GIF/emoticon
posters segregated out of the areas I do real work. Kind of like how HN being
plaintext-only keeps discussion relevant and high quality.

I also have a small group of online-only friends (there are literally four of
us) who I have been chatting with on IRC every single day for more than 10
years.

IRC isn't perfect. It isn't even good. Its major failing is its lack of
offline persistence, and I don't see that being solved within the protocol.
But I refuse to switch to proprietary communications platforms, so it's still
the best. Matrix seems like the best option for a modern chat experience, but
non-web-browser support isn't there yet.

------
benharri
I oper networks for two pubnix communities:
[https://hashbang.sh](https://hashbang.sh) and
[https://tildeverse.org](https://tildeverse.org)
([https://tilde.chat](https://tilde.chat) is the irc net).

I also hang out in lots of on-topic channels in freenode for various
programming languages and software that I use. Once you find a nice community,
it's hard to use anything else.

I use weechat in byobu on my vps and weechat-android on the go. It's a great
setup and I've tweaked a lot of stuff to my liking.

------
1maginary
It's been mostly reduced to free software projects channels/networks and just
semi-private channels for groups of friends who've been on IRC for years now.
So #archlinux, #dolphin-emu, #python, ##machinelearning, etc. all on Freenode
are pretty active.

There's some hobby and subreddit related channels too. Like ##chess, and
#rubik.

Other than that, the language learning community was surprisingly _very_
active years ago, so it's still kinda alive. Language-specific channels like
##deutsch, ##espanol, etc. on Freenode are kinda alive. There's also
##learnanylanguage.

~~~
gwd
I use #xendevel to collaborate with other Xen developers basically every day.
Also use #centos-devel, #centos-virt, and #centos-meeting for various CentOS-
related things. Also lurk on #golang-nuts and occasionally either ask or
answer a question on there.

But it's all more or less work-related now.

------
tracker1
FreeNode seems to have some really active channels... outside of that, all I
see on the servers I connect to now and then are a lot of lurkers.

The cool thing is, in general when I've exhausted my options, a lot of people
deeply involved in various projects do tend to hang out in freenode's
channels. I don't keep hexchat open all the time, just fallen out of habit,
but I'll be in ##javascript and #csharp mostly, lately I've also been joining
in on ##rust (though I have to manually enter as I'm blocked until after
NickServ validation).

One key is to really keep one's expectations in check. You'll get a faster
response in IRC than say a Github issue, but nobody is under any obligation to
help you and it's good to be mindful of that and respectful.

~~~
scaryclam
Slightly off topic, but did you know you can use SASL to auto identify with
NickServ on Freenode?

Edit: typo

~~~
tracker1
Did not know that, thanks... will have to update my setup... just used to
NickServ for it all.

------
kitteh
Several hundred network operators use a particular IRC network for back
channel communications. Chatter on route hijacks, leaks, outages, etc. Great
way to cut thru the bullshit support channels and NOC aliases to get to the
folks who matter. Outages have been mitigated faster because of this.

------
kossae
I recently started a greenfield project with some newer (to me) technologies.
After some Googling for issues, I decided to try some Freenode channels
related to the frameworks/languages. To my surprise, the people on IRC were
far more helpful on average than the official Slack channels or forums
normally advertised. I highly recommend it for code help, but I've yet to re-
explore some of the more hobby related channels of my past.

------
tomsmeding
For the people who are doing Advent of Code this year
([https://adventofcode.com](https://adventofcode.com)), there's an IRC channel
on Freenode: ##adventofcode

~~~
alfonsox
Thank you. Needed This.

