Doesn't look too promising

darkwarrior · Lurker Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 194

You know, I remember about 10 years ago when I was still learning things. I stumbled across a free service website most of you might know of, CJB.net ... It provided free subdomain URLs, chat rooms for your website (using IRC and a web chat client of course), and many other things. I eventually found an associated website called mircx.com , which had some interesting IRC scripts, though I had no clue what they were at the time. On the front page of that site was one of them web chat clients for IRC.

I frequented it, as I found it to be a nice place to chat. Eventually some of the regular IRCers in that channel took me under their wing and told me where to download mIRC and how to connect to that network. That is the very first IRC Network I arrived at, where I learned so much of the basics about IRC. I even remember the time one of them jokingly messed with me and gave me a script and told me where to put it. It allowed them to send commands to me and make me send messages to the channel and stuff...lol

After learning a lot about IRC there, I finally departed from my roots and went my own way to explore IRC even further. I wanted to learn more, and find out what else was out there in the IRC world. I found DALnet..

At DALnet, I wanted to contribute and get more involved. So I hung around in the DALnet help channel and helped when I could. I even found a free eggdrop bot service that provided bots for channels. I thought something like that was cool, so I wanted to start my own. I found out what TCL script they were using and found a version of the eggdrop for Windows and used it. Eventually they invited me to join them, so I did and I poured my heart and soul into it. I absolutely loved doing it, and it was something I was good at too!

I was then saddened one day when they told me they did not have the time to commit anymore and passed the ownership to me. They offered to continue hosting the bots and website though. Soon after, the service failed.

So I continued on in my exploration and ran into many friendly people, most of which were people from Pakistan. They welcomed me into their communities and it was probably one of the most pleasurable experiences I've had on IRC.

I later ran into some Americans who were trying to run a shell hosting service. They invited me to join them and their IRC network which only consisted of 10 people (all of which were the people trying to get it started). These guys have taught me everything I know about the linux operating system, advanced IRC stuff (scripting, being an ircop, etc).. I also learned a lot more from them than I ever would have on my own or from an education.

It was people like that who kept me returning to IRC for so many years. Once again, we all separated ways and I found another network that I have called home since then, up until around 2008. GamesNET, which later changed to GameSurge. Once again, I found myself getting into new hobbies and learning new things as well. Here I learned how to play Counter-Strike.. I also learned about Internet radio and how to DJ (using Shoutcast of course), and learned all about hosting game servers. I then started up a game server provider, using IRC as a means to promote it.

Without IRC, I feel like I wouldn't have learned so much as quick as I did, and most likely wouldn't have stayed so interested in computers and Internet. The people I have met through IRC were absolutely wonderful people.

These days, I find the networks I used to know and love are boring ghost towns now.. I look back and wish it was all still like it used to be, but I know that because of a constantly evolving world, people move on to new and better things and it won't ever return to what it used to be.

It's kind of like going through a heartbreaking breakup with your significant other, and is very saddening. What do you folks think? Do you think it is possible to somehow promote IRC again into what it used to be or even bigger and better, and how? Whatever would work, I'd have my hands in for contributing.

Badger09 · Newbie Joined: 25 Jan 2009 Posts: 90

I really wish we could make irc what it used to be many moons ago but i personaly think it is dieing out and im not sure anything will ever be able to lift it back up. I own my own network and try to provide a good place for everyone and anyone but its not as busy as im sure it would have been a while ago. I have also learned a great deal about all sorts via irc and agree, i prob wouldnt be as intrested in computers and things if it wasnt for it.

If you wanna try and get irc back up and as popular as it used to be tho then im also in for trying my hand at helping.

Nexus · Posted: Aug 01, 2010 6:01pm Post subject:

The reason that IRC is not what it used to be is because of the implementation of all the social networking sites. I have tried to implement all the social networking working sites as part of my IRC network. I think personally this is the only way we are going to get the acknowledgement from people to IRC again.

Ryan-DM · none Joined: 22 Apr 2004 Posts: 16

katsklaw · Posted: Aug 01, 2010 9:20pm Post subject:

sevoxx · none Joined: 01 Aug 2010 Posts: 22 Location: South Africa

True story

PingBad · Posted: Aug 02, 2010 5:57am Post subject:

Trixar_za · Posted: Aug 02, 2010 12:43pm Post subject:

Well, there is probably many reasons to why there is a decline in users, but setting blame on any one thing is hard to say.

I would say the main problems with IRC is that it's is not as easy or as feature rich as IM clients. So far I've only seen KVIRC with anything new (Video chat over DCC), but we're still trailing way behind the development of IM protocols.

I will say that statistics by default are inaccurate and subjective. Yes, there is a decline on larger networks and many known networks are dying out. Also very few smaller known networks are popping up. Yes, those are facts, but alot of smaller networks aren't registered with SIRC or netsplit. They are popping up all over the place and will (if they survive) probably register at these places /eventually/. IRC still has some life in it - if you know where to look.

As for WoW, I've seen networks grow pretty big who host their own WoW emulated servers. Facebook - well, it has a chat function and with a little hacking you can create a gateway for it in IRC using bitlbee - probably the same for Skype, Yahoo, Jabber, Gmail, AIM, MSN, ICQ, etc. Web interfaces like mibbit and qwebirc, which the user can take and add to their own websites also greatly help IRC to grow.

So what I'm trying to say is, that if we want IRC to grow and not die out, we need to adapt and make our weaknesses our strengths. Imagine adding a network's profile page in facebook and instantly be able to chat from facebook chat to that network? It's possible and we can do that. Give our users the option to add their own widget to their website so more people can chat to them in their channel. The potential for growth is there and all we need to do is use it. There is life in this old horse yet Wink

katsklaw · Posted: Aug 02, 2010 1:37pm Post subject:

Video chat over dcc isn't new though, it's 12 years old. I've also seen emoticons in a client too, it's just not enough to get the numbers back. you're correct about the ease of use thing.

