On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 2:44 PM, William L. Thomson Jr. < [email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-07-13 at 14:26 -0400, Paul Tiseo wrote: > > The orthogonal point is that you should communicate by as few means > > that give you the largest base. > > > > IRC? To build a community? Seriously? :) > > It really shows and says quiet allot for so many in this area to comment > negatively towards IRC. If only people realized how crucial IRC is to > the FOSS world. Most any project has a IRC channel and allot of core > interaction amongst developers and community leaders happens in IRC. > Most the software your running on your Linux system comes about via IRC. > Go see how many projects don't have a IRC channel, because most will. > > How do you think I ended up getting involved in Gentoo, becoming a > developer, then on the foundations board of trustees, etc. Most meetings > within Gentoo, council etc take place on IRC. That all came about > because I ended up in #gentoo-java IRC channel, and started socializing > with others in the community. > > But thats not exclusive to Gentoo by any means. I followed lots of > activity within Debian simply by lurking in Debians IRC channels. Pretty > sure one of the JaxLUG's former presidents, Erinn Clark still lurks or > is active in the #debian-women IRC channel on OFTC. > > Anytime I can't get answers from Google, mailing lists, forums, > bugzilla, etc. I tend to end up on IRC. Just go take a look at how many > channels exist and people are in those channels ;) > > IRC is NOT a thing of the past or anything to be underestimated. Also > where do you think most black markets take place? Hackers communicating, > organizing things, selling credit cards, etc. > > If you know it shows, and if you don't well.... > > Making comments than IRC can't be used to build communities, and other > negativity toward IRC. Really that kind of thinking makes me want to > move to another area. At a minimum people are just casting out their own > personal opinions, showing a lack of experience, and any research as to > how IRC is used and/or the importance of IRC in 2011. > > -- > William L. Thomson Jr. > Obsidian-Studios, Inc. > http://www.obsidian-studios.com > > I agree. Most of the Ubuntu community interaction happens in IRC as well. OTOH, you can slap a pretty interface around IRC, but its still not really approachable in the way that google+ and facebook are. FWIW, irccloud.com is a nice web-friendly interface to IRC, but they do charge a few bucks a month. Dan -- Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Open Standards!
