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IRC as a World-Changing Medium
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.'"
Imagine what John Johansen (and the others) could have done if they weren't "wasting time" chatting all day long!
I'm not sure this would be much more effective than the countless forums out there dedicated to coding, but can honestly say I have never been in a coding chat room...anyone have a preference when it comes to finding help coding online?
I thought all the power-ninjas just use netnews (nntp), not chat.
Unix has "talk" -- but that was always pretty lame, right?
I find chatrooms (like talk) to be a real waste of time -- the signal to noise ratio is very low. It takes a very long time to transfer any signifigant technical info.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
IRC, as far as I am concerned from having spent many a year on them helping others & learning as well, is a good place to learn & share ideas on things technical regarding computers imo!
In fact, I spent a good portion of the mid to late 1990's there modding/adminning one on Dalnet in #Windows95 (a Win32 OS tech help channel that K. Mardem Bey endorsed as that network's "official Win32 OS help channel" or something like that, as its title & standing on that network).
It was a good crew there initially, but like all things, nothing lasts forever - that channel no longer holds that designation for that IRC network afaik, but when it did it was a great place to go for tech help & just making friends with common interests.
What did I get out of that experience?
Well, MOSTLY, I personally learned a great deal on how Tcp/IP works, and that was because the #Linux channel would start "hack fights" with us weekly, w/out fail...
Programming wasn't a "big topic" there, & I think I may have been only 1 of 2-3 coders that went there to THAT particular channel, so it wasn't something of note being discussed there a great deal.
That end of things I learned on my own more & more as time passed, in coding.
However, that channel was LOADED with network administrators & network security & forensics personell, & I took advantage of it, & learned from and WITH them, regularly.
IRC helped me "round out" my skills in computers as far as I am concerned.
IMO, a computer person today cannot just "be a coder" or "be a network administrator/tech/engineer" but, has to be most ALL of those things... yes, a "return to yesteryear/the old days" when the computer guy @ any particular shop wasn't a specialist in some particular area, but a jack-of-all-trades.
You have to understand (to a decent degree @ least) most ALL of the particulars in computing today, in order to function & contribute as well as be marketeable in this field.
The attacks by the #Linux channel I mention (mainly each time a new Win32 OS vulnerability turned up & they would exploit them) earlier on?
That, in turn, taught me to start looking for various ways to seal off & secure Windows NT-based OS!
That research on my end resulted in this article I put up for others for years to use in how to do so as well, securing their Windows NT-based (NT/2000/XP/Server 2003):
http://www.avatar.demon.nl/APK.html
It works, enjoy the read... much of it came from researches based on being attacked on IRC, so good did come out of "the bad"...
Anyhow - So, some good comes out of the bad (being attacked by the #Linux folks regularly & it was bad, one time resulting in my system actually being compromised - but, the guy who did it was nice enough to point out HOW he did it to me).
I learned much as did my colleagues @ that channel over the years we spent there sharing our knowledge with one another.
IRC is good stuff (or, used to be @ least), as a whole, & is a far faster medium than say, forums boards like this or email, mainly imo because it's in "realtime", & instantaneous information exchange, no waiting @ all (provided the folks you want to talk with are present that is).
The only thing that bugs me nowadays about it is the dangers present on it, & they are there and real, so watch out what you get from others there via DCC transfers is all I can say!
(DCC's typically not something to trust out there, & a vector for 'infectors' that is typically utilized, so watch what you get offered there... it could be a trojan horse, is all I can say).
APK
I've used IRC in the past and I thought it was pretty good for what (and when) it was. However, it could have used some serious usability improvements. I found that, if you "lived" in IRC you got accustomed to its quirks, but if you used it intermittently there were startup pains each time as you got re-acquinted with its idiosyncracies. Now admittedly it's been awhile since I used it, but from what I recall it was: text based only, used this bizarre "so-and-so wants to chat with you" popup if they were sending you a file, had a built-in server list that kept getting out of date, and was very hostile to newbies. What would be cool is if something more usable like AIM (the horror!) could emerge. Maybe to get a screen name you would register your areas of expertise (C++, Image Processing, whatever) and then you might even have to answer a few quiz questions. That might keep out the riff-raff. Just a thought.
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
I've found that useful channels are few and far between. There are genuinely helpful people out there willing to assist you in a manner that no documentation could hope of. Yet, most tech channels I've visited are generally geared towards seasoned developers who wish to speak of new or old ground broken or some strange thing they've encountered. If you're not a seasoned developer, your question is likely to get a simple, thoughtless answer or a "rtfm." So, I feel there's been a shift in attitude from the older days that sweeps across much of IRC, in general; it's an attitude of elitism and snobbishness that affects both tech and non-tech channels, alike.
IRC certainly is a powerful communications medium. I first talked to a woman, who i later lived with for 3 years as my girlfriend, on IRC. She is the most important person in my life, though we are not currently together.
This weekend, I am leaving to visit the Netherlands for a job opportunity. How did this happen? By mentioning I was looking for a job, while I was on IRC. Someone I had talked to for years knew his employer was looking for someone like me, and the rest is history.
No doubt about it, IRC has changed my life in major ways.
-- Note: If you don't agree with me, don't bother replying. I won't read it.
The people who are complaining about it here can only be people that never really put an effort into it.
Like every online community, it takes a while for you to get used to its particular culture, the habits of its users, etc. Not to mention each channel (channels, not chatrooms, please) may have its own subculture. Once you manage to get through that, IRC has potential to be a great experience. Real time chat without the limitations of IM.
What's different in IRC is that it's quite old; some channels have been around forever. When a newcomer walks in somewhere that has had the same people chatting to each other for more than 5 years, like he owns the place, of course there may be some resistance.
Also, in the case of coding channels, getting 50 people per day asking the same question that is clearly answered in easily accessible documentation and that has been thoroughly dissected in online media can be quite annoying. Especially when said documentation is hinted at in the channel's topic. Just as you are (well...) expected to RTFA in Slashdot, you are expected to RTFM in IRC.