------
rufugee
I personally use freenode all the time. That's where I get the best advice and
great tech support from many open source projects. In fact, when selecting an
open source project, I consider it a serious knock against it if it _doesn 't_
have a freenode channel. I personally can't stand using Slack and am always
disappointed when a project requires me to do so...

~~~
dewey
Agreed, it’s always so odd to see an open source project using Discord or
Slack. You basically just throw all your support work and knowledge into
someone’s proprietary silo. In a few years you’ll never be able to find
anything that was already discussed.

IRC Channels on freenode are usually archived or at least a bunch of people
have a local archive of everything.

------
progval
IRC is my main way to communicate, more than emails or websites like reddit or
HN.

I use it for:

* getting help (debian channels, #rust, and #ceph on OFTC; #python on freenode)

* giving help (eg. #mastodon and #limnoria on freenode)

* work (public channel and a private one)

* socializing (some friend groups channels and private chats; and offtopic channels of specific communities are great, eg. #rust-offtopic on OFTC)

In total I'm in about 70 channels

------
joshavant
I got a job at 'early' Tinder (2014) after someone I chatted with on a
Freenode programming channel went on to become one of its cofounders.

------
shem73
I've used IRC since 1988 or so, when all the users were from the University of
Oulu, Finland. I hang out in a couple of channels of old pals (in IRCnet) and
in a few technical channels in Freenode (#sway, #clojure, occasionally
others).

I have a tmuxed session that is always connected, and I attach to it from
wherever I happen to be. As others have stated, I too find it a non-intrusive,
pleasant way to be in contact with certain groups of people.

------
xabi
XDCC creator here, and still using it. Long live to IRCii!

------
ExBritNStuff
All day, every day! I work for a team of people that have been together for
over 20 years in some cases, with a few people dropping out and a few people
coming in over the years. We've always hung out in an IRC channel as our main
form of team communication. Initially because there wasn't any other workable
option, and now because it's what we've always done and it works for how our
team operates.

------
nickjj
Every day on Freenode in various programming related channels, and to talk
with friends.

I mainly use it to talk with friends but I do occasionally ask questions and
answer questions in the public channels I'm in. I sometimes skim the channels
for a bit when I'm tabbed into my IRC client.

I started on IRC back in the late 90s / early 00s on the Enter The Game
network, mainly for Quake. I haven't joined that network in forever tho.

------
na85
I really enjoy using IRC but it badly needs an update to work on phones
without requiring the user to have a sign up for a 3rd party service (irc
cloud, shell providers to run a bnc).

IRCv3 is out there but it seems to me to be simultaneously overengineered and
underfeatured. I don't think they're focusing their efforts into the right
areas to make IRC relevant again.

~~~
non-entity
I used IRC for a while, but it logged me out one day, and I haveno idea what
email I used to create my account, so I haven't been able to log back in.
Recently I've been used a beta client on android called Revolution IRC which
is fine for basic usage, however as I've expressed elsewhere in this thread,
I've been wanting to develop an IRC client based on the Discord UI, which I'm
familiar with.

~~~
na85
What's missing for me is cross-device sync of scroll back logs, push
notifications on @mention even if you're not connected, and proper user
accounting to handle abuse.

I want to be able to leave my desktop at home and pick up where I left off on
my phone (with out getting disconnected when I change cell towers) and not
miss anything

------
ivanhoe
IRC is still the best place to get help quickly (if you know the right place
to ask), especially for some more esoteric tech niches...

~~~
treats
And if you know how to ask the right question.

------
dano
On 9/11/2001 one of the few working parts of Internet communication was IRC. I
recall getting a lot of first hand information from NYC via IRC on that day.
I've been using IRC for 20+ years and use Quassel server + Quassel clients. On
the other hand, I mentor two FRC teams and they much prefer Discord.

------
Dowwie
Freenode is alive and well. #python, #postgresql, and more recently ##rust

------
greggman2
Chromium devs use IRC
[https://www.chromium.org/developers/irc](https://www.chromium.org/developers/irc),
WebKit devs use IRC [https://webkit.org/getting-
started/#irc](https://webkit.org/getting-started/#irc), Firefox devs use IRC
[https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC](https://wiki.mozilla.org/IRC), llvm devs on IRC
[https://llvm.org/docs/GettingInvolved.html#irc](https://llvm.org/docs/GettingInvolved.html#irc).
I'm sure there are lots of others

------
schmichael
Just barely. There's a few stray #pdx... channels still active on Freenode,
and a couple private channels with friends.

The usability really is terrible compared to modern chat systems, so I'm
always on the verge of switching. Nostalgia is a strong force.

