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Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

For some of us IRC never went away. It’s my primary social outlet, and I’m closing in on 30.

Maybe I’m a bit special as I moved countries a fair bit in my 20s, and making friends in adulthood is difficult.

Shameless plug; if you want to join us (we are roughly 400 people) then the network is ircs://irc.drk.sc:6697/#darkscience

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Please be careful! Posting links to these kind of small communities on much larger ones has a way of diluting what makes them so great in the first place - or at least severely irritating the regulars.

I understand where you're coming from, but the concept of "regulars" is one of the things that can hinder newcomers from fitting in, adding to the loneliness and isolation epidemic.

Feeling like an outsider is hard to overcome and requires effort from both parties, but it's better if a community does not make a distinction between "outsiders/newbies" versus "regulars" to begin with.

One of the saving graces of IRC is that the technical barriers to using it (compared to discord, etc) are high enough to keep out the riff raff.

As much as I love IRC, and as much truth as there is here. I can’t help but feel it’s quite elitist to put it this way.

If it's elitist to want your favorite communities to stay focused and full of friendly, like-minded people, then I'm an elitist.

> making friends in adulthood is difficult.

That's the issue. And it's exponentially harder if you weren't able to make friends in childhood either.

Can we make it a little easier through tech?

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