Forums General Discussion Irc Popularity, What Happened?

I used to be a big user of IRC a few years ago, mainly using efnet and I stopped. When I went back on it tonight, I realized that the network is basically dead, and then went on dalnet to find that it is much smaller than it used to be. I got the impression that Irc as a whole is practically dead, if not dying on account of the previously gigantic servers being small. My question for all of you seasoned veterans is if my first impression of irc in a couple years is correct. I realize the possibility that other servers are more popular, but the mIRC default ones don't bring you anywhere with a lot of people as it seems.

Thanks

Travis

Check http://netsplit.de/networks/ and you'll see that IRC is as strong as ever. Where a few years ago there were 'the big four' networks with most of the users and then many other networks with very tiny amounts, these days there are a different big four, and several medium sized networks in the tens of thousands of users range. There are more users on IRC now than ever, they're just distributed a little better. The reasons for this, and for DALnet taking such huge user hits is that DALnet was attacked continuously for months, meaning most of it's users had to find other networks to get their IRC fix. Even after the attacks stopped, DALnet changed it's Acceptable Use Policy to ban filesharing channels, so much of it's old userbase hasn't come back.

What is actually happening is that real people are not chatting as much as they used to and the spots are being taken by bots that distribute wares. Many of the networks with anywhere between 1 and 5000 users are networks with a dominant filetrading population. They are not real people and contribute nothing to what IRC is meant to be. One network has truly prospered as far as it's usercount goes and that is Quakenet, though much of this increase will be the wares groupies that Dalnet no longer allows. Proof of what I say is in the pudding. On that website Starbucks quoted you will see a top 30 channels. At best, one or two will be community chatrooms, the rest is wares, wares, wares.

Personally, I think it sucks. I am not necessarily against the principle of 'try before you buy' but the trouble is, those that frequent these popular channels never get to the 'buy' stage, rather they use IRC to leech files which are often laced with trojans and other dangerous data. As ar as real people go, IRC is in a state of decline. Whether it is a permanent downward spiral or not we will have to wait and see.

On the plus side. Ever since EFNet added JUPES / CHANFIX and patched Channel/Nick Timestamps & collision, channel ops are less worried about losing their channels to packet monkeys and nethacks so the average channel bot count has more than halved. I think this may be why some EFNet channels may appear smaller. I also know of many channels which have simply died and regrouped elsewhere under new staff. (eg, #celeron is barly alive with just a few diehards.)

But EFNet is alive and kicking, and with so many very useful channels. #mirc #help #math #physics #chemistry #electronics to name a few, you can find some of the most helpful people in any subject matter.

- Raccoon

You might want to rephrase "you can find some of the most helpful people in any subject matter" to say "you can find people who will insult you for your lack of knowledge in any subject matter"

It's all in how you phrase the question.
There's a certain art in coming off as intelligent by making the question sound as if the answer is of little or casual importance to you. The more important "I NEED this or that!!!", the less interest people have in helping.

<FooCool> Oh, hey... do I something something to yeild some results? [or]
<SomDumFoo> Can someone tell me if this is rite??? I'm trying to something something but results aren't happening! :[b][/b]((

Pretty basic stuff.

- Raccoon

Well it depends on what you are asking. For example, ask a basic math question,well I guess it depends on what level of math you are in whether it is basic or not, and they'll go crazy with you. They didn't like me asking for help with matrix multiplication for example in #math.

your dead on there most people get a kick out of patronizing. it's the whole bofh scenario over and over again. I always try to think of the pfy when I'm giving an explanation to a question that I find basic. some people are really good at what they do but just don't happen to do what you do and as a result there knowledge of the subject is rudimentary and yes perhaps they should spend another 10 minutes on google searching but if I have a question that I konw so and so has the answer to I'm not going to waste a half hour of my day searching for it I'm going to ask the question. I like to think I'm efficient and I don't mind being patronized from people I haven't met in person anyway. people who have met me never patronize me and always kiss my *** anyway.

I think IRC is still very popular..I don't see how EFNet has died myself, but I never use it, so I don't know - I'm just going by userbase.

This post is really long, but it's basically my point of view as to why I think IRC is a bad place - it doesn't focus on the good points, but there are many - don't just think everything is bad about IRC because of this post, because it isn't. Basically, it's a long ramble, and me putting the world to rights *G*

As said before, there is an extreme lack of people chatting to each other. Even channels with over 500 people in, will have NO chatting whatsoever! It's just full to the brim of join, part, join, join, join, part, part, join etc etc. Basically, whilst the IRC userbase in general is not in decline, the chatting side of it is.