------
probinso
IRC channels are like anime. There is some good great gems. You have to sift
through so much garbage finding them is usually not worth it

------
jamesbiv
Although I don't actively lurk on IRC, I do use it from time to time,
especially for support for programming or open source projects, as Freenode
seems to be the place to go these days.

I grew up using it and found it a great tool for people to connect and even
contribute to projects or just programming in general. I feel even to this
day, the ambiance created by IRC "back in the day" with all its contrived
features such as server linking and splits, channel ops, bots, and opers still
haven't been captured by any of the social media giants even today.

The best things I found about IRC were, TCL scripts, Eggrop bots, and all of
the Ascii art that people would use.

------
bfrog
I still use it, because Freenode is an amazing resource.

The fact that matrix/discord/slack are becoming more common in open source
projects makes a bit sad, matrix a little less so but still. Matrix is neat in
its idea of federating without having to trust other matrix servers, but the
protocol is less than friendly in many ways. Its not nearly as simple as the
REST JSON API the docs espouse. If its any indication of complexity there's
really only one defacto matrix server implementation, there's dozens of IRC
implementations. Client implementations are a little more abundant but with a
wide array of feature support.

------
susam
I hang out at #lisp, #python, #debian, ##math, ##algorithms, ##security, etc.
on Freenode IRC all the time. I remain connected to these channels via ZNC, an
IRC network bouncer.

Disclosure: I created ##algorithms in 2007.

Apart from these, there is #fd100 that we created recently to keep the love
for Logo (the programming language) alive. It is a tiny channel consisting of
5-10 members. Please do join #fd100 even if you don't remember Logo anymore.
The intention here is not to discuss Logo but to share the joy of computing
that we discovered through Logo and has remained in our lives. I hope to see
you all there. :-)

------
lordgrenville
#haskell is _incredibly_ friendly - if you ask questions, people will go above
and beyond to explain things to you.

------
varjag
On 9/11 I was on IRC watching it unfold. Links to webcams, newswire messages,
panicked discussions. Called my (incredulous) relatives before our local TV
even noticed it was happening.

------
mc3
The only time I have ever used it was about 4 years ago to get some help on
Haskell. And the only reason for using it was the community was there.
Although I sensed there is a positive shibboleth effect when you meet the
person in real life. So maybe IRC is good for virtue signalling / networking.

For other communities I see they are using Discord, Discourse, Reddit or Slack
these days. I have no favorites, I just go along to wherever the community is.
Unless it is Facebook, then sorry no, not joining FB.

------
jabedude
Absolutely. My team uses it to collaborate on a closed (no internet access)
network, and it works great.

------
jahrichie
I use it all the time. I grew up on IRC (37 a few weeks ago). Personally, I
learned a lot infastucture and engineering from this IRC. Recently my team hit
a problem using an open source ruby gem from AWS, that took us 2 weeks to
find. It wasn't us that found it, but a chatter in the #ruby channel that had
originally written the code 5 years prior, and knew of a conflict between two
specific AWS GEMS. This would of taken months and thousands of lines of code
to find. IRC FTW

------
esotericn
I've used IRC pretty much forever.

I use it for, err, online chat. If I want real-time chat I do it there.

None of the other platforms offer anything other than fragmentation of the
user base as far as I'm concerned.

I don't care about the fact that like, you need to run a client all the time,
ten year old me was leaving his computer on before he knew what a server even
was, I do it anyway because I self host a ton of stuff (for basically the same
reasons, almost everything else is proprietary and wanky in some way).

~~~
garren
Is there a particular client you use or would recommend? I’ve used irssi on
and off in the past, and bitchx occasionally, but I’d be curious to know
what’s popular today.

~~~
robotmay
I quite like Quassel, which doesn't seem to get discussed much. Has the
ability to run the core and client on separate machines, decent customisation
etc. I run the core on my home server and connect to it from elsewhere.

