[GetDizzy]

So, I was talking with some people on IRC and I brought the topic up that I don't really check IRC that often anymore. Even though I have a shell for it, I have a tendency to forget it exists or at the very least to not work checking it into my day. However, I do a lot of talking on Discord every day, in fact I volunteer my time helping to run a Discord for a minecraft modding community. Also, Discord has a mobile app that works a lot better than any IRC mobile app I've ever used or seen, so I mentioned that I'd considered making a MZXer Discord channel, kind of an equivalent to #mzx but on Discord. At least a couple people seemed interested.

So I made it.

https://discord.gg/XJCvb4P

This is a discord invite link to the server in question, it will never expire. Due to recent unrelated scares regarding public discord servers and people DMing illegal content in an attempt to get others in trouble, I ask that for my own peace of mind people who join set their nicknames to something that I'll recognize.

For those who might not be familiar with Discord, it's a browser, desktop, and mobile based application that seems to be aiming to be like Skype but not full of ads. The chat interface reminds me a lot of IRC, especially in compact mode.

[Verasev]

I use discord a lot. I'll join.

[Wervyn]

I'll join! I am the fifth person to join, is it International Five Members Day yet?

[Graham]

Oh cool. I'll check the mobile app out.

[zzo38]

I still use IRC and think it is better and more simpler too.

I want to say: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12674671

This post has been edited by zzo38: 16 May 2017 - 12:12 AM

[GetDizzy]

zzo: I feel like the writer has some good points and then immediately loses them all by claiming that protocols don't "close up shop", right after mentioning USEnet.

USENet, a protocol that went from being the primary medium of group discussion back in the day to today and indeed for pretty much the entirety of my adult life being basically for piracy, to the degree that the only places selling USENet access anymore sell it by marketing based on how much bandwidth they'll let you use downloading binaries and how old of binaries they keep.

Indeed, there are many examples of protocols that were popular before that are now unused or have been outright deprecated. Things like Finger, Echo, Gopher and Daytime are all long dead, even if some people do still keep Finger servers up just to be geek-hipsters.

I'm not discounting his point regarding Discord being a business, because it is, but I'm saying that open protocols fail all the time. XMPP is great, I've still yet to convince enough of a portion of my friends to use it to actually justify the XMPP server I have set up.

And when you get down to it "convincing people to use it" is the crux of the issue. We're talking about programs intended to bring people together to communicate, and in the modern world of tablets and smartphones, IRC, with its clunky, session-based, error-intolerant protocol just doesn't fit. And this is pretty well borne out: The discord server is a hell of a lot more active over the last month than frankly #mzx on IRC has been in years.

And yes, Android IRC clients exist. I've tried multiple IRC clients for Android and even tried writing them myself and have realized that it's just... not a protocol that really works on a mobile device, not unless you want to go to the trouble (and potential security risk) of setting up a bouncer so that the IRC channel isn't filled with "quit join quit join quit join" as your wifi connection/cell service/power management cut in and out.

Discord may well fail, eventually, but inevitably we can (and will) move on to something better. IRC was and continues to be a great protocol but the fact is it's become increasingly difficult to justify wasting even the 5 minutes of my day or 80x25 characters worth of screen space necessary to open up an IRC client alongside everything else I'm doing

[Sai'ke]

Is the discord down?

edit: aaaaand we're back

This post has been edited by Sai'ke: 23 April 2018 - 04:14 PM