IRC
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During my commute a few days ago, I read about chat.sr.ht. It's a
service that simplifies using IRC. As a teenager, I've hoped on and
off from IRC channels without ever fully appreciating the
technology. It was mostly a mean to ask people about a programming
question, get the answer, and move on. Fast forward to now, I can't
help but notice how communities are built on closed platforms like
Discord. And while such platforms are incredible from a software
and user experience standpoint, they're closed. You can't host your
own Discord and invite your friends. We don't control their pricing
model, nor their financial stability. We can't know what will
become of the platform a year from now, 10 years from now.
Of course all I'm saying is to take with a grain of salt. A
platform being closed isn't necessarily a bad thing. And it's a
slippery slope to think that it will lead to it being different
than what it is today in a few years. However, that was enough to
make me want to dive into IRC again. Now that I found out about
chat.sr.ht, I had a good reason to!
Discord makes everything simple for the user: connect to their app,
and you're automatically connected to all your servers
automatically. You get a full history of what you've missed, you
can see notifications simply. You can also receive email digests of
what happened. That's... not the case on IRC. While on Discord you
have one account, on IRC, you'll need one per network you connect
to. Which is often the first hurdle: sending the right command to
NickServ so that you can get in. But hey, at least your in. After
joining a few channels and speaking for some time, you decide to
log off only to realize the next day that you have no history of
what you missed while you were away. Perhaps someone answered to
your message? Perhaps someone share something interesting? Maybe
you live on a different timezone than most and your style is mostly
async? No history of messages in the channel is a big issue. That
alone was the main reason I struggled to get into IRC.
Then comes the bouncer. Or BNC (Bounced Network Connection). It's a
software that acts as a proxy between your client and the IRC
networks. Essentially, it connects for you and sits on channels
indefinitely, capturing logs and offering services. That's what
chat.sr.ht offers, and it's what made me excited to try it: I could
finally see all the messages I missed.
With my current limited knowledge of the IRC ecosystem, it feels
like a BNC brings the whole IRC experience much closer to some of
the modern alternatives. That's why I like chat.sr.st. It packages
the BNC with a simple front-end client and I can access it from
anywhere, even from my phone. I feel like it's a great step in
making IRC more accessible for a less tech-oriented audience.
Anyway, if you also start with IRC, or even if you've been doing it
for a while, feel free to hop to our little channel: #midnight-pub
on libera.chat. We're not a lot, and some of us might not be
directly connected, but our bouncers will surely be there! ;)
