IRC, a dying technology ?
Jakob Munck
years. But when I compare the IRC-channels with modern chats (Yahoo etc.)
and with Netmeeting and the newsgroups I think IRC is a dying technology. Is
is only usefull for non-serious chat, and it can not bee used for serous
discussions, because of the limits of how much you can send (one line) and
because everyting dissapears in short time. This is a forum for
night-people, who wants to kill time with smalltalk. The same impression do
I get, when I see the webpages linked to from IRC-channel owners. Most of
them are very primitive and poor made and a lot of the links leads to
nothing, the webpage does not exist!
My conclusion:
IRC has had its time, and is now a technology for a few people, that has not
found out, that there are much more interesting alternatives on the
internet. IRC is going to die. Slowly!
Am I right?
Regards
Jakob
Chika
> My conclusion:
> Am I right?
In some ways, yes. The problem is that, whilst the sort of "modern" chats
you mention (much of which uses technology pioneered by IRC) have lots of
push behind them from large corporation interests, IRC is still a free
service that has to suffer the indiginities of no real publicity and a
fair amount of misuse and word of mouth misinformation.
Actually, most real-time chats tend to get used for smalltalk, only a few
getting more than that. I'd be interested, however, to hear your
definition of "interesting alternatives".
As I see it, the biggest problem with IRC is the increasing tendency for
users to set up their own servers rather than use what is already there,
the increase leading to an increasing isolation of potential users.
Coupled with this is the use of IRC for file sharing - bear in mind that
IRC can be used as a very basic P2P system, and often is. I get fed up
when I go onto a server, join group after group loaded down with users
that aren't saying anything.
This is why IRC is dying as a chat medium.
--
//\ // Chika <zvl...@penfuarg.bet.hx. - ROT13>
// \// Hitting Googlespammers with hyper-hammers!
... Clones are people two.
Doug McLaren
Jakob Munck <jm2_fje...@webspeed.dk> wrote:
| I have recently learned about IRC, but I know it has eksisted for many
| years. But when I compare the IRC-channels with modern chats (Yahoo etc.)
| and with Netmeeting and the newsgroups I think IRC is a dying technology.
Perhaps it is. But not for the reasons you've given ...
| because of the limits of how much you can send (one line)
Eh? You can send up to 512 characters or so in a single line. You
must be thinking of a specific client with that limitation. mIRC is
NOT the only IRC client out there (and even then I doubt it has any
such limitation, unless you consider 512 characters a single line.)
| and because everyting dissapears in short time.
Eh? That's also a function of your client. If you use something like
gaim or Trillian, you can use almost exactly the same interface for
IRC as you do for AIM or Yahoo Chat, and things can stick around for
as long as you want.
| This is a forum for night-people, who wants to kill time with
| smalltalk.
And this is different than AIM/Yahoo/MSN/etc. exactly how?
IRC is perhaps mostly used for chatting on semi-permanent channels
(and perhaps not semi-permanent, if the network allows registration of
these channels), where AIM/Yahoo/MSN/etc. is mostly used for chatting
from person to person, but there's nothing forcing you to use it this
way.
| when I see the webpages linked to from IRC-channel owners. Most of
| them are very primitive and poor made and a lot of the links leads
| to nothing, the webpage does not exist!
So? People have been making poor web pages and failing to maintain
them for as long as web pages have existed. Before that they were
making and failing to maintain poor Gopher sites, and before that ...
The more `modern' chat systems generally don't have permament channels
at all, or if they do they don't have `owners', so this really is an
apples and oranges sort of thing, and an irrelevant one at that.
| IRC has had its time, and is now a technology for a few people, that has not
| found out, that there are much more interesting alternatives on the
| internet. IRC is going to die. Slowly!
Death of IRC predicted! Film at 11!
(You'll have to wait in line there. People have been predicting the
death of IRC (and Usenet, the Internet, etc.) for as long as these
things have been around.)
| Am I right?
To some degree. Yes, IRC overall is losing `chat' marketshare, both
in terms of percentages and in terms of actual numbers (as the market
is growing.) But to really die out completely will take a very long
time.
But the reasons you've given are *totally* wrong. IRC has several
problems --
-- no central control, each server is run at the whim of it's
operators.
-- difficult to scale well
-- unreliable -- the standard protocol doesn't allow redundant
links, for example.
-- difficult to set up/install for the end user.
-- channel control issues and abuse run users off
(ops, bans, kills etc. tend to get in the way as often
as they help)
-- lack of pretty pictures, avatars, etc.
-- a reputation for only being used by `bad' people
-- IRC is generally run by amateurs/volunteers, and it shows.
-- and there's lots more.
Now, various issues have been resolved to various degrees by various
networks in various ways, but ultimately IRC is `old skool' now.
Probably the biggest factor is the ease of use. If you want to talk
to Grandma on the Internet on her new computer, do you have her
download AIM and use that (and it just works), or do you have her
download mIRC, then pick a network, then a server (is her ISP
k-lined?), and a nick (let's hope it's not in use or already
registered) ...
--
Doug McLaren, dou...@frenzy.com I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.
Unknown
people req once and exact stuff gets posted and can speak sometimes to the poster
in real time to avoid screw ups and can know who posts good complete stuff. So in
that regard it still is good for some purposes in p2p. Take a look at the efnet
channels that mirror the name of some of the famous usenet groups.
Chika
IOW, you support this idea that IRC is simply used for file sharing rather
than what it was originally designed for?
Unknown
Use it for chatting that's good. Use it for organized file sharing more power to
you. IRC does not have feelings, it's just a protocol like http nntp etc, so i'm
not worried about the matter.
Chika
More than anything else, it's apathy that kills.