Irc in bash
github.com
github.com
I connect to IRC using ERC in an Emacs daemon running on my server. This way I don't need screen (I use it for other purpose thought), I just ssh and fireup an emacsclient.
- irc.gimp.net (gnome guy) - irc.freenode.net (lots of things) - irc.somedomainIadminstrate.de (private irc server, low traffic, for a web browser game)
What is your replacement?
Mails? Obviously not 'realtime'. I like mailing lists, but they are the 'chess by mail' vs. 'blitz chess' variant and fight lots of problems if you just want to have a talk with multiple people, now.
IM? In my private world every IM network sucks. I tend to like XMPP, but - it's just not useful enough. Even if GTalk and Facebook use it, unless federation works well I won't use it for much. Don't get me started on Skype or somesuch nonsense.. This would be my favorite choice, given a better world.
Web chat? There are lots of neat web applications. Which, somehow, seem to reinvent IRC. The better they are (for me), the more IRC alike they seem to be. Where's the point?
I could join them all, but the point is that I tend to be in 8 +/-2 channels in both gimp.net and freenode.org. Plus a couple in the private network. Switching between more than 10 channels in irssi is too much of a hassle for me, more than 20 channels is unpractical.
Plus, this way I can label the screen windows (Freenode, Programming) or (GIMP, Gnome development) and have a better way to context switch between completely disconnected things.
0. http://quadpoint.org/articles/irssi#channel_statusbar_using_...
It gives you find as you type for channel names. e.g. to switch to #mono you could probably type control-g mo<enter>
It shows the matched channel names in the status bar as it filters.
My experience: start a client, join a channel, and watch it go. Meanwhile, try to get work done. I'm either watching IRC in case something interesting goes by (and then not working), or I'm working and then miss whatever was interesting on IRC. Or I try to do both and accomplish neither.
To me, IRC feels exactly like those twitter update widgets that people put on their blogs. I usually end up opening a terminal window and putting it over the widget, otherwise it distracts me like a "look at me!" advertisement.
I get much better value and results from googling; someone has always had whatever problem I'm trying to solve, and if I can't figure it out on my own, I can usually find a thread where someone else has.
I'm not complaining, and I'm not saying IRC has no value (to others). I sometimes wonder if I'm doing it wrong, but I think IRC, among many other things, is just not for me.
I've had excellent experiences with the rest of the technical channels I've tried on freenode, however.
As far as non-technical chat goes, I prefer undernet. Efnet has slowly moved to the bottom of my list as it seems to be an asshole magnet.
Here is my little emacs configuration dedicated to irc and twitter; https://github.com/azer/emacsfiles/blob/master/profiles/irc....
I'm a heavy IRC user and it's use is on par or above any other communications system in my life.
I'm very happy running weechat in tmux, on a Linux VPS hosted by Rackspace.
I can then connect via ssh to that VPS and tmux/weechat session from multiple machines. For about 2 years I used irssi, but I dumped it for weechat.
Generally, I'd say irc is much more productive than the now-more-typical IM solutions or the webchats of FB/Gmail.
First, it doesn't interrupt me: I'll have it running in one of the tabs in one of my terminal windows. My irc never comes to check on me, I'll go check on irc but only when I want to.
Second, it's persistent: I'm online all the time, I get logs of whatever happens or whoever calls me during my absence, and I can easily review them when I'm back online. Yet I don't need anything but a mere ssh client to access all my messaging.
Third, irc can help me keep it touch with my personal friends but it can keep me in touch with healthy communities as well. Never seen an online chat "room" or IM chat window that had a collective soul as many old irc channels do. I'm a frequent on a few channels, as time permits. I mostly just help (relative) newbies with programming problems these days.
As far as non-technical subject go, it's been hard for me to find quality conversation on IRC, though it does happen once in a blue moon. Still, sometimes it's nice to just chat about whatever with people you've known for a while, even if it is usually pretty superficial.
It supports a more traditional IRC UI, where you can say "yes" on your current channel just by typing "yes" and hitting return, but its output is not formatted nicely. It's about half as much code.
See https://gitorious.org/irctk/irctk/blobs/master/README for some examples, and https://gitorious.org/irctk for the actual program (but you probably don't want to use it yet).