What do you use IRC for? reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:07 Hi all, ​ I've never been an IRC user but would like to learn more about it, I'm curious as to what people use it for? Are there communities you can join? What are the benefits of using it rather than other methods of communication? ​ Many thanks in advance :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MatanzaCueto · 2021-12-21 23:10 For chatting ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:12 What are the benefits of using IRC to talk, rather than, say, Discord for example? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AlfredoVignale · 2021-12-21 23:23 IRC is pretty much the original online chat. All here other ones (Discord, Slack, etc) are just fancier versions of IRC. Most even still use IRC commands….even Microsoft Teams supports ITC commands. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2021-12-21 23:23 All my chats are in IRC. It's mostly tech stuff on topical channels and social channels/communities that spun off from these channels and don't have much in common anymore. I prefer it over other protocols, first because that's where the communities I like are; but also because I get to choose a client that suits me. With other protocols or platform, like Matrix/Discord/Slack, you only get to use the one interface. I'd be fine with Jabber too in that regard. And finally, closed platforms like Discord or Slack are a big no for me, because using them means you entirely depend on the goodwill of a single company who is in it to extract money from its users; whereas IRC is an open standard, and IRC networks are usually hosted by nonprofits and/or people you get to know personally. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2021-12-21 23:26 A little-known fact: [Twitch Chat is backed by IRC](https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/guide). It has [a bunch of proprietary extensions](https://dev.twitch.tv/docs/irc/tags), but it's still actual IRC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MatanzaCueto · 2021-12-21 23:27 None actually iam just using it for 20+ years. Hard to tell why maybe because it's old school. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- snowice0 · 2021-12-21 23:28 chatting ---------------------------------------------------------------------- titioitit · 2021-12-21 23:36 I'm a younger person using it- I started in around 2008 and continued using it because it exposed me to how computers really worked. It was really fun when I was really into it and helped admin a server; and was the first time I had a reason to read and write code/scripts. ​ Continued use is honestly largely nostalgia factor, but if it works and there are people to talk to then there's no reason to stop using a form of communication- IMO. Especially because you can identify a community and how likely you are to enjoy being there off of its channel name and motd. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:37 Thank you! I'm interesting in python programming and am taking computer science in university at the moment - do you have any recommendations for good channels I could join to dip my toe into it? :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:37 I had no idea! Thank you :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:37 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- deepend_tilde · 2021-12-21 23:38 I run a service and the main way our users and admins communicate is over a irc chat network that we have created around the community. (Tilde servers for anyone that knows what that is) Other then half ass mobile app support IRC is the way to go. Most apps that aren’t complete crap you pay monthly for. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-21 23:39 That sounds really great, do you have any channels you could recommend? That's exactly the sort of thing I'd love to be a part of ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2021-12-21 23:47 Well the classic answer is to look for the channel with the obvious name on Libera.Chat (formerly freenode), ie. #python on irc.libera.chat ; there is probably one in your language if you aren't a native English speaker, eg. #python-fr in French, #python-it in Italian, etc. And there is #python-offtopic to chat about non-Python stuff with the Python community, it's a typical thing to do. Libera also have some generic channels like ##chat or ##programming, though personally I'm not a fond of communities as large as these. Finally, you can search for channels directly, see https://libera.chat/guides/findingchannels You can also check if your univ/country has a student network or channel, though it may be hard to find. eg. French university students made [RezoSup](https://www.rezosup.net/). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2021-12-21 23:49 I don't think so. Do you mean Slack? Slack used to have an IRC (and Jabber) gateway so you could access Slack teams from IRC clients. They dropped it once they were successful enough to shed their few remaining IRC users. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- titioitit · 2021-12-22 00:07 Sure, sorry for the late response! My favorites are all on libera chat now- in particular, #security, #java, and ##math ---------------------------------------------------------------------- clonedhuman · 2021-12-22 00:19 I like to use it to talk about poop. