John, > Discord is walled garden.
How is Discord a walled garden? Choosing to sign up for the platform and joining an instance is a user's choice, and way more user friendly, than jumping through the hoops to get an IRC client set up, connected to a server, get their handle registered, make sure they identify correctly to the "NickServ" should the network be running a services package like Anope/Atheme. I can go on and on. Ryan Hamel ________________________________ From: John Todd via NANOG <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2025 6:59 PM To: North American Network Operators Group <[email protected]> Cc: John Todd <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Where else do you hangout? Caution: This is an external email and may be malicious. Please take care when clicking links or opening attachments. There is a marginally active #nlnog (irc.nlnog.net) and fairly active #networker channel that I lurk on despite not speaking Dutch - but they are mostly European. I am on several Slack groups that are DNS-focused. There is the DNS-OARC Mattermost. I do sort of prefer IRC - Slack becomes quickly fragmented into "helpful" topical sub-groups that I never have the time to look at - one layer of categorization is plenty. Discord is walled garden. Social media is barely functional for conversations - it is a broadcast mechanism. Email lists are also functional but have been dying out in favor of... nothing. I am on some IRC channels dedicated to very narrow subjects (all OSS-related.) If someone wants to champion an effort to re-invigorate an IRC channel, I'd probably be there. I just looked at the Freenode #nanog - three other participants. I'm not even sure if that was the server/channel that I had used in the past, so pointers welcome if there is a more lively channel. As with all open platforms, keeping the really off-topic chatter down is a challenge. It drives people away. Also, there needs to be some minor gatekeeping, otherwise #nanog would become "I can't print - is the internet down?" I have no answers on this issue, though. JT On 20 Aug 2025, at 17:39, jim deleskie via NANOG wrote: > I haven't been on IRC in a long long time. Damn I'm old. :( > > On Wed, Aug 20, 2025, 8:36 PM Mark Prosser via NANOG <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I was chatting with some industry colleagues recently and I realized >> that various sectors of our industry are not "online" in the spaces I'm >> online. >> >> Perhaps there was a time when most of us were on mailing lists & IRC, >> but now the communities seem fragmented and behind walled gardens >> (Mainly Discord and Slack .. the latter is deleting our messages faster >> and faster). >> >> Personally, I'm subscribed to several discord groups (including NANOG), >> several slack groups, a few mailing lists, IRC (I'm not on that often >> these days), one or two Matrix groups, IETF Zulip... >> >> This quickly becomes cumbersome and I find myself mainly in Packet >> Pushers & NAF Slack groups -- while being "reachable" in other places. I >> feel like I'm missing out on conversations outside of the few bubbles I >> participate in. >> >> Where do you spend most of your time, outside of this mailing list? Why >> do you like it there? What kind of folks hangout there? >> >> Warm regards, >> >> -- >> Mark Prosser >> // E: [email protected] >> // W: >> https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fzealnetworks.ca%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cryan%40rkhtech.org%7C510c98a030154458bf7108dde0566f13%7C81c24bb4f9ec4739ba4d25c42594d996%7C0%7C0%7C638913384017592359%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7%2BT0khhhtAsmet22LflJi2r12XVukiqkt7nCPhA9RE0%3D&reserved=0<https://zealnetworks.ca/> _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Flists.nanog.org%2Farchives%2Flist%2Fnanog%40lists.nanog.org%2Fmessage%2FIFZG43KRVPVGAGHJYJJXNJA2U3TWH7VV%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cryan%40rkhtech.org%7C510c98a030154458bf7108dde0566f13%7C81c24bb4f9ec4739ba4d25c42594d996%7C0%7C0%7C638913384017622656%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=OenWhz2TmWP9ifk7yy1eprUanVFib5V%2BazM8PdKlK%2BQ%3D&reserved=0<https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/IFZG43KRVPVGAGHJYJJXNJA2U3TWH7VV/> _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/VYGBYEGRPAQRVFZB3XMZ2NFZIND3O2YQ/