Back to dcc/ctcp, ctcp is an extremely useful protocol since it's open ended to the extreme. It's literally /ctcp <anything you want>. Unfortunately, nothing has been done with it.

I just browsed through the new mIRC 7.1 version log and guess what? NO NEW FEATURES!! It's now Unicode, great! welcome to the 21st century! and they supposedly fixed their nonstandard DDE interface .. everything else is bug fixes.

IRC is indeed a great protocol still but when you ask for a show of hands of who's interested in reviving it, you get an entirely different group when you ask who can actually do it.

darkwarrior · Lurker Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 194

All of the input here is great.. I admire the knowledge of all of you.

I also remember that most of the gaming related IRC networks were commonly used as a match making service and clan recruiting tool for mostly first person shooter games.. But seeing as the gaming IRC networks have declined, where do you go anymore to find matches in these FPS games you know? FPS games really don't provide those features, so some sort of communication tool is necessary.. Since usage of IRC as I have seen on the gaming IRC networks has declined, it seems like first person shooter gaming is seeing a slow death too. In fact, I remember Counter-Strike being one of the largest FPS games by population. It would be rare if you ever faced the same team again in a casual or competitive match. Now a days, it's most common to be the same team as the last time, and this time it's actually not even an organized team, but a PUG of random players instead.. Is gaming headed down the same path as IRC as well?

I'm actually beginning to see much smaller numbers almost anywhere on the Internet anymore, Facebook included. It's been killing me lately, almost to the point of depression, that it seems like the Internet is on the brink of death. And it just so happens to be that my major in college is computer science & engineering, with video game development... I've lately been doubting any sort of job security in that field now, and wondering if I should switch to something else..

I recently found a conversation that EA and Activision are heading down the path of failure... So WoW must not be doing too good anymore.. Have to find it hard to blame IRC's decline on games like WoW.. I have noticed that a lot of people are going for handheld devices like iphone, ipad, itouch, and even console gaming systems... Perhaps because of the inability to use IRC from one of those systems is a cause? People are wanting to get out of the house these days and not sit around a computer much anymore.. So they use handheld devices that they can take along with them.. I guess that's why social networking sites picked up in popularity, because those can be accessed from the handheld devices..

Well, I'm taking a programming course for creating apps for handheld devices this semester.. Maybe I'll be able to write an IRC client for handheld devices, lol...

You know what else I found to be amazing... Apple has refused to support flash on its devices, and has influenced many very big names to follow that path.. Isn't Mibbit flash?? I just find it amazing how a company can have so much influential power like that.. Maybe we need to get some kind of endorsement from Apple, haha...

As mentioned, with my experience and skillset, I'm always willing and interested in doing whatever it takes or whatever anyone comes up with. If you think it would help, count me in.

PingBad · Posted: Aug 02, 2010 10:21pm Post subject:

phrozen77 · Posted: Aug 03, 2010 12:20am Post subject:

There are quite a few mobile IRC clients.

iPhone:

-Mobile Colloquy
-Rooms
-LimeChat

Android:

-AndChat
-Yaaic
-fIRC

and probably a few more - so those who want IRC on the go will have it and most likely isn't one of the factors for a decline.

PingBad · Posted: Aug 03, 2010 7:45am Post subject:

I remember reading somewhere that with IM apps, all one has to do is sign up to a central service (live.com [and related services] for WLM/MSN Messenger), download and install the app, then sign in - done Smile

(not withstanding actually finding people to talk to via the app) whereas IRC is more like track down an IRC client, seek out a network that appeals to you (searchirc does help in this department, but - sadly - not everyone knows about sirc), connect to it, then learn a good chucnk of irc commands (joining channels, actions, etc) before actually being able to use it effectively enough to get by without being ridiculed for n00bishness (assuming the user in question doesn't stumble into a #newbies channel that's actually helpful).

I still recall my first foray into IRC, thankfully I did stumble upon a friendly #newbies channel (IrCQNet - although I must admit that I knew about the network from my ICQ-using days, and not from SIRC which I didn't discover till about 2 years later), I guess it was my logical sense of reasoning etc that allowed me to pick up IRC's eccentricities in the early stages but it still wasn't any picnic by any measure of the term :/

katsklaw · Posted: Aug 03, 2010 11:12am Post subject:

IRC wasn't hard at all for me to pick up. All I did was rtfm. No one ever knew when I was newbie. Never needed to use newbie help channels, I just simply read the instructions .. and still do *shrug*.

@mibbit, JS/Ajax to be exact.

darkwarrior · Lurker Joined: 02 Aug 2008 Posts: 194

PingBad, great idea... Perhaps a global nick registration then, running on a central database for networks that wish to participate that is... And have a custom built client along with it that makes it easier to find networks (something sort of like searchirc built into the client, but definitely a bit stricter on network requirements maybe) for the user to pick from.. Maybe even throw in a messenger/buddy list into the client.. When you open the client, you enter a username and password as you created on the global registration site, and then select a network from the list and it connects you and shows you the different channels.

Maybe we could somehow have a way for a central channel database kind of like searchirc is for networks, but instead for channels too where it would show much greater detail in the client about what the channel is all about, rather than just the user count and channel topic.. Some sort of brief channel description/about that all they'd have to do is select it and click connect.. Then it could connect them to that network and automatically join..

I might make some prototypes and show some examples of exactly what I'm imagining here.. I can see things in my mind far greater than any justice from words will do in convincing you folks. With a central database there's a lot more we could potentially do.. Obviously we wouldn't want any one person to manage it either, but a committee of some sort to oversee it... Maybe a representative from each participating network.