IRC

#freebsd on libera.chat is probably the first place.

https://wiki.freebsd.org/IRC/Channels

There is currently 256 people on there. If no luck, then mailing lists could be an option.
(Interestingly OpenBSD's IRC is much more populated (700 people))

If you meant which IRC client to use, then the following could be options:
 
hitest said:
… Hexchat is discontinued.
Click to expand...

True, but still my client of choice, on the increasingly rare occasions when I use IRC.

Alain De Vos said:
… nobody uses it anymore ?
Click to expand...

A few months ago I wrote about IRC suffering from gaps in communication. I don't run a log server to plug gaps in services.

This morning I wrote to a Project-provided email list, someone responded in Mastodon (not on the list) with a description of a discussion in IRC of which there's probably no record. Far from ideal.
 
balanga I remember in the early 2000's the #freebsd channel, I don't remember the server, was full of forum people. Most used the same user names on the forum and the channel. I haven't spent much time on the libera.chat channel, the few times I did, despite having lots of people there, it seemed pretty quiet. But I'm sure if you went on there and just lurked (not saying anything, just watching what others say), you'd soon find some forum people there.

Alain De Vos, I wouldn't say it's dead at all. It's still a good place to go for help.
But this is just one aging guy's opinion.
 
Alain De Vos said:
Is IRC not obsolete ? As an old way. And nobody uses it anymore ?
Click to expand...
It depends on which channel we are talking about, some are very active and some aren't. I think that you are a Gentoo guy, check their channel it's far from dead as well as OpenBSD and VoidLinux for example.

I've tried FreeBSD various channels for a while sadly it's really quiet most of the time.
For me IRC means interactivity in real time, but that doesn't mean anything when you have to wait for hours at best (more often it's days) before getting a response, in that case IRC loses all its interest.
At this point they should merge all channels together or 2 top, it's not like there were so many messages on screen that people can't keep up, once you hide the bot, it's silent.
 
fernandel, that one makes me nostalgic. I think it was my first non gui client, I don't remember if I used it on Windows, or some kind of Linux, or maybe FreeBSD, as it was (for me) wayyy back when I first started getting into computers. I was probably on AOL at the time. I think, at the time, I was probably most on martial arts channels. Wow, that was a long time ago. Before libera, I think the cool one was freenode.
 
From home ircII never really worked. Is it due to natd?

And does irc use now ssl?

And as far as I remember there were many variations, is there now a standard?
 
gotnull said:
I've tried FreeBSD various channels for a while sadly it's really quiet most of the time.
For me IRC means interactivity in real time, but that doesn't mean anything when you have to wait for hours at best (more often it's days) before getting a response, in that case IRC loses all its interest.
Click to expand...
I also have that experience, but I thought it is because the client does not work, a technical problem.
 
1716706083556.png
hruodr said:
… does irc use now ssl? …
Click to expand...

Some servers do.

Pictured, selected (preferred): one that does.
 

Attachments

  • 1716706547318.png
    1716706547318.png
    80.3 KB · Views: 20
Cath O'Deray said:
Do you mean, merge all FreeBSD-related channels (linked from multiple pages in the wiki)?
Click to expand...
Basically yes, there are 20 official channels listed, even more unofficial ones.
Separate channels were useful when activity was higher than nowadays I suppose, but realistically today with the lower activity it feels completely inappropriate and overkill.
You have to open multiple channels in the hope to see few "real" messages.
So yes scaling down the channel number would not hurt IMO, I think 1 or 2 channels with a bit of activity would be better than 20 silent channels.

Of course there are A LOT of people online but how many of them are just connected through a bouncer? Should we consider this as real activity?
I have nothing against bouncer though, but referring to people online isn't a relevant statistic with IRC since you can use services to monitor channels.

If people have to wait hours or day/s to get a response they just move to the forum which is more appropriate, and IRC channels remain inactive, yep we run in full circle.

hruodr said:
I also have that experience, but I thought it is because the client does not work, a technical problem.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of users share the same experience and sadly that just push them away.
 
I don't remember asking a question on #freebsd. I feel as if I have, and got an answer in a few minutes, but it might just be my faulty memory.
 
gotnull said:
… 1 or 2 channels with a bit of activity would be better than 20 silent channels. …
Click to expand...

The absence of threading is bad enough.

Discarding other approaches to organisation would create a mash (non-social mash, alongside social) that I would abandon altogether. YMMV, I don't foresee things merging or scaling down in the near future.

If a room is quiet, no longer of interest: simply leave it :)

/part
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top