------
deeblering4
Yes, use it day to day for work chat. It’s nice in my case because by default
people expect irc to have no history and no mobile support. This makes for a
good balance. When you are at a computer you’re there, and when you are away
you are away. Much more like an actual physical space with less of an
assumption of “always on” than chat apps with tight mobile integrations
(granted you can use irccloud or similar if you want that)

------
jamestomasino
I'm on IRC constantly via Weechat on a VPS and Weechat-Android connecting my
phone.

Servers I use: irc.tilde.chat irc.sdf.org irc.freenode.net and a few others
here and there.

There's a huge amount of IRC usage in the wild still. Major projects use it,
like the web-extensions project. Hobbiests have servers and channels gallore.
Every programming language has a presence. There's so much to see and explore.

------
non-entity
Yep. I pop in #NetBSD on Freenode on occasion, whenever In working on
something in current or have an unanswered question. It seems to he the only
place to get help on products that might not have the biggest userbase or
support out there otherwise. Most channels I've been in have a pretty friendly
userbase as well, at least much better than many Discord servers I've been it.

------
bshipp
I have a question regarding IRC. I haven't really used it much since 2001-2002
but is there a self-hosted option where i can leave a client running on my
server and then access it with my phone and/or browser on a desktop pc when I
want to check in?

This would be especially helpful with less active channels where it's nice to
have a client constantly online to catch chats.

~~~
na85
I do this now, with irssi running in a tmux session that I connect to with
juicessh and mosh.

~~~
bshipp
That sounds like a simple, clever solution. Thanks!

------
verylittlemeat
In my experience offline twitch chats are the new irc. It's pretty much as
close as you can get to an irc experience like gamesnet or quakenet in the
early 00s.

Discords are mostly a waste of time. Barrier to entry is too low/easy/obvious.
You just get tons of low quality content and people just speaking in memes
with immature high school environment.

~~~
Merem
Twitch chat is IRC, so you can just join with a dedicated or web client
irc.twitch.tv and chat away (OAuth token is required). Most of the offline
chatters that I know use a client.

Apart from that I'm on several channels on Rizon and synIRC.

~~~
Crosseye_Jack
if you want read only access you can use the nick justinfan{randomnumber} and
then join what ever channels you like. But its read only so you can't on even
pull a list of a channels moderators without signing in with an auth. (The
user list only shows active mods in smaller channels, but you can ask the
server for a list of the mods in the channel if you have logged in with a
valid oauth)

> $ ncat -C irc.chat.twitch.tv 6667

> NICK justinfan123

> :tmi.twitch.tv 001 justinfan123 :Welcome, GLHF!

> :tmi.twitch.tv 002 justinfan123 :Your host is tmi.twitch.tv

> :tmi.twitch.tv 003 justinfan123 :This server is rather new

> :tmi.twitch.tv 004 justinfan123 :-

> :tmi.twitch.tv 375 justinfan123 :-

> :tmi.twitch.tv 372 justinfan123 :You are in a maze of twisty passages, all
> alike.

> :tmi.twitch.tv 376 justinfan123 :>

------
kfogel
Oh my gosh, yes. All the time. Freenode.net network mostly -- free-software-
related channels, but other places too.

IRC is alive and well.

------
guidoism
Let's say for example you work on a team doing identity for a large company
that provides lots of services to a lot of the world, including email and
chat. What infrastructure to the people who keep the system up use to
communicate while the system is down? You guessed it! IRC.

------
zzo38computer
I still use IRC, mainly in #esoteric on Freenode but also sometimes others. I
think that IRC is much better than many of the more modern protocols. (You can
even use IRC without specialized software, and I have occasionally done so on
computers before the IRC client is set up.)

------
themagician
IRC is, for me, perfect. It does exactly what I want and nothing I don’t need.

More and more I appreciate simple, easy to maintain, technology that isn’t
bloated. IRC, basic POP email, simple HTML websites, “featureless” phones
(which, incidentally, are just phones), stereo receivers, etc.

It’s so nice when you have something that just works. It’s so much less
stressful. It always does what you want instantly and their is no maintenance.
No updates. No loading screens.

IRC has a learning curve, sure, but it’s not hard. You learn it once and
you’re done. You don’t need to read releases notes every month.

