IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc Discord/Slack/etc proves that people want IRC, but only if there's a lot of other stuff bolted on to make it pop.
Plain-IRC is a milkshake which will bring precisely zero boys to the yard in this, the Year of our Glorb Twenty Twenty Whatever.
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc Thank you for saying this.
People complain about various aspects of, say, the usability gap between Mastodon / The Fediverse and what Twitter used to be, and they raise a variety of good points, but on every one of those axes the gap between Discord/Slack and IRC absolutely dwarfs them.
I get that it's beloved of a vocal minority, but they are largely people whose lives have literally grown around IRC! Ivy asking sun-starved ground-cover to just climb a tree already.
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc as a long-time IRC user I endorse this take
-
@mcc I think there are some _characteristics_ about IRC that are definitely desirable (being based on a protocol, not tied to a specific service etc) and that's probably what people think when they think they want IRC
@radgeRayden all of the "common" alternatives are protocol based too (matrix, xmpp). My impression is that it's mostly nostalgia. @mcc
-
@vampiress You know what I like, is being able to close my laptop lid without leaving the conversation
@mcc @vampiress who the heck had a laptop in 1998?
(I know they technically existed long before but I’m pretty sure they were only for rich ̶w̶a̶n̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶ business people back then)
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc
I think IRC is good for a very specific style of ephemeral communication, but certainly not as a Discord replacement: that's closer to a web forum (although not as good as a web forum a lot of the time for text communication) combined with a videoconferencing utility... -
@mcc as a long-time IRC user I endorse this take
-
@mcc honestly I think 1998 could have done better
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc @mayintoronto All systems are great until you add people.
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc so mean...
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc IRC feels like it was great when people had only fixed devices. but uh...... no push notifs, no file upload support integrated, no integrated media, no reacts....
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
I don't know, I really miss IRC. I would go back to it in a heartbeat.
-
@mcc IRC feels like it was great when people had only fixed devices. but uh...... no push notifs, no file upload support integrated, no integrated media, no reacts....
-
"Just set up a bounce server" If I'm going to the bother how about I set up a fucking Conduwuit instance
@mcc oh why
-
@EndlessMason @mcc I'll take precisely zero lol. I like push, it's great when you're blind, so you know you've got messages when you're in another window
-
IRC is bad, and the reason every time a new chat service collapses people seem to go "literally everywhere except IRC" is that "literally anything except IRC" is what people want
@mcc To be fair, IRC was made in 1988. I doubt they intended for it to last this long, but wow does it ever keep on kicking. It's so simple, open, and minimal that it's easy for any random person or company to keep a server going. It's absolutely lacking in practically every single amenity, so in the end, as one might expect, the only thing it truly has going for it is that sheer, utter, absolute reliability.
It's kind of sad that we don't have a modern equivalent: something reliable, minimal, and simple like that. I wonder if partially we have the whole move to centralization to blame.
(I do really wish that could be something like Matrix, but I know that it just isn't going to get there as things stand. Not even that specifically, just... something...)
-
@radgeRayden all of the "common" alternatives are protocol based too (matrix, xmpp). My impression is that it's mostly nostalgia. @mcc
@radgeRayden @pitbuster an interesting unique thing about IRC is you can participate in it with "no client", just a telnet program. Of course, good luck finding one of those.
-
@mcc @vampiress who the heck had a laptop in 1998?
(I know they technically existed long before but I’m pretty sure they were only for rich ̶w̶a̶n̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶ business people back then)
@vampiress @itgrrl that's why it was a good product fti for 1998.
However in 1999…
-
@mcc IRC feels like it was great when people had only fixed devices. but uh...... no push notifs, no file upload support integrated, no integrated media, no reacts....
@freya irccloud adds a lot! If we're all going to become dependent on irccloud we can become dependent on mattermost or something
-
It's a great product fit for 1998 but it is not 1998
@mcc gosh I wish it was ... Can't we you know pretend it's 1998 for a while? Who wants 2026 anyways?
