Ask HN: Does anyone still use IRC?

Whatever OSS projects you use have channels on freenode. Keep those open all day and lurk, you'll be amazed how much you learn from osmosis. If someone comes by with an easy question, answer it and you'll have social karma to get help from others when you need it.

There's about 190* of us HN'ers in the #startups channel right now. <a href="http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/" rel="nofollow">http://ircstartups.pbworks.com/</a><p>*Maybe we're not all HN'ers, but darn close.

Yep. Freenode IRC. I lurk on about 25 channels, ranging from the local Linux User's Group channel, to the #startups channel (which draws a lot of HN'ers) to the channels for several programming languages I use, etc.<p>IRC is definitely alive and well, especially on Freenode.

IRC is an indispensable part of my work. The team I'm on uses a private server for team discussions (works great when someone is working remotely), and we also are in a few public channels on freenode. On freenode, I'm in #openstack to talk about cloud object storage infrastructure, #eventlet to learn more about it, and #cloudfiles for Rackspace product-specific questions. #openstack has been pretty active in the last couple of weeks (since we released the code) and has been pretty good for helping people who are learning about the systems. Internally, I can't imagine not using IRC. If I choose to work remotely, or if I'm working odd hours, it becomes a very important tool to keep up with what the other devs are doing.<p>To stay in the channel when I'm not online, I use an IRC bouncer (znc running on a slice, for me). When I log back in on my computer, I have the conversation I "missed" played back for me. I know other people that use irssi in a screen session to accomplish something similar.

We use Freenode, #grooveshark is an open channel for random techie users who want to talk directly to developers (or each other), and people working on 3rd party extensions/add ons to Grooveshark.<p>We have other internal invite-only channels for coordinating with external developers on internal projects. We also have github spamming a channel now whenever changes to a repo that a lot of people are coordinating on get pushed.<p>The #redis channel saved our asses at least once when Pieter Noordhuis wrote a script to help us with a particular issue we were having. :) And the #facebook channel has been a useful resource as well.<p>I was wondering if anyone here uses IRCcat: <a href="http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm" rel="nofollow">http://www.metabrew.com/article/how-we-use-irc-at-lastfm</a> I know flickr also uses it and it seems like it would be insanely useful to have notifications about all kinds of things going into various channels. I know flickr also uses it: <a href="http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/" rel="nofollow">http://velocityconference.blip.tv/file/2284377/</a><p>Haven't spent much time working on it but so far the bot gets kicked for flooding immediately. May only be a problem because we're using freenode for testing. Long term want to run our own IRC server, but for testing it was easier to just use freenode...

imho great deal of IRC's greatness comes from irssi, an awesome client for it. It has a learning curve though, especially if you are not familiar with screen (or tmux). While you can run it locally, it really shines when you run it in a server inside a screen session, connected via ssh.<p>Each phone I have had in the past 5 years has had a ssh client available, so I could just attach to my session and have the exactly same client available wherever I go.<p>I use irc mainly to keep in touch with old friends. I'm also running a small non-profit, and we use irc extensively in internal communications. And occasionally I go to a projects channel on freenode if I happen to have a question or something, the people tend to be quite useful (as long as you ask smart questions and be polite). Lurked some time at ##c++, from which I feel that I learned a lot from.

We (developers and sysadmins) use it at the big corporation where I work. Keeping irssi open in screen (GNU screen) means I can connect remotely from anywhere with a single session, and it doesn't appear when I'm focused on something else in a different screen session. Each project gets its own channel. It's way better for collaboration than having to match schedules for each little question.<p>It's also very helpful for asking specific questions about OSS projects, as mentioned. The people actually developing projects hang out in IRC, not at StackOverflow.

I hang out on a private IRC server with about 15 folks, mostly old friends of mine working in various parts of the industry. It's primarily a place to talk about geeky topics and complain about work.