So much software dedicated to increasing efficiency or productivity just swaps
time spent on old tasks with time spent on new tasks.

------
creshal
• Support channels for various open source projects

• Fallback in case the new-fangled webshit breaks for the fifth time a month

• Old communities that see no point in moving to said often breaking webshit

But none of this has any growth potential, so we'll see for how long I'll keep
using it.

~~~
tracker1
I'd rather see IRC usage expand over discord and slack use myself... It'd be
nice to maybe see an open-source application and bots that allow for better
integration with source control and CI/CD options though. This way it's easier
for everyone to interact with a more open base standard.

While discord isn't too bad, it's sometimes hard to find and join the
communities you might be looking for. Where as with freenode, and irc in
general, discovery is imho easier.

I don't bother with efnet anymore, but do also join irc.synchro.net for a
couple channels (also very inactive).

~~~
non-entity
I really do like Discord's, UI, and have wanted to build an IRC client with a
similar UI, but I'm not sure how difficult a feature-complete client
implementation is.

------
Sohcahtoa82
I still use IRC.

On EFnet, I'm an op in #wow, and lurk in #geekissues. On Freenode, I lurk in
#offsec and #python.

In #wow, most of the chat isn't World of Warcraft-related anymore. The amount
of on-topic chat will bump up when an expansion is released, but the channel
is mostly dying these days.

I first used IRC back in 1995, and some time shortly after I basically never
logged off. Started using a bouncer a few years ago after someone joined a
channel, started spamming racial slurs, and so I banned them, and they
responded with a DDoS that knocked out my home internet connection. The fact
that IRC still exposes your IP address is a pretty serious security issue.

------
nmdeadhead
I don't normally spend much time there, except at 1pm Pacific on Sundays, but
at that time I can be found on #poker of my own (poorly administered)
devctm.com IRC server.

FWIW, twenty-one years ago I wrote the first software to deal multi table
poker tournaments on the internet. Its first interface was IRC (because there
were already bots dealing single table games and tournaments). I've now
written a new poker server and decided to start with IRC for a variety of
reasons, but mostly nostalgia.

[https://github.com/ctm/mb2-doc](https://github.com/ctm/mb2-doc)

------
Bayart
I did use actively fifteen years ago but I've never really found a community
to latch on. Nowadays I'll just jump in once in a while in the room of a
project I'm tracking to discuss things with devs.

------
wayneftw
I use IRC as a last resort since many of the regulars there are rude assholes.

~~~
dijit
Isn't this a bit like saying "many of the regulars on reddit are rude
assholes" but you mostly see subs like r/inceltears or r/tumblrinaction ?

I think the community has a lot to do with it and each channel is often its
own community and culture, even on the same server.

~~~
kkarakk
nah on reddit, there is active moderation and users self regulate and you
don't see real scum and villainy unless you sort by controversial(or seek out
a subreddit that sucks)

in any irc it's constant and due to the inertia of users, even if you come
back a month later the same user will probably come back and say the same dumb
stuff to you instead of you finding someone new to talk to

~~~
dijit
Perhaps, but the issue you're having is indeed a lack of moderation. And IRC
does not lack moderation tools.

~~~
kkarakk
It does lack a significant number of people willing to take over somebody
else's IRC channel though. There is a lot of cultural inertia around it

------
SamWhited
I still use IRC, or sometimes even a handful of XMPP (Jabber, for grep-
ability) rooms (although for the most part it's better for 1:1 chat with
friends, and text messages through a bridge) partially for ideological reasons
but also partially because I _can 't_ use the more "modern" alternatives. My
particular reasons don't matter, but a few I've seen in the past include
(focusing on Slack as an example, but most of these apply more broadly):

    
    
