• IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives

    From Ogg@VERT/EOTLBBS to All on Monday, September 07, 2020 19:18:00
    Hello HusTler!

    ** On Monday 07.09.20 - 10:34, hustler wrote to Vk3jed:

    IRC is good when there's active chat (and I do miss that
    side of IRC), but a messaging system, it doesn't work for
    me. Jumping through hoops with screen etc, doesn't do it
    for me. :(

    Yea. It's too bad BBS SysOps don't use IRC much. I mean for
    general chit chat. There's also MRC . There are meets on
    Fri and Sat night. MarisaG has a synchronetbbs fan discord
    server. Same thing there. Whenever I stop by nobody is
    home. I suppose if I hung around long enough I'd run into
    somebody.

    IRC (like a live party-line) doesn't appeal to me. I would
    rarely find the time to sit a pc at a specific time to do that
    one thing. Store-n-forward like echomail, or even the groups
    on Telegram are more suitable for me. Telegram has the added
    feature of allowing you to kick into live-chat with anyone
    currently online if you want.


    All of the social media outlets have chat services. Maybe
    that's the problem? Too many choices?? ;-)

    That is probably quite true. For example, I see several
    "Fidonet" groups on Facebook. Anyone could break into a live
    Messenger chat if they are online. Then there is the Twitter-
    verse and others. Everyone is so spread out.

    ---
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  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Ogg on Monday, September 07, 2020 22:49:39
    Re: IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives
    By: Ogg to All on Mon Sep 07 2020 07:18 pm

    IRC (like a live party-line) doesn't appeal to me. I would
    rarely find the time to sit a pc at a specific time to do that
    one thing. Store-n-forward like echomail, or even the groups

    for me, irc for like 20 years has been this:
    + post a msg in the channel.
    + someone sees it later and replies.
    + OR, someeone is active and we talk live


    nothing wrong with that. i prefer it, actually.
    ---
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  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Ogg on Tuesday, September 08, 2020 15:06:00
    On 09-07-20 19:18, Ogg wrote to All <=-

    IRC (like a live party-line) doesn't appeal to me. I would
    rarely find the time to sit a pc at a specific time to do that

    I have fond memories of IRC in the 1990s and early 2000s, and made some lifelong friends. There's a few people I am still in contact with, including one guy who I first chatted to on IRC over 25 years ago. Today, we catch up every Friday for a coffee and a walk (or I sometimes push him in a fartlek session, so he can be ready for a future 5k run :) ). But times have changed. There's less people on IRC and way more apps. Back in the day, you could leave IRC in the foreground and it wouldn't be long before activity came along. Today, that's no longer the case, and a chat window in the background for me is one that effectively doesn't exist. :(

    one thing. Store-n-forward like echomail, or even the groups
    on Telegram are more suitable for me. Telegram has the added
    feature of allowing you to kick into live-chat with anyone
    currently online if you want.

    Telegram is a really good option. It has live chat - one on one and group, and decent notifications. You can even turn off notifications for specific groups, but Telegram still will show you how many messages are waiting to be read, without being too obtrusive. Telegram is really well designed in some ways.

    That is probably quite true. For example, I see several
    "Fidonet" groups on Facebook. Anyone could break into a live

    I'm on a couple of BBS related groups, though 95% of my BBS related messaging happens on BBSs. :)

    Messenger chat if they are online. Then there is the Twitter-
    verse and others. Everyone is so spread out.

    Twitter is ugly, it's just a messy stream of whatever. And I find Instagram the same, with photos. I haven't used Twitter in over 10 years, and I rarely use Instagram, because I don't cope with with these unstructured streams for that type of communication.


    ... Stick: A boomerang that doesn't work.
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.51
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  • From HusTler@VERT/HAVENS to MRO on Tuesday, September 08, 2020 09:31:02
    Re: IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives
    By: MRO to Ogg on Mon Sep 07 2020 10:49 pm

    for me, irc for like 20 years has been this:
    + post a msg in the channel.
    + someone sees it later and replies.
    + OR, someeone is active and we talk live


    nothing wrong with that. i prefer it, actually.

    I used IRC a lot in the Dialup days. You didn't have voice calls for Dialup. I think it was possible with a DSL line. I enjoyed meeting other computer users on IRC. There was a channel 30-plus on EFNet (I think) I was always on. I have fond memories of my time spent there. Those of us that had 2 phone lines could talk on the phone and be in IRC at the same time. This was hi-tech stuff! lol

    HusTler
    havens.synchro.net:23

    ---
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  • From Gamgee@VERT/PALANT to MRO on Tuesday, September 08, 2020 07:46:00
    MRO wrote to Ogg <=-

    IRC (like a live party-line) doesn't appeal to me. I would
    rarely find the time to sit a pc at a specific time to do that
    one thing. Store-n-forward like echomail, or even the groups

    for me, irc for like 20 years has been this:
    + post a msg in the channel.
    + someone sees it later and replies.
    + OR, someeone is active and we talk live
    nothing wrong with that. i prefer it, actually.

    All right, I'm going out to buy a Lotto ticket.

    This is at least the second time in a year that I completely agree
    with something that MRO said.