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wizardling · 2021-12-22 00:43 Random chat, tech support, gaming chat, chat for viewers of livestreams… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-22 00:46 I'm trying to join but I'm getting SASL authentication failed and I can't figure out why ---------------------------------------------------------------------- titioitit · 2021-12-22 01:09 [https://libera.chat/guides/sasl](https://libera.chat/guides/sasl) Probably related to your username being registered by someone else ---------------------------------------------------------------------- aftli · 2021-12-22 02:29 Makes perfect sense. IRC is a well-weathered protocol that has been developed for "chat". No reason not to use it. Your extensions (like that MS-Chat stuff of the past) and servers (like Twitch) can be proprietary, but, may as well use a well-known protocol to implement it all, even if you're implementing it from scratch. IRC itself is just a protocol. You can write your own implementation of it with some extensions. Most of what we know as "IRC clients" are just implementations of the IRC protocol and RFC(s). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- dMenche · 2021-12-22 04:20 Most of my current IRC activity is in a few small social channels where most of the users know each other. I am in a few dozen other channels but mostly just idle in them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fukitol- · 2021-12-22 07:51 The biggest benefits you could reap right now is that it's open source software so you can start up your own private server right now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-22 08:07 [deleted] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- hopingforabetterpast · 2021-12-22 10:32 /msg alis list python ---------------------------------------------------------------------- TReKiE · 2021-12-22 10:42 There are plenty but I'll give you my favourite - the clients. Not only do you get choice from hundreds, but they're all focused on the user and features, while being highly customizable with strong support for scripting. Meanwhile the Discord client is focused on getting you to buy Nitro subscriptions, stickers, boosts and whatever else. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Waterkloof · 2021-12-22 10:52 because with discord you are the product, in their walled garden. irc is a open standard where anyone can create/run a server and use whatever client they want. finally, there was talks awhile ago that microsoft was going to buy discord. Once a big corp buy discord expect change and a exodus of users. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- LameBMX · 2021-12-22 15:59 A fun challenge was to use telnet as an IRC client :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- agnostic-infp-neet · 2021-12-22 18:38 Chat roullette for actually lonely people with privacy that is not bloatware that can host downloads. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- BlackAle · 2021-12-22 22:35 Sometimes book downloads. I used to use it all the time for downloads, I even wrote a mIRC script called dccAssist many years ago to help automate the process. I keep meaning to update it to work properly with the latest mIRC / IRC, though I just don't use IRC much for downloading these days. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-23 09:18 Libera Chat and Freenode are two seperate things, Libera Chat was created after Andrew Lee took over Freenode. Former staff members of Freenode created Libera Chat. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- OverripePear · 2021-12-23 11:25 IRC just works. It's _very_ simple, _very_ resource-efficient and it is an open standard implemented by thousands of programs which are free for you to use. Discord has bloat like stickers, nitro and others which ultimately distract you at the end. IRC is free and you just chat. It just works. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ProgVal · 2021-12-23 13:46 I'm aware, but Libera.Chat is the same thing as freenode pre-2021 in all but name as far as I'm concerned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Polsaker · 2021-12-23 14:49 I like to use it to talk about piss. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [deleted] · 2021-12-23 21:11 That doesn't mean Libera Chat was freenode. It is completely seperate from Freenode. Sure it's similar, but it never was or is Freenode. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- timmyVERYverybored · 2022-01-09 15:52 👌 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- meticulous_jollier · 2022-02-03 02:45 What do you mean by using IRC for downloads, please? Does your favourite IRC server has some books or movies library, or there's some handy way to download stuff from an arbitrary resource over Internet via an IRC client? (Newbie here. Genuinely interested.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Yawhatnever · 2022-02-22 02:47 This isn't totally correct. The chat gateways speak a subset of the IRC protocol, but nothing behind them is an IRC network. They have the bare minimum for IRC clients to be able to connect (and bot developers to use an IRC library), but nothing more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- sir_kekes · 2022-03-11 16:32 chat, twitch chat and hosting dominions 5 games ---------------------------------------------------------------------- AssistanceAncient677 · 2023-10-07 11:41 Botnet