      - My laptop doesn't have a GUI (networks using open protocols like XMPP and IRC don't lock you into a single client, so someone will have developed a good CLI one)
      - My laptop runs NetBSD, Illumos, etc. and Slack et all don't provide clients for it and the web clients aren't very good, break on whatever browser I use, etc.
      - Work only allows certain software on the laptops, IRSSI is approved because it's been on the list the enterprise folks haven't updated since the 80s, but Slack isn't
      - For legal reasons I can't sign Slack's EULA (eg. I am in arbitration or part of a lawsuit, or work for a company that's part of a lawsuit with them, etc., disclaimer: I don't actually know how this works, not a lawyer, etc.)
      - My laptop is old and Slack's client doesn't run well on older hardware (again, using a network that uses IRC or XMPP lets you use any client you want)
      - Work uses IRC (yes, it's still pretty common) and I don't want 10 different chat systems on my machine so I just use IRC at home too
      - Work has certain security, privacy, or procedural requirements that Slack et al don't meet, but an enterprise chat based on IRC or XMPP etc. does (eg. using end to end encryption might be easier, a private network using IRC or XMPP can be configured to only use connections that are perfect forward secret, or do external certificate based auth, use end to end encryption, etc.)
      - etc.
    

Most of this boils down to the clients not working for one reason or another,
but IRC and XMPP have literally dozens (maybe hundreds) of clients to choose
from. Some better, some worse, but you'll almost certainly find one that works
for you.

If you want to join us for some Go (golang, for grep-ability) related chat,
there's a room on my XMPP server at "golang@conference.samwhited.com" (one day
I'll move that to a nicer looking domain, I think I still own gopher.chat)
that gets a bit of traffic, or there's #golang on Freenode. Please avoid their
community Slack and ask others to do so as well because I and a number of
other contributors can't or won't use it and miss out on a lot of good
discussion :(

~~~
shantly
IRC and XMPP are relatively easy to set up servers for, too. I looked at
Matrix a little while ago and it's a serious PITA by comparison, so far as
going from zero to achieving client-talking-to-server. Of course the company
behind it appears to make their money selling hosting, so....

~~~
SamWhited
yah, the protocol is pretty crap too (for chat anyways, maybe it has other
applications but they push it for chat pretty hard core). Don't get me wrong,
IRC and XMPP have their problems, but I'd avoid Matrix at all costs. I was
really hopeful it was a good alternative at first (before I get accused of
bias for joining the XMPP Standards foundation for a while), but in the end I
picked XMPP and I try to work to make that better instead (while still using
IRC for group chats due to network effect and my deep love of IRSSI).

------
AdmiralAsshat
IRC is still a very useful tool for tech support, since you can potentially
reach someone who will actively respond, rather than posting a message on a
forum or a mailing list and waiting endlessly for a response. It was a bit of
a bummer when some channels started disabling unregistered users due to spam.
It used to be a great "emergency support" option that someone with a failing
computer could load up a LiveUSB of some Linux distro, open Hexchat, and
immediately pop into a chatroom for help.

------
Throwaway656543
#mysql on DALnet has been invaluable in helping me learn how to manage
databases. I actually was on DALnet for the last 15 years and stumbled into a
number of different rooms to learn various topics. #mysql has been the one
that I ended up frequenting the most. Now I ask and answer questions there.
Everyone is generally pretty friendly and welcoming (even though some people
asking questions are often impatient).

------
Tsynk
Yes, I still use it, mainly to speak to friends, I also IRCOp on irc.nfnet.org
and I hang out mostly in #sonicstadium on irc.surrealchat.net. I also use my
IRC Client to connect to Twitch's chat. IRC is also good on any Internet speed
and it very low on data usage. I use HexChat and IRCCloud as my main two
clients. You can also use any client out there (pretty much) to connect to any
network.

------
OatMilkLatte
It's still widely used in some video game circles. Twitch chat is an IRC
server, and speedrunslive has an IRC server it uses to coordinate races.

------
p7IDD243
I spend most of my time on IRC as far as social platforms go, have been
running a server for the past 6 years or so for me and a circle of friends.

------
ddevault
All day, every day, for both work and social purposes.

~~~
guytv
Could you please share some social channels you find interesting for the
uninitiated?