And yes, one of the big problems is warez. All I see is "my friend said mIRC is good for getting movies". That's when I generally have a strong urge to kill. Warez will continue to be ever so popular unless all the big networks put a stop to it. Then maybe we'll get chatting back. On the other hand, everyone might just leave, and IRC will lose a lot of users.

As a person who never uses EFnet, I have to say that my general impression (from what I've heard) is that EFnet is a violent network, full of packet kiddies and warez users. I've seen comments from EFnet users themselves, saying that if someone is lame on EFnet, then they get "0wned" by all the ops of a channel. These packet kiddies are another serious issue in IRC. Networks, websites, and users alike seem to have to bow down to these pillacs, or face closure or disconnection respectively. mircscripts.org recently faced a long downtime because of one (or several) of these lamers. DALnet, as everyone knows, has been facing months and months of ongoing attacks...infact, I would imagine all of the "big 5" IRC networks are attacked on a daily basis. Users can't ban a packet kiddie from a channel without facing being off IRC for a few hours (or longer) - it's simply getting way out of hand, and as said by MANY people in the past, it is not going to stop until ISP's and governments wake up the fact that ignoring this issue is potentially fatal to the Internet - I'm sure I don't need to remind people of the DDoS attacks against such businesses as Amazon. What's coming next? It's only a matter of time until some little kid with no life and who's pissed off about being sent to his room, goes and closes down a businesses website which is used by millions of people across the globe. Or perhaps a serious group of people who, for some reason, wish to take down the Internet will bring down a root server or two - sure, this is harder than bringing down any website, but, once again, it's just a matter of time. IRC networks face a similar fate. However, there is *nothing* we can do about it, except sit back and watch them laugh and show off about the fact they just closed down someone's server or website.

And as for those so-called 'legitimate' warez users whom frequent this board, there's no point trying to pretend packet kiddies don't use warez channels and load XDCC bots etc. They do. Warez is a direct partner of the packet kiddie and virus problems. As far as I am concerned, users of warez (ones who don't packet) are simply helping out packet kiddies 'survive' when they visit these channels and download files. When EFnet and other large IRC networks which allow warez finally decide to stop mass file trading channels, we may start to see some change in the way IRC goes - for better or for worse, I can't tell.

Another serious factor of IRC is the sheer ignorance of IRC users. The fact that a computer is available to almost anyone in the world nowadays, and therefore, IRC being equally as accessible, every no brainer in the world can download mIRC. Unfortunately, many (and I mean 70%+) new mIRC users are contracting viruses. They are constantly clicking on URL's which offer free sex, constantly downloading infected warez, constantly accepting files from users who they don't even know and constantly putting code into their remotes when they don't even know what it does, simply because it offers "free ops" or it "stops spam". *Sigh*

No matter how many websites post about the dangers of all of the above, they take absolutely NO notice. When you say "don't click on that URL" naturally, they do it anyway to see why they shouldn't. Even when you say it will infect you with a virus, they think you're lying, so they do it anyway. It simply comes down to the fact that many IRC users are simply computer illiterate. This is something which is never ever going to stop, unless governments do something seriously drastic, like make people have to get a license to use a computer...this is obviously NOT going to happen heh.

Once again, there is *nothing* we can do about it. Many users think that network administration can do something about all the problems of IRC - when the biggest, most serious ones (excluding warez) are completely out of their control.

Whenever something brilliant is invented (such as IRC, or chat in general) someone will abuse it. Then others will follow. People just *have* to find an exploit in something, and exploit it to its full extent. They can't just leave things alone *sigh*

Maybe if we wish upon a star, packet kiddies may grow up and stop acting like pricks. It all comes down to the fact they have no power in real life, and when they have the ability to disconnect someone and make them do what they want, it makes them feel powerful and important...it makes me think they're pathetic heh.

ANYWAY, enough rambling! If you've read this entire post, I'm very impressed :P It feels good just to get all your thoughts out once in awhile

Happy chattin'

Sorry if anyone was offending by any language used in this post. It is only mild language. So mild infact, I don't think the language filters even picked up on the words heh.

Regards,

Mentality, who let you out of your cage?

It was...*looks around* - Khaled. Yep yep, definitely him. He saw my big puppy dog eyes, and kewt smile and he just opened the cage door.

Then guess what he said!?

<Khaled> If that big bad c0ldfusi0n locks you up again, I'm going to take an axe to his head and make sure his IP can never get mIRC again D:
<Mentality> Aww, fanx yew mister Khaled!
<Khaled> Yer welcome

As you can tell, these are authentic logs. CTRL+V never lies!

So now you had better ph33r me! Rawr! *giggles*

Regards,

Oh good, that means you talked to Khaled then?

*snickers*

Khaled is but a figment of Arnie's imagination.