    ... A day without sunshine is like night.
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  • From Ogg@VERT/EOTLBBS to Vk3jed on Tuesday, September 08, 2020 19:14:00
    Hello Vk3jed!

    ** On Tuesday 08.09.20 - 01:06, vk3jed wrote to Ogg:

    I have fond memories of IRC in the 1990s and early 2000s,
    and made some lifelong friends. There's a few people I am
    still in contact with, including one guy who I first chatted
    to on IRC over 25 years ago.

    My first experiences using irc was on dialup to an ISP. I
    could not tie up the line too long with text chats.

    By the time I had separate lines, the simple chats with yahoo
    messenger, icq, etc.. and pidgin to tie them all together in
    one app, was good enough, and seemed better than irc alone.
    Anyone could post a message, and it would be there for the
    recipient the next time they came online.


    we catch up every Friday for a coffee and a walk (or I
    sometimes push him in a fartlek session, so he can be ready
    for a future 5k run :) ^^^^^^^
    ------------------------------+

    I had to look that up. I thought that was something like a
    burping contest but using other bodily resources. :/


    Twitter is ugly, it's just a messy stream of whatever. And
    I find Instagram the same, with photos. I haven't used
    Twitter in over 10 years, and I rarely use Instagram,
    because I don't cope with with these unstructured streams
    for that type of communication.

    I tried twitter when following some updates during an election
    when my tv reception was not happening. The experience was
    horrible with people interjecting with offtopic comments.

    ---
    þ Synchronet þ End Of The Line BBS - endofthelinebbs.com
  • From Vk3jed@VERT/FREEWAY to Ogg on Wednesday, September 09, 2020 14:59:00
    On 09-08-20 19:14, Ogg wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    My first experiences using irc was on dialup to an ISP. I
    could not tie up the line too long with text chats.

    Yeah I used IRC on dialup for many years. :)

    By the time I had separate lines, the simple chats with yahoo
    messenger, icq, etc.. and pidgin to tie them all together in
    one app, was good enough, and seemed better than irc alone.
    Anyone could post a message, and it would be there for the
    recipient the next time they came online.

    Yes, IM changed everything, though I continued to hang out on IRC until the early 2010s.

    I had to look that up. I thought that was something like a
    burping contest but using other bodily resources. :/

    LOL it's a running workout with random speed changes. "Fartlek" is a Swedish word that means "speed play". It's similar in concept to interval training, except fartleks are less formal.

    I tried twitter when following some updates during an election
    when my tv reception was not happening. The experience was
    horrible with people interjecting with offtopic comments.

    Yeah, I'm not impressed with Twitter.


    ... What if someone's real name is a psuedonym??
    --- MultiMail/Win v0.51
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  • From Nightfox@VERT/DIGDIST to Ogg on Wednesday, September 09, 2020 08:20:14
    Re: Re: IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives
    By: Ogg to Vk3jed on Tue Sep 08 2020 07:14 pm

    My first experiences using irc was on dialup to an ISP. I
    could not tie up the line too long with text chats.

    That's true for me as well. I used IRC a bit when I first started using the internet, and in the mid 90s, ISPs only allowed limited time per month, so I couldn't stay online sitting around in IRC chat rooms waiting for a reply.

    Nightfox

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  • From Ogg@VERT/EOTLBBS to All on Wednesday, September 09, 2020 18:03:00
    Hello Nightfox!

    ** On Wednesday 09.09.20 - 11:20, nightfox wrote to Ogg:

    so I couldn't stay online sitting around in IRC chat rooms
    waiting for a reply.
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

    That was brutal. Perhaps it made sense when a group of people
    could coordinate a meet-up on IRC at a specific time. But it
    was hit'n'miss for me.

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  • From Starman@VERT/STARBRDS to Ogg on Thursday, September 10, 2020 12:19:38
    Re: Re: IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives
    By: Ogg to All on Wed Sep 09 2020 18:03:00

    That was brutal. Perhaps it made sense when a group of people
    could coordinate a meet-up on IRC at a specific time. But it
    was hit'n'miss for me.

    Rheingold's book on virtual communities (available online free these days) talks about IRC in one chapter. In the (mid?) '90s that he writes about, idling with bouncers and the like was the exception, not the norm. People were online for a limited period of time, and there to talk. It was purely real-time communication, not the horrible stripped-down forum/mailing list thing people use it as these days.

    Same with social MOOs and stuff. All the real-time socializing and RPing has been basically supplanted by Telegram and so on, obviating, rather ironically, the need to be online for any length of time to participate.

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  • From MRO@VERT/BBSESINF to Starman on Thursday, September 10, 2020 18:11:05
    Re: Re: IRC, the good, the bad, the alternatives
    By: Starman to Ogg on Thu Sep 10 2020 12:19 pm

    Rheingold's book on virtual communities (available online free these days) talks about IRC in one chapter. In the (mid?) '90s that he writes about, idling with bouncers and the like was the exception, not the norm. People were online for a limited period of time, and there to talk. It was purely real-time communication, not the horrible stripped-down forum/mailing list thing people use it as these days.

    nah it wasnt.

    i was on irc in the mid to late 90s and there were people who would idle all day. i'm not sure if irc bouncers existed back then or if people just kept the clients running on *nix servers.
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