~~~
kingludite
I think he means private messages but there is one tip I can give you that
adds much to the experience: Stay logged in and use IRC like email exchanges
on slow channels and in private conversations. IRC ofc does real time chat but
the best stuff is even slower paced than email. If no one is talking for
months it is perfectly fine to answer a question asked half a year ago.
Logging in to dump a question then leave again 5 min later is a bit like
removing your mailbox after receiving a letter or quickly switching off your
phone after each call. Don't expect anyone to be interested if you use the web
client.

Also, asking questions is fine but answering them is much better if you want
to learn something. Other peoples q&a is just as useful. Lurking is fine. Just
find the channel for every language and every tool you use and stay there
forever.

Some channels have a separate #foo-social or #foo-offtopic place for [usually
slow paced] interesting stuff that is unworthy of the main channel. Travel
around, check out new places. Some are well hidden.

If you are truly a useful asset you get to behave.... uhmm... somewhat like an
idiot.... don't go ask the biologists where the white stork gets the babies
from on your first day.

Enjoy!

------
ori_b
Constantly. It's how I keep in touch with most of my friends. I'm on a private
server, and on a bunch of channels on freenode.

------
Artemix
I use IRC for tech / general chat on a local server.

Much better and cleaner experience than Discord, Slack, or other fat
alternatives.

------
_-___________-_
Every day, for keeping in touch with far away friends and for a few
programming-related channels on Freenode and OFTC.

------
dewey
I do use it almost every day, using Textual and ZNC. Mostly on the IRC
networks of private trackers and freenode.

I’m pretty sure that if I’d run a small company I’d use
[https://www.irccloud.com/](https://www.irccloud.com/) instead of Slack.

------
moreentropy
sure. freenode for free and open projects and hackint for everything ccc /
chaos community related.

------
rambojazz
Daily. But I guess it's now used by open source projects mostly. It's not the
IRC of the 90s.

------
johncoltrane
I'm on #vim on Freenode everyday.

------
fapjacks
Almost every day for years and years, since the 90s. Someone here mentioned it
as a kind of shibboleth and I hope this information gets to the right kind of
people but doesn't attract too much attention. There are just too few useful
signals left in tech.

------
rsrx
I'm active in development related channels on freenode (e.g. #python, #aws,
#docker, etc). As a contractor who codes alone most of the time, it's a great
source of help if I can't solve something, or to hear opinion of others about
something.

------
mixedmath
Yepyep. I'm on ##math, #python, ##linux, #vim, and some others on freenode.
IRC is my hub.

------
OedipusRex
I used it up through college and then switched over to Discord/Slack for all
my text based conversations outside of texting from my phone. I really do miss
the IRC crowd sometimes but the people I want to talk to are on Discord or
Slack now.

------
maz1b
Been using IRC since 2004. I use it from time to time now. IRC is just one of
those things that I feel would be better served if the IRC client itself got
sleek design / UI friendly options so that the common person could utilize it
more.

------
qxnqd
I still use it every day. I know many communities have switched to heavy
Electron apps and I haven't bothered to look at it. For example for go help I
go to #go-nuts which is very low traffic since I assume everybody is using
Slack

------
piffey
Idling, hoping it'll come back into prominence through some sort of nostalgia
wave.

~~~
tracker1
Most of the channels I've been in on freenode are active... efnet and other
nets, not so much.

------
itchyjunk
Use it daily. ##math on freenode is not replaceable. I visit a few small ones
now and then.

Not to go off-topic but I saw that article about PIA on the front page
yesterday. Does that mean freenode will need a bit of hosting help from the
community?

------
beaconfield
I definitely use IRC to communicate with users of open-source projects like
Spacewalk or Fedora. Anytime I can't get decent help using forums or Google
searches, I go to IRC and work with the community there. Works very well!

------
netsec_burn
Yep! breaking.technology +6697

------
kgwxd
For a day or two, here and there, every time someone mentions it on HN :)

------
Aloha
Yeah, I'm still using IRC to connect with folks who have not made the leap to
either telegram or discord.

I run irssi inside of a screen session, which I connect to from wherever I am
(except mobile).

------
Vogtinator
Yes, all the time. Multiple channels about software development.

------
brylie
I'm looking forward to when the onboarding process for IRC approaches the
usability level of contemporary chat services such as Slack, Rocket Chat,
Zulip, etc.

