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Comment by _madmax_ | Hacker News Reader

Bring back IRC!

IRC is basically unusable these days. Protocols which require a persistent open connection do not work on mobile devices.

The Lounge works pretty well in iOS Safari.

False. Most modern day users of IRC are aware of software like IRCCloud which allow seamless participation in IRC channels on mobile.

That's just wrapping IRC in an actually usable protocol. At that point you aren't using IRC. Might as well use something like Matrix and be able to take advantage of a better protocol.

At that point you might as well use something more modern than IRC, if you're going to wrap it in another protocol anyways.

You can use something like ZNC so that you always stay connected even if your phone connects and disconnects often

Or you can use a protocol which actually just gives you this feature without needing to run another service to get it (which is basically all of IRC: it's a simplistic to the point of useless protocol which people have stacked a series of bodges on top of in order to actually make something approximating usable for highly technical users. It shocks me that anyone thinks this is good, let alone that it's better than the many alternatives now available).

No logs. Not indexable. Feels like a very different thing, with its own FOSS+federated alternatives.

Discourse instances, Lemmy, or even Mastodon / ActivityPubs are probably a better fit

IIUC Lemmy (and Kbin) are built on ActivityPub.

IRC is for chat. NNTP it's the protocol which is the antecesor for Reddit and web fora.

Usenet (https://www.eternal-september.org) with Pan/SLRN as the clients has a much better pace, and the talks on tech circles are top quality, such as comp.unix.misc or comp.unix.programmer or comp.lang.c. No need to update or answer inmediately, you'll get much better answers to complex issues by waiting a few hours.

Then there's FIDO and DOVEnet, which you can access thru Telnet (BBS'), SSH, web and Usenet. Most of it are old folks and ancient tech, but you have better talks on modern news (and some niche Unix talks) as they post long and elaborated arguments.

Using a Usenet client againt FIDO/Dovenet thru cvs.syncro.net:113 it's like using any other Usenet client as the hierarchies are closeish and as a plus you get threaded discussions for free.

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