I telecommute, and most of my day-to-day conversations go over IRC. My IRC client has ~50 open windows at the moment, but less than half of them are actual Open Source channels, many of them are direct queries with the user. And thanks to screen, I never log off and don't miss discussions, someone trying to get in touch, commit and release messages to -dev channels, and so on.<p>If it suits one's style, it's an easy and nice way to stay linked to one or more communities.

irc is still the only way to meet "the guy on the street" online. that's mainly why it still survives, despite its quirks.<p>i don't know what you mean by "good" server/channels, but let me say this:<p>back when irc was _the_ chatting medium, all the low-iq trolls that today are on the web were on irc. so the channels were ruled by a very strict dictatorship. you needed to be very lucky (or meet with real-world friends) to have a decent chat.<p>now that the trolls and other offenders largely moved out to the http space, i think irc has gotten its "underground" status back. this means you'll most probably find whatever you're after inside large networks. for example, if you want to know a quick fact about norway, go to #norway in undernet and shoot. somebody will reply. you need a python tip, #python in freenode is where some python gurus hang out.<p>i personally admire freenode for having managed to establish the "showing op status is not polite" netiquette. you can see channels with hundreds of users where not one op has shown up for ages. that was not easy to imagine not so long ago :)

People with tiling window managers seem to IRC a lot.

Answering the question directly, enough people still use IRC that axod has built a sustainable business from a web-based IRC client (mibbit.com).

At the company where I work (a web startup with 100 and some odd employees, half of which are the engineers) EVERYONE uses IRC. The engineers, yes, all the teams have their own channels, general channels, etc.<p>But so do the support staff, the business folks, marketing, etc. Its amazing.

Of course. Mostly for private communication with friends and with BitlBee gateway. But it seems that many OSS project have freenode channels, that are very active, and not only that. There's very active #haskell channel on freenode, #xmonad, there are various fedora channels, there's an unofficial channel for students of the faculty where I study now, even channels like #lgbtreddit.<p>I don't see any decline of IRC use in any foreseeable future.

Presently I'm in 12 channels on 7 servers. IRC fills a need for "semi-synchronous" communication in group form for me. part crowdsourcing, part water cooler gossip, it's entertaining and educational. It's real-time enough to satisfy the feeling that, as a teleworker, someone else is there, but not so real-time that I must devote my full attention (like a phone or video chat).<p>The big benefit to IRC for me is its ease of setup (apt-get install ircd-hybrid), end-to-end ownership of the communication protocol and infrastructure (ability to ensure privacy and anonymity, if necessary or expected), ease of extension and long-term stability. Or, put another way, "my server, my client, our channel, my friends, our bots." good times.<p>Disclaimer: I'm one of the (former?) long-time ircd-hybrid developers. I started a PhD thesis on education through IRC studying its social dynamics, but am considering dropping the effort.

I dip my toes into IRC now and again, but keep getting frustrated by the learning curve. Yes, I get the basics of joining channels and chatting. I can see that there's a ton of efficiencies IRC power users have figured out that I haven't.<p>Any good resources out there for climbing the learning curve to journeyman IRCer?

I have run my own irc server and been connected for over 10 years essentially in one way or another.<p>Most of my online friends gather there and idle / jump into chat when it's going on.<p>It's been one of the most pleasant constants in my digital life. An unmatched technology for keeping in touch with geographically challenged friends.

irc.mozilla.org, it's a mainstay for most discussions and coordination for all our projects (IT, webdev, firefox, etc).<p>#webdev, #firefox, #amo (addons.mozilla.org), #labs<p>Over half our employees and all our volunteers are remote, so IRC is how we stay in touch for the most part.

#kernel-panic on freenode for good Linux and tons of other good discussion. Been there for years. Active right now with 34 people. But pretty much every major FOSS project has an IRC channel, usually on freenode. Every programming language, framework, etc. is represented there. I get tons of good help there and help others as well. IRC is definitely very much alive. I rue the advent of modern one-on-one IM as it really ruins teamwork. A few months ago we threw up our own openfire jabber server and required everyone in the company to be present and it has really boosted awareness of what is going on and replaced the "hallway conversations" we were missing from our distributed development environment.

