Why is tower chat still IRC?

Erin al'Denael

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Though I suppose the forums have plenty of that, and those messages don't just disappear.

Forum posts don't disappear. Why should it matter that chat could (doesn't have to be, but could) be persistent with Discord?

I would also like to second a lot of what Ivien Sedai said here. I manage a Discord server for my WoW guild, and quite a few friends who play League also use the same server (because we overlap and why not :laugh:). The permissions are robust. Most people actually use it just for chat, and only use voice when we're actively raiding/gaming.

As for the privacy concerns - and please note, I looked into this quite a bit before we dropped our old Vent server and swapped to Discord for my WoW guild, as a few of my guildmates had raised concerns. Discord's ToS is pretty similar to quite a few other, similar services. Discord is aware of the language and how it can be interpreted. This archived reddit post has a comment from the CTO explaining how Discord understands the wording is problematic. There is also a rather nice explanation of things here.
 
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Forum posts don't disappear. Why should it matter that chat could (doesn't have to be, but could) be persistent with Discord?

Currently, logs are kept of #wheel 24/7. They're simply logs that I'll never have to look at. The thing with chat is that it's a completely different than a forum. It serves a different purpose and it's a different method of communication. When I log into IRC, I do so blankly. I don't have any previous conversation I need to read up on, nor is it even an option to do so. I simply jump in and stay for the amount of time that I am actually actively there.

I'm participating in a chat on a different medium with a large group of people. This chat does keep logs (and has notifications). After just one day of being in that chat, I decided to turn off notifications. Every time I open it, it tells me I've missed 342 messages. I ignore them, and hardly ever open the chat, because I don't want any high maintenance chats.

Also, I dislike change, and IRC works perfectly. :look: :$
 

Ty al'Djinn

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You don't have to read up on anything. It's there to provide context for the current conversation, and the ability to look back and see if someone has been a massive tool.

After looking at Erin's links (and using it myself), I am firmly convinced Discord would be the single best option.

Also, this.

https://discordapp.com/privacy
 
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Jeryn Lekar

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You go ahead and create your Discord server and invite people there then, simple as that!
 

Aloren Tarabutton

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In the mean time the Android irc app andchat can make irc a little more mobile friendly. I use it and it runs quite well.
 

Qamra Daielin

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IRC4Life!!

of course, I'm logged in to talk to people I play a '90s text based strat game with. I'm totally with the times :look:
(We use slack as well for private chat, but general is way better on irc) ;)
 

Iria Saronin

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List of positive/negative features to consider:
  • Mobile and desktop friendly
  • Ad-free
  • Easy to link to
  • Random people can pop in
  • Familiar
  • Have to provide personal information
  • Voice chat
  • Share images/videos/gifs
  • Respond to/quote messages
  • Join vs be added to a group
  • Bots
  • Notifications

List of chat programs to consider:
  • IRC
  • Discord
  • Telegram
  • WhatsApp
  • Slack

Did I miss anything?

I would like to add the possibility to link between two platforms.

Someone already mentioned that there are ways to mirror an irc channel with a slack channel. In addition to that, I'm on many irc channels that have been linked to telegram groups. (A bot on irc sends messages to telegram, and vice versa.) It works well, and the pictures etc are shown as links in irc. These channels are highly active, and while most people use telegram to access them, anyone wishing to join anonymously (or from work, like me and Enya Sedai :D) can use irc. I haven't tested Discord, but I would assume that it would be possible to link that to IRC, too.
 

Qamra Daielin

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I have nothing more to add here but... Iria.. I LOVE your RL Channeling sig. That is awesome and made me laugh.
 

Qamra Daielin

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There are quite a few people here who would understand it.. hehehe :)
 

Jalen te'Kreg

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I'd like to chalk up another vote for staying with IRC and for people to use IRCCloud. It's a lightweight app, simple to use, entirely free, and allows you to switch seamlessly from mobile to desktop/laptop. It also requires absolutely no registration or giving away of data to yet another service.

To add to that, Whatsapp should never have been considered for both security and usability reasons. Telegram's in the same boat as far as security goes. Slack is a ridiculous, busy-screen "premium" version of IRC that literally just encountered a massive vulnerability affecting millions of accounts two days ago.

The more complicated we go in terms of apps, the more likely it is to break or be vulnerable.

If IRC ain't broke, there's no reason to fix it. There's a reason it's not only been around for 30 years but still actively used across the world for all sorts of purposes.
 

Enya Tawarwaith

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Omg Iria, that sig is awesome!
*Really considers adding that alias to her terminal*
 
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If IRC ain't broke, there's no reason to fix it. There's a reason it's not only been around for 30 years but still actively used across the world for all sorts of purposes.
IRC has massive numbers of security issues.

1. On most clients it's super easy to get someones IP

2. There have been issues with scripts

3. Issues with buffer override

4. Nickserv passwords are usually sent unencrypted, so if you have a registered name, and reuse that password anywhere you are putting yourself at risk
 

Jalen te'Kreg

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Didn't say IRC was secure. Just that it was the best, simplest, and easiest option. Obviously IRC has security issues, but they're less multisystemic than the others. Going further than that, IRC allows for a variety of clients to access it, many mobile-friendly; it's not platform-locked in any sense of the term.
 

Iria Saronin

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Wow, thanks, Mendo Sedai and Enya Sedai! I'm glad that my sig made others happy. :pleased-1:
 
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