~~~
gogglehead
Slack is just too hard to understand. I still don't get it. I have to go to a
webpage and enter a server / channel name. I have to create a password for
each one, if I get approved it then takes me to a slack web client with no
obvious way to open the chat in the app. If you install the app on a different
machine, you have to add everything again.

It's not a good user experience.

~~~
shantly
I think some of us geeks have an unusual perspective on what's confusing and
what's straightforward or easy. I've been repeatedly told GH issues is "too
confusing" or "too technical" versus Asana and Jira for the non-developers (WT
actual F?!?! Seriously this one baffles me entirely, I can't even begin to
wrap my head around it) and find most social media sites extremely confusing,
especially considering how little they actually do.

I don't get it, but there it is.

~~~
floren
Here's the flowchart you're running into:

Have I already learned how to use something with approximately the same
functionality? → [New Thing] is too confusing! [Old Thing] is intuitive!

It's a very simple flowchart and almost everyone in the world uses it.

------
bkq
I infrequently hang out in the #go-nuts channel on freenode.

------
seapunk
I spent a lot of time on Freenode it was my favorite space when I was a
teenager, every christmas holidays I reinstall an IRC client to spend some
hours there.

------
Ccecil
I pretty much always have freenode channels open for #reprap and
#smoothieware. Bleeding edge of reprap has been IRC for many years...IMHO.

------
aaron695
It still has some warez you can't get else where, specifically some fiction
books not on Libgen. The gap is closing though.

------
Ericson2314
Used it all the time, and even more with now the Matrix bridge. The future bis
bright please get off slack.

------
RickJWagner
Every day at work.

It's where most of the work force hangs out, lots of different channels for
different topics.

------
danbmil99
I believe a number of Open Source projects still maintain IRC communities on
freenode.

------
nayuki
I hang out on a bunch of private servers. And I built my own IRC client
software.

------
person_of_color
Anyone know good Slack/Discord for embedded software/electronics?

------
mezzomix
I'm a big fan of IRC - for me it is one of the best tools to communicate

------
ProAm
I use it every day, I find it better than asking questions on Stackoverflow.

------
davidw
Yes, it's still where you find some top people in various technologies.

------
ryanmercer
Yes, I've been connected to undernet every day for over 2 decades now.

------
criddell
No.

------
Bootwizard
Twitch's chat system is build on top of IRC so technically yes.

------
bkovacev
Yes - anytime I need to talk to the amazing stripe support crew! :)

------
kazinator
These days, I maintain a presence on the #txr channel on freenode.

------
lewaldman
This `Ask HN` prompted me to give a look on bash.org after more than 10 years!

LOL

------
Schnitz
Unfortunately not, I got manhandled info the mess that is slack.

------
KaiserPro
I use it for my maker acquaintances.

been using it off and on for about 15 years.

------
Gabriel_Martin
I can attribute much of my early Javascript learnings to IRC.

~~~
sgt
And I can attribute the little I know of TCL to IRC.

------
brummm
Isn't everybody using slack technically also using IRC?

~~~
bdreadz
They used to have IRC / XMPP gateways. Closed them down.

------
austincheney
I would be on IRC everyday if I could access it from work.

------
randshift
I work at a large tech company and we use IRC heavily

------
KiDD
All the time! I grew up in IRC chatrooms...

------
jdlyga
I haven't used IRC in about a decade.

------
904baf11
I use #python as an absolute last resort.

------
huxflux
Every day for the last twenty years!

------
aricz
Shhh, it's my secret weapon when it comes to software engineering. Freenode is
the place. Whops.. now it's out.

------
pge
Obligatory XKCD: [https://xkcd.com/1782/](https://xkcd.com/1782/)

------
mezod
YES. BEST THING EVER.

------
nathias
yes, plenty of irc servers are still alive

------
emilfihlman
All the time.

Highly recommended.

------
grezql
only to download movies with XDCC :-)

------
ExtraServings
only when i need stripe support.

------
briandilley
I do.

------
berbec
A lot. There's a really nice client called Slack. </s>

