chat dieing off

youngblood · Newbie Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 66

well from what ive seen chat is going extinct these days noone wants to chat any more so many ppl making networks but noone chats on the ones that already exist now my opinion is try to keep the ones we have already why make a new one when there are lots out there that is good to chat on thats just the way i feel good luck to all that makesthere own network

NSA-AcidBath · Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 76

youngin.... haha.

99% of the admins that use searchirc im sure, have been trying to find a way to make this happen..

Well guess what, IRC networks wont stop being created, because theres just to many people out there that want the power & or have rivals, bad luck on other networks, whatever the case is.

With the IRC community/economy being so f'd up.. IRC will surely fail and fall off the map eventually. To many nets, not enough people using them.

Jason · Posted: Nov 11, 2008 7:16am Post subject:

IRC became popular during the gulf war. IRC is also free. If anything, troubled times might help IRC. It's not like IRC is a luxury item that people can't afford to use anymore.

PingBad · Posted: Nov 11, 2008 8:14am Post subject:

but covering power/internet bills to be able to be on IRC?

zeke · Idler Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 334

My thoughts exactly, pingbad. At the same time power is one of the last things to go, and wireless access points abound in a number of places. Even if people are downgrading to dial-up in lieu of terminating their connections altogether, this may be what IRC needs. Keep in mind however, that services like AIM, Yahoo and MSN messengers (among others) are also free, and some also allow multiple people to be involved in the conversation.

NSA-AcidBath · Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 76

So how are these called "trouble times" Jason? Its not troubled, its overwhelming.. There are a countless number of IRC networks out there, small & big. The big ones are still alive because of there size, but they worked many years to stay that way..

On the other hand, the small networks that are created and then dissapear, arent helping the IRC economy any at all. Atleast I don't think so.

There are alot of sad excuses for networks, EX: hacker/script kiddie networks. (Horrible waste of domain space)

All we need to keep IRC afloat, and stop all this madness, is by getting rid of these people that thing they need a new network for everything they do. Such as, masturbation! EX:

Hey guys i like to jerkoff, so im going to create a network so everyone that likes ot jerkoff can chat about theyre wanking stories..

Its all the same, the network comes, 3 months later, distant memory, thats what we need to get rid of.

PingBad · Posted: Nov 12, 2008 1:47am Post subject:

Hrm, hate to be the pooper - but it is said often on these forums about "wasted domain space"... but consider that your are merely leasing a sudomain of either a tld (.com, .net, et al.) or cctld (.co.uk, .com.au, etc) and that when the lease expires all information held about that domain is lost.

Sidenote: i remember one network (well, the staff of which anyway) that thought they had such a shit-hot idea for a network, didn't do much planning in the "does this kind of network already exist?" department and prepurchased 10 yrs worth of 5 domains (domain.com, domain.net, domain.org, etc) - got the hosting setup, put the word out... and disbanded a month later when the only people visiting the network were themselves. Amusing in hindsight, but (effectively) buying 50 yrs worth of domain to only use it for a month would hurt the pocket a bit much, eh?

Anarchy · Posted: Nov 12, 2008 7:48am Post subject:

ha ha ha ha that is great. owned Razz

Telume · none Joined: 06 Jul 2007 Posts: 46

This might sound like me being a bit of an optimist but, I don't think IRC's really shrinking. It's more like its in a period of transition and consolidation. It's not growing but it's not shrinking.

Most people think IRC is shrinking because the "Big 4" are shrinking. The reason they're shrinking though is because there are more networks now. If you look at american politics, there are the "Big 2" (Democrats and Republicans) and several minor parties, you can think of the Big 4 as the Republicans and Democrats and the smaller networks as minor parties.

Every election the minor parties steal some votes from the bigger parties, and just like this smaller networks get more and more users from the big nets due to the growing dissatisfaction with them. After all who would want to be on a network where the opers don't really give three craps if you're getting attacked and your channel's getting taken over?

After all, the small networks have more of a "community" feel to them rather than a "oh that's user #39438" feel like big nets do. Of course, smaller is not always better as several people ALREADY pointed out in this topic.

Anarchy · Posted: Nov 13, 2008 9:26pm Post subject:

tulume is right, and that servers are starting to become easier to run. so everyone is trying to do it.

zeke · Idler Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 334

As a result the medium is slowly declining in total users, however. I don't know if Jason has images of the networks/users counts going back further than a week or a month, but I'd be interested to see if there is a real trend either static or down-turning as both sides of this argument believe.

Of course, not all new networks are being listed on SearchIRC or similar sites, so that may account for a small number of users (I'd bet it's less than 1000 total) - especially those that don't sit on multiple networks.

PingBad · Posted: Nov 14, 2008 2:06am Post subject:

I agree with zeke in the sense that not every user and their party who go off on their own to form a network of their own join SearchIRC's indexing service (not every IRC user is aware of this site, sadly...) - so it appears that the global number of IRC users may be shrinking, but in fact could very possibly be rising.

The answer may never be truly known until it is too late, however.

NSA-AcidBath · Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 76

I still dont see the relevance to my previous post pingy lol..

Its a waste of domain space, that domain could be used in better places for sure..

Buying 50 years worth the domains, and dying off, is a waste of space, all of those domains will still be active for atleast a years time. Throw them to someone who actually has a chance at surviving.

PingBad · Posted: Nov 14, 2008 4:00am Post subject:

or let them expire for someone else to use - domain leases don't come with refunds, so you may as well make the most of the term you have them for.

NSA-AcidBath · Newbie Joined: 06 Nov 2008 Posts: 76

Even for a domain to expire like i said above (open yer eyes pingy) it would take atleast a year to expire...... thats alot of wasted time for someone who could be on the verge of creating a successful network