IRCd-Versions

zeke · Idler Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 334

Somewhere round here (I won't go look just to get a link everyone can get...) is a page which lists how many servers use what particular IRCd version.

I was talking to a friend about this a couple of nights ago, and he brought up the fact that UnrealIRCd has a large "market share" as it were.

Would it be much to ask that in addition to the number of servers using each ircd, you could list the average number of users on each server version? Could be useful stats showing whether a certain IRCd is better used on a smaller or larger network.

Should probably show the upper usercount found for an IRCd type also...

Just an idea Very Happy

Ashen · Idler Joined: 05 Jan 2004 Posts: 284

This seems like a good idea - provided it doesn't make it easy to find which networks run a certain ircd for exploitation purposes (which it doesn't seem like it would).

How about is Jason/staff?

-Ashen

codemastr · Idler Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 345

I don't think it is a bad idea, but I think it would be misleading, at least for what zeke said. For example, I can tell you that a majority of the networks running Unreal are small (< 1000 users). However, that doesn't imply Unreal is bad at large networks. It simply means the networks that use it are currently small.

The other thing to keep in mind here is that every IRCd will, using statistics, show that the averages favor small networks. Why? SearchIRC indexes 2,241 networks at the moment. Of those, 151 of them have more than 1000 users. That means only 6% of networks are "large." So regardless of what IRCd you are looking at, the statistics are going to tell you the majority of networks using it are small simply because the majority of networks are small! Just to give you an example. Bahamut is used on DALnet (~30,000 users). Lets say it is used on 50% of the "large" networks (75 networks). Lets say Bahamut is run on 400 networks. Well that means only 19% of the networks running Bahamut are "large." Therefore the average will show that Bahamut is favored on small networks.

Then lets not forget multi-ircd networks! EFnet for example has Hybrid, Comstud, and Ratbox. How exactly do you keep track of this? Only count the users directly on each server (does SearchIRC even record user counts per server?) so there isn't even a reliable way to determine the information you want SearchIRC to report.

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, basically, it just seems useless as all it will do is give people a very false sense of the facts.

Snuffkin · none Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 3

I'd find this useful, actually. I don't think there's actually a need to list the entire version (e.g. Unreal 3.2.1), instead the first two numbers say (i.e. Unreal 3.2).. since security patches are usually a third-digit release (assuming they're not incorporated only into the next full release) this should cut down on any abusable factor.

codemastr · Idler Joined: 05 Feb 2004 Posts: 345

Well, you completely ignored my comments. You say it's "useful," but don't say why. The first thing I ask users when they make a suggestion for Unreal is, "why do you want it?" I'm not going to spend hours creating something if the only reason people want it is because it "looks cool." The only reason anyone provided I pretty much told you can't be done due to the way IRC networks work, and the way SearchIRC maintains statistics.