There's a whole bunch of us active on #hackers-india (irc.oftc.net). Drop in sometime :)

Yup. My company uses it amongst the devs to stay in touch. I also lurk on #nodejs.

IRC is one of the primary communication tools for Wikipedia and its sister projects. The community is so distributed, coordinating meetings using UTC time becomes second nature.<p>There are dozens and dozens of channels. This page attempts to track just some of them.<p><a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels" rel="nofollow">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC/Channels</a><p>And even the non-technical staffers at the Wikimedia Foundation hold "office hours" on IRC from time to time.<p><a href="http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours" rel="nofollow">http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours</a>

I use bitlbee to gate all of my IM networks to a single IRC channel which I then point X-Chat at. I also ocassionaly jump onto freenode to get real time support for various open source packages.

Hell yes. If you don't use IRC you're missing out.<p>I hang out wherever I'm learning stuff (#clojure atm), and keep logs of many channels so I can search them later.

If you're looking for a good tech community / channel to hang out in, I can recommend two. These channels are best suited for programmer / coder types who enjoy hanging out and chatting about tech stuff.<p>irc.darkscience.org/#darkscience irc.oftc.net/#neverfear<p>And their respective websites:<p><a href="http://darkscience.org/" rel="nofollow">http://darkscience.org/</a> <a href="http://neverfear.org/" rel="nofollow">http://neverfear.org/</a>

We've had a lot of great support requests and chats with customers on IRC (Freenode, #newrelic).<p>Like others have mentioned, it's great to have a few rooms open for projects/services you care about, where you can check in every so often and read the backlog. While some rooms are archived, I've never read them that way, but keeping IRC idling in the background can be a great way to keep tabs on things.

I hang out on 3 networks. I am on Freenode for a few different projects I support and associated chat channels that I've been at for years. I am on StarLink, a small network, for the two channels associated with Alpha &#38; Omega Ministries. I am on EFNet for one specific channel of a website.<p>I also use a local bitlebee server for instant messaging.<p>All in irssi with screen on a local server in my house.

Yeah, but I try to limit it to 10 channels for as to not get overwhelmed (I have a habit of wanting to check every time something new is said, plus I need room for bitlbee sessions).<p>I mostly idle on local user groups and language/framework-specific channels. I rarely say anything, but just keeping an eye on the conversations has taught me a lot of stuff I wouldn't have known otherwise.

Another often overlooked use for IRC is as a side channel during events. In conferences, we'll all be in a room, on IRC commenting on talks. During the BP oil spill, a channel (#theoildrum) had 500+ people, including some with oilfield experience, discussing the live ROV feeds, as well as scanning to find lots of ROV feeds that were not visible to the general public.

#startups on Freenode. I use IRC for collaborating with my colleagues (we're a distributed company). EFNet.<p>shameless plug:<p>Check out jIRCii. <a href="http://jircii.dashnine.org" rel="nofollow">http://jircii.dashnine.org</a>. It runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux. It's (in my opinion) the perfect blend of mIRC and BitchX. It's scriptable too with over 70 scripts contributed.

Freenode, Notably #Startups but also the different subject areas (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Jquery etc)

I was pretty active in the suse project with bug testing and whatnot for a while, so that got me on freenode. I lurk about 15 channels there.<p>I'm on two private networks with about 5 channels between them and I lurk on Undernet out of nostalgia. I'll hit up Efnet if I'm looking for security related topics.

I use IRC every day. I use it to work with others on opensource projects and many of my past interns and I use it to stay in touch daily, creating a very helpful network. My current interns can get help from not only ne, but people who used to work for me. It's a great networking tool.

I'm in #slicehost on Freenode most of the day. If you want smart people + plenty of humor, come on over.

#startups on freenode and a small private channel with 10 or so friends on IRCNet. LimeChat powered!

