Its 2019 - is IRC dead ? reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- simon369123 · 2019-08-05 15:19 Hello. I remember a time when IRC was booming. For me it was 2000 to 2005. I understand that was the time the warez scene was big on IRC. Even people who use to gather in channels to cause mayhem on line seem to be quiet also. Maybe that's because of the busts that happened a few years ago with in the hacking groups and informants and journalists. So I guess IRC is suffering from a trust problem that users are not as trusting as they use to be. And the decline of warez has also had an effect. Most of the channels today have users which are mostly Inactive. The whole place seems to want to keep people away. The users who do use it seem to want privacy and no new people. General chats seem to be smaller groups who dont want new faces That's how it feels to me. It feels like the young ones who once used IRC have grown up and gone and only a few remain there with nothing interesting happening. And the young ones of today are just not interested in that part of the internet. Let's hear your views. Do you still use IRC and what for ? Do you know any good channels or community's on IRC? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- djernie · 2019-08-05 15:38 Within Network Operator Groups it's still quite common ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jhoneycutt · 2019-08-05 16:03 I've been using IRC for over 20 years, so I remember its heyday as well. It is mostly dead now. Lots of mid-20s to mid-30s techy people who enjoy socializing with other techy people online are still using IRC, but most younger people who didn't grow up using it have moved onto something else. E.g., Discord is really popular. It's like having IRC + bouncer + push notifications + voice chat in one package, plus it has great mobile and desktop apps. It's just much more convenient. Slack is very similar, but business-oriented. Meanwhile the best IRC experience that has a similar feature set and convenience is probably IRC Cloud, which isn't free. I think IRC is slowly fading away as more convenient and featureful apps come along to replace it. If I were going to start a new community for young people today, I'd probably choose something else over IRC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2019-08-05 16:07 You gotta seek out some new communities. Snoonet has a decent number of active channels. I echo what /u/jhoneycutt is saying - it's still popular in certain circles, mostly very techie folks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2019-08-05 16:41 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- l0de · 2019-08-05 16:46 What a stupid post. We're definitely better off without you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- stillfun · 2019-08-05 17:00 I think there is small IRC renaissance happening right now. People are waking up to the situation that all major chat applications are walled gardens. There is a lot happening in the IRCv3 and [irc.com](https://irc.com) / freenode front. But at this point is mostly technical people who are active. If the trend continues for couple of years, maybe the nontechies will also find their way back. As said here Snoonet has quite active and warm comminity. EFnet is also quite active and it has some weird/fun comminity : [https://youtu.be/NU7gu58cqbk](https://youtu.be/NU7gu58cqbk) Personally I really like IRC and love that the community behind it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2019-08-05 17:13 aww, don't be bitter now, you could have just said no to the fella's question... :D ---------------------------------------------------------------------- nevillejohnson · 2019-08-05 17:57 I think the problem with IRC is the stateful protocol, which doesn’t lend itself well to mobile devices and that’s where a lot of young (or next generation) people wish to chat from. Sure, you can setup an ZNC server on a Virtual Machine, but most people will not be prepared to go to those lengths. This is where discord and others win, a stateless protocol that works well on mobile and gives you persistent chat, push notifications, voice, etc. I think IRC will be around for a long time, but much in the same way as CDs and Vinyl. IRCv3 have made some improvements to the protocol, but it’s too little too late IMHO. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- eskimo_dev · 2019-08-05 19:12 Honestly, with warez dying out IRC is better than ever. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Borginjo · 2019-08-05 19:23 Agree. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- jherazob · 2019-08-05 19:49 https://i.imgur.com/30OXNeu.gif ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ISpewVitriol · 2019-08-05 22:23 I do keep an active ZNC session open on a VPS and log in from an IRC client from time-to-time, but Discord has a lower bar of entry and therefore has a lot more users which is what matters for chat rooms to be any fun. IRC isn’t dead and will be continue to be around, but it’s limitations make it a hard sell to new folks who just want to chat and already have a FaceBook profile and don’t see the point of caring about privacy on Discord. On IRC I participate in a few groups that are related to my lifestyle, and some programming groups specifically #R on freenode. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jaladhjin · 2019-08-06 01:18 IRC is vibrant for the older generation of what used to be young people.. 30s on up.. It kinda shows how unwilling younger folks are to learn anything.. since Discord is so much simpler.. Skype.. Slack.. And I for one am glad.. I want the privacy & to avoid the "guys how do I use this?" sort of people that can just click a link & join other groups to do just that. I wouldn't call it dead.. just for a different sort of community. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2019-08-06 03:04 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- antdude · 2019-08-06 11:09 My old cyberfriends and I still use IRC in private for mostly chats and sometimes turn based games from rbots. We don't like the bloated and slow GUI chat collaborations like in Slack, Discord, Cisco Spark/Webex Team, etc. IRC 4ever! ;) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- antdude · 2019-08-06 11:10 What did it say since it was nuked? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- notrox · 2019-08-06 13:02 It basically said, once Discord is finished selling users data, irc will still be here. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- antdude · 2019-08-06 17:39 IRC 4ever! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ilovethosedogs · 2019-08-10 23:43 IRC standard needs to be updated yesterday. Something more decentralized, P2P, with a shiny outer layer. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ilovethosedogs · 2019-08-10 23:43 How so? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Lucaszecat · 2019-08-11 04:22 Did you try Gotham Irc Network ? Check it on netsplit.de ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DeeMTL514 · 2019-08-21 04:36 I personally got fed up with social medias and all the crap that all of you already know. Came back to IRC after 14 years absence and I am having a blast on irc.gotham.chat with the sole purpose of gathering active IRC users and so far it's been working very well. Why IRC? Not owned by a corporation, open source. IRC is not as strong as before simply because paid advertising took over and noone advertises IRC networks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- whiterabbitQ42 · 2019-08-22 08:58 >Why IRC? Not owned by a corporation, open source. IRC is not as strong as before simply because paid advertising took over and noone advertises IRC networks. Yes is exactly why I took interest in it as well! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2019-09-04 05:24 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- DeeMTL514 · 2019-09-13 20:52 See ya around! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2022-03-15 23:27 Hasn't everyone moved to Matrix? I personally use the Cinny client on my laptop, and a modified Element client on my phone.