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IRC as a World-Changing Medium

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the tell-mom-you-are-changing-the-world dept.

khaladan writes "Wired has an interesting article titled Chat Room That Built the World that talks about the power of developers helping each other on IRC. The article covers the case of #winprog on EFnet, where people such Justin Frankel (creator of Winamp), John Johansen (DVD Jon), and Shawn Fanning (of Napster fame) have come to chat, hang out, and get help. Many from Microsoft visit the channel as well. Ben Knauss calls it 'innovation in its purest form, without ego, money or fame as its goal.'"

4 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. well, I doubt it will be like that anymore by cwtrex · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I find that part of an IRC channel's culture is the people that attend it. Now that the channel has been advertised, do you think those people will continue to show up? More importantly do you think the quality of help will maintain? I believe that now it has been advertised, the quality of programming help will now decline. *crosses fingers hoping that isn't true*

    1. Re:well, I doubt it will be like that anymore by equex256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      problem is, most irc channels these days are full of kids that demand attention and instant help, as well as ops and regulars with overgrown egos and a distaste for even helping people who came to the channel after much research on their questions.

      this combination renders channels with a bad atmosphere and they end up wih a lot of idlers, and well aquinted regulars helping only each other. i find myself reading official documentation and using web forums. efnet as a programming institution is dead.

      i used to hang in #winprog (huhuhuUHUHUHuhuhUHU) as well as other programming channels on efnet. even if #winprog got on /. now, its been dead along with most other once-helpful chat channels for a time .

  2. We use irc at work by Kalroth · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At work we've got a semi-private irc channel where the majority of the developers and lead developers hang out.
    It's a simple way of communication and it excels in situations where not all people are in-house, especially in situations where I want to paste 12 lines of code/xml/etc. to a colleague and ask him if it'd work against his interface/service/etc.

    Just as long as people remember that it's a second form of communication, nothing can beat actually being physically present :)

  3. #WinProg by ilitirit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I remember using #WinProg a few years ago when I started learning Win32. Sure enough, it was a helpful resource, but at the time the regulars (not all though) were some of the most arrogant, egotistical (and in many cases, unhelpful) people I had ever come across.

    Typical conversations:
    [ilitirit] how do i check the class styles for a certain FOOBAR?
    [winprogger] learn to use Spy++, n00b
    [ilitirit] ok, where do i can get Spy++?
    [winprogger] AARGH!!! are you stupid or something? it's PART OF VS 98!!!
    [ilitirit] i'm using Borland's commandline compiler.
    [winprogger] ....

    [ilitirit] how do i create window without a titlebar?
    [winprogger] how do not run into tree and smash your nose?
    [ilitirit] ????
    [winprogger] YOU JUST DON'T DO IT!!! don't specify that it should have one!! sheesh. is everyone suddenly getting dumber or something?
    [ilitirit] erm... i don't think you can do that
    [winprogger] lol
    [winprogger] ...
    [winprogger] ok

    not too mention the countless "IT'S IN THE DAMN TUTORIAL FFS!!!" responses...