At my previous company we had an IRC room for the devs (and whoever else wanted to join) which had a bot that reported on updates to certain feeds within the company, it was pretty useful and it's not distracting at all. I used irssi+screen, the bot was a Supybot.

At my previous workplace, a web devshop, we had a company channel where everyone hanged, even the CEO (when he could). Plus project-channels where we could discuss details of each project, and where we invited clients and partners that used IRC.

I just got on the #reddit channel @ irc.freenode.net the other day and learnt quite a bit (about profits in the medical marijuana industry) by just hanging out there. I actually got on IRC to see if there really was anyone who still used IRC.

IRC is one of the best ways to communicate. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to be taught.<p>Sometimes the best experience can be had by just reading what other people write.<p>For example... Erica Sadun is in #iphonedev and #ipaddev on Freenode. Know who she is? :)

I recommend running <a href="http://www.bitlbee.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.bitlbee.org/</a> and using irssi not only for IRC but for IM as well. For IRC I get a lot out of #pocoo on Freenode and use a private company ircd.

Yes, you can find me on #gllug (Greater London Linux User Group), #amahi (Home Server), #greyhole (folder duplication a la WHS but using Samba) all on irc.freenode.net<p>And of course irc.quakenet.org #|HSO| and #fidelitas :)

I spend most of my time idling in #riak on irc.freenode.net<p>I use an IRC bouncer too.

I use IRC all day long. Every day.<p>Freenode. If you're into perl, they have an IRC server of their own.<p>I have been working remotely for the past year or so and we use it to keep the team in touch with one another.

Every day at work. I can't recommend any channels to you though.

Freenode is excellent. As far as channels, these are the ones that I particularly like:<p><pre><code> ##programming ##compsci (a bit quiet of a channel) #emacs #haskell</code></pre>

IRCnet used to be fun to spend the teenage days. (late nineties and the beginning of century, hehe)<p>EFNet has tremendous communities devoted to music<p>Freenode is go-to for open-source software chatrooms.

I lurk on Freenode on various project and language channels.

Our company uses #disqus on freenode (private) for development and general chatter.<p>I'd like to change the channel for internal chat and use #disqus for public use though.

irc is very helpful when interacting with people who don't speak English as their first language, or have a very thick, difficult-to-understand accent.

Yes.<p>#rubymn (Minnesota ftw)<p>#railsbridge (if you're interested in ruby on rails; the <a href="http://railsbridge.com" rel="nofollow">http://railsbridge.com</a> community)

I am currently idling on:<p>freenode/gearman<p>freenode/memcached<p>freenode/drizzle<p>freenode/mongodb<p>freenode/mysql<p>freenode/phpc<p>freenode/hiphop-php<p>freenode/facebook<p>freenode/twitterapi<p>freenode/jquery<p>YMMV.

I am always idle on IRC, still love it

I run irssi on screen all the time

Look at all these comments! Clearly the answer is "nope, nobody uses IRC anymore" ;)

Totally. I help out on the #ubuntu channel, and get help on the #python channel.<p>I avoid #politics

I open Colloquy to get help or to see what the cool guys are talking about.

Of course.

Yes, for instance, a lot of haskellers are on #haskell on freenode.

Freenode baby Freenode

On Freenode: #django, #startups, #python, etc.

The habit was fading. Thanks for reminding.

Not on iPhone they aren't :-(<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1561306</a>

Does World of Warcraft count?:)

Hell yeah. All day every day.

freenode for channels about opensource projects undernet for goofing off

#webdev on EFnet

on freenode: #android-dev #webos-internals

STILL use IRC? IRC is in heavier use today than ever before! Not only has the amount of networks (and servers per network) exploded the past 10 years, but so has also the global amount of users per network and IRC as a whole.

I pretty much live on freenode in all the dev channels, but I keep the terminal on a fairly isolated place so that I don't get distracted. Keep a shell on my linode, /lastlog to check to see if anybody was lookin' for me.

freenode #jquery is pretty much the place to be