Where on the Internet to chat with geeks? | Hacker News Reader

Where on the Internet to chat with geeks?

5 pointstectonic11 comments

I have a startup that is just me right now. Sometimes when I'm coding I'd enjoy being in a chat room with other developers just to ask questions and shoot the breeze. Where's a good place to do this? IRC, Meebo, somewhere else? I prefer real-time chat over forums for this casual situation.

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irc://irc.freenode.net is pretty full of interesting people, #startups ##javascript #defocus

Tons more depending on your interests :)

With the risk of being downmodded for flagrant self promotion, http://www.mibbit.com/?url=irc%3A%2F%2Firc.freenode.net%2Fst...

irc.freenode.net of course. A few HN users are in #startups

Seconding the freenode suggestions. It's got a very low troll/geek ratio.

I hang out on irc usually. I think only nerds and leechers hang out on irc :) "normal" people are on twitter, msn or some forum. Oh... and if someone says to be a girl, don't trust him :)

If someone claims to be a girl, and you believe it, then you just helped it pass the turing test.

I've never had the problem with people pretending on freenode, not like you do on, say, yahoo chat.

Seriously, do we need to promote the stereotype of "don't believe someone if they say they are a girl". Better advice, say "cool" when someone says they are a girl, and otherwise ignore it.

In a sort of case/point, the most famous female on freenode, imho, is Christel http://blog.simplychristel.net/ the person that took over for lilo (when he passed away) on freenode, not including the other FOSS projects she's involved with.

I don't think I would insult her (and myself) by suggesting she isn't female, nor would I insult her (and myself) by 'throwing' myself at her.

She (and any other woman) should be respected, by the same standards you would respect a male.

"She (and any other woman) should be respected, by the same standards you would respect a male." Where did I write not to respect female? Anyway, how many girls do you know that hang out on irc? Sure, there are some, but maybe 2%. Especially on freenode. It's a matter of fact that there are not many IT tech girls. And by no means I was trying to insult gils on irc.

My usual IRC channels have about a 3:1 female-to-male ratio. (I'm female.) Though that's on a small network, and hardly the norm.

not that many. But at the same time I don't know of any males claiming to be females (on freenode).

You have disrespected them (and potentially males) by claiming that all who claim to be female on IRC are in fact male, and that we should be aware that they are lying. I have no such knowledge that they are... and it simply doesn't matter to me if they are. But I prefer to believe people are honest, and if someone claiming to be a female on IRC is actually a male, it probably won't matter much to me, because I'm not on IRC to date in the first place.

note: the actual male to female ratio is irrelevant.

I hope you just overlooked the :) I was joking about the very low girl presence on irc. Maybe it was not that funny, but you took it way to serious. You need to relax man.

Joanna...fire.

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