An open question ..

Scire · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 84 Location: IRC

All,

I have a question I cant seem to answer on my own so I'm hoping for some opinions from those that will speculate and reasons for those that participate in what I am addressing.

Here goes:
As I browse these forums for the past.. ~ week I've noticed a peculiar trend, I see thread after thread asking for people to link to servers. "you can link to my network" "come link to my net" "you can link your server here" etc, etc, .. now these offers tend to come from people with about 3 or less people on their entire network! And they want others to give up their name, services, etc to link to the server with 3 people on it ?? I don't understand why this is I mean 4 servers for 3 people is just a waste of capacity -- these people don't need more links they need more users to take up the capacity they already have imho.

1 last thing, if you are running an IRC server for a specific reason .. (ie gaming, cars, ect) then your wasting your time -- people who run an IRC should run it to run it with no purpose in mind, those that have specific uses for IRC should just get a channel on a general purpose IRC .. that's my opinion anyway

comments?

-Scire
IRC.sourcehack.org

katsklaw · Posted: Apr 27, 2006 2:47pm Post subject:

I agree on the first point. about the links. One problem though is that searchirc's active userbase consists of mainly ircops and admins. So offering links in the first place really seems pointless because most of the active members of the forums already have a network and asking for users is about as useful as saying you need more money. This is like trying to sell a specific type of car to a bunch of car dealers that are selling the same product. "why should I buy yours when I have 20 just like it of my own?". Granted, there are the occasional links made from advertising here .. but I feel the mass majority of the time the request for users/links is ignored.

I disagree about the pointlessness of having a themed network .. after all .. the worlds largest network is aimed at gamers .. plus many of the other networks larger than 10,000 users are themed as well, so having a "niche" is affective. There are 3500+ general, non-themed nets out there so to stand out it's virtually required to be specialized in a niche.

Scire · Newbie Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Posts: 84 Location: IRC

magpie · Idler Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Essex, UK

Some people seem to think that more links is always better. Unsurprisingly most of the networks offering or asking for links here disappear within days.

Drakx · Lurker Joined: 17 Feb 2006 Posts: 139

travishafer1992 · Lurker Joined: 31 Jul 2005 Posts: 107 Location: 127.0.0.1

Yes, I do agree with you.

DeMiNe0 · Posted: Apr 29, 2006 12:11am Post subject:

I perfer to stay in total control of my network. I run a community called Digital Toxicity. Right now we're utilizing 1 server for IRC. If we happen to need more servers, i'll more then likely buy another server and use that. I hate dealing with other people... especially *SOME* people on these type of sites just because it seems like they just up and leave.

katsklaw · Posted: Apr 29, 2006 5:26am Post subject:

lagmaster · Lurker Joined: 06 Nov 2004 Posts: 116

i gave up asking for new links ages ago when every link disappeared after a short space of time. i also gave up discussing about merges to other networks because they always fail (if you dont discuss it extensivly). i end talks to people who offer merges but refuse to budge when they want to keep their services.

right now, all the opers on my network bar one come from inside the network and all the servers and funded by myself, if i required an extra link, i would much rarther find someone on my network to link one up. the last one who done it linked 4x longer than links coming from sirc or another form.

for networks to survive you have to have a niche market. mine is general programming and ranges from 20-70 users, plus we have special events every so often so more users come. you just have to ask your users what they would like from the irc network and thats all the research you need to know.

~50% of my users have all registered on the network forum and at least 1/3 of them post several times a week on the forum.

you just have to desire something better and be skeptical to ensure you dont do anything wrong.

katsklaw · Posted: Apr 29, 2006 8:27am Post subject:

wise words lagmaster. I've found similar myself. I rarely look for anything on SIRC (no offense jason). When I do I set very strict standards on what I'll accept and I don't budge because I feel that anything less is of low quality.

PingBad · Posted: Apr 29, 2006 6:00pm Post subject:

magpie · Idler Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Essex, UK

This clearly demonstrates the dangers of outside hiring. ;)

Revolutionirc · none Joined: 13 Feb 2004 Posts: 23

ty and great post! i once had a net that wanted to "merge" i use that very loosly but w/e, 6 servers 20 some opers 5 users. we have 4 server maybe 16 opers and 2000 users. still at times i think we have too much but they wanted us to drop our name and drop our services so on. as u probly figured out they where linked for a few days and dropped like a prego date at prom but it is crazy how some of this shit is ran now days and every 15 y/o "im not knockin if u can do it then more power to u" w/ a few bucks and a shell can start a irc net and think they are on top of the world. well thats my addition to this. have a great